discussion board

1

ALA100 Intro to Environmental Design Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Arizona State University The Design School Max Underwood

Ways of Envisioning Information -

Tools of Visual Literacy "Our ability to gather information has outstripped our ability to model it. Beyond the age of information is the age of choices. Where the art and discipline of choice has to be raised to a new level and combined with a fairly rigorous view of the nature of the information. The key to improved choices is developing improved models. For example Frank Oppenheimer's Exploratorium” (see www.exploratorium.edu) Charles Eames, Aspen Design Conference, June 1978. “Clarity of content and causality in information design are what counts.” Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information (1990). Part I: Envisioning information within the age of choices In our age of choices, which followed the age of information explosion and overload, the former Yale political science professor, Edward Tufte (pronounced TUFF-tee) is a pioneer in the field of information design, the design of graphs, diagrams, charts, computer animations, and other visual tools. As he declares, “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information. There is no such thing as information overload.” Within his bestselling books, Envisioning Information (1990) and Visual Explanations (1997), Tufte has redefined information design, moving from the “flatland” of the two dimensional printed page to the “movie land” of computer animations and simulations which convey three dimensional events or data as they change over time. Tufte firmly believes that within information design, “good visual communication work is like good writing. CONTENT and CAUSALITY are the keys. Clarity in design and complexity of information are what count.” Our basic problem today is that CONTENT and CAUSALITY are lost within flashy graphic style and unreadable layouts. An example, the ubiquitous Power Point computer presentation - Power Point was created for disorganized executives to look professional, not for the audience or for best way to communicate information. Power Point encourages lazy, surface level thinking between the presenter and audience alike. Most topics are complex, and their statements and narrative descriptions are too long to fit on individual Power Point slides, so we are left with confusing bullet-pointed slides and a sleeping audience. (See Tufte’s The Cognitive style of Power Point (2003) www.edwardtufte.com and Carmine Gallo’s The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs). Envision (L “visio” to see) To imagine something not yet in existence, and form it’s image in the mind. To visualize something already in existence, and clearly communicate it to other people. To envision information is to utilize a variety of two, three and four-dimensional tools to discover, record, analyze and communicate your conscious experience of seeing an environment you are occupying or designing.

2

Part two: The tools for envisioning information and visual literacy These tools should simultaneously direct a process of discovery to arrive at penetrating insight, as well as communicate and celebrate those discoveries clearly to the viewer. see the Periodic Table for Visualization Methods http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html 1. Language Poetry, narrative descriptions and stories, which describe people, events and places. (Maya Lin, Vietnam Memorial Competition text 1981) 2. Two-dimensional envisioning tools

A sidewalk with chalk, sheet of paper, a painting, the printed page, etc

A) Drawing “For the artist drawing is discovery. It is the actual act of drawing that forces the artist to look at the object in front of him, to dissect it in his mind’s eye and put it together again. Or he is drawing from memory, that forces him to dredge his own mind, to discover the content of his own store of past observations.” John Berger, “Drawing.” John Berger, the French novelist and art critic, recounted in his article “Drawing” his own personal experience of drawing a male nude.

1) Drawing is discovery. 2) Drawing is using images to gain the conscious experience of seeing (Either something real or imaginative). 3) Drawing is an autobiographical record of one’s discoveries. 4) Drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist’s own needs.

“Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see – to see correctly – and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye” Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw 1941. Discipline of hand and eye coordination. To touch is to see. It is an x-ray of an idea. Great designers, like great artists, draw constantly. It is their way of actively probing and making discoveries into the question or problem at hand. As George Orwell describes in his essay “New Words” (1940), “you must make thought visible.” One of the most important lessons a young designer learns is to understand that true drawing is a verb, not a noun. It is a process not a product! Types of drawings

i) Sketch A simple, rough drawing done rapidly, which conveys the essence of the generating ideas and their realization. “To draw a line is to have an idea. Drawing is a way of tuning in honing the eye.

3

The more I draw, the better I see, and the more I understand. There’s always been a correlation between the strength of the work and the degree to which I am drawing. There is no way to make a drawing – there is only drawing.”

Richard Serra, “About Drawing: An Interview” from Richard Serra Writings and Interviews 1994.

ii) Diagram A sketch drawing, which explains an event or thing by outlining the essential parts and their key interrelationships and function. iii) Sensory drawing (Ackerman) A sketch or drawing, which evokes sensual response other than the ocular or visual (aka sound, taste, smell, touch, synesthesia) “Merely to see, therefore is not enough. It is necessary to have a fresh, vivid, physical contact with the object or phenomena you draw through as many senses as possible – and especially through the sense of touch.” Kimon Nicolaides, The Natural Way to Draw 1941. “Drawing, for me is both a vehicle for understanding and a gestural act unto itself. Recording an experience via drawing embodies much more than an analytical intention. In fact my drawings aren’t very analytical. When I draw historic buildings, they aren’t about detail and proportion. They are about the spirit of a building or a place, and the spirit embedded in the encounter and its translation. Drawing is a way of taking on a place, absorbing it, immersing myself in it.” Antoine Predock, Architectural Journeys 1995. Louis I Kahn color pastel drawings of atmospheres iv) Descriptive drawing A drawing that carefully describes in detail all of the essential parts and their key interrelationships and functions. (aka working drawing)

“I want to see things, I don’t trust anything else. I place things in front of me, on the paper, so I can see them. I want to see, therefore I draw. I can see an image only if I draw it.”

Carlo Scarpa, lecture to students, 1967. B) Photograph

An image or picture made by light recorded on a light sensitive surface (Film or digital) Photography is a way of seeing and raising questions verses simply recording. Close up photography helps the eye slow down when it comes to a small moments at real scale.

4

C) Altered drawing or image i) Collage

A combination of images or fragments of images in incongruous relationship for their symbolic or suggestive effect. (Braque, Picasso, leading to analytic and synthetic cubism,)

ii) Montage

The making of a composite image by bringing together into a single composition a number of different images, so they form a new blended whole image. (Photomontage, Photoshop techniques, etc)

3) Three-dimensional envisioning tools

A) Mementos Any object evoking memories, that serves as a reminder of past experiences. B) Models

A scaled three-dimensional object or environment, generally smaller than life size, which allows individuals to envision the subsequent future full size construction.

C) Mock-ups Generally a full-scale model, constructed out of the intended materials.

4) Four-dimensional envisioning tools (3d + time) A) Film and video To record events and environments over time. Example: Powers of Ten, 1968 & 1977, 8 min One of the American Film Institutes top 100 films of the 20th C 25 -18 10 thru 10 43 powers of ten As Charles recalled "Eliel Saarinen always reminded me of the importance to always study a problem from the next larger and smaller scale at which you are working to gain deeper insight." B) Computer animations and simulations The age of time based media techniques has arrived. Today powerful new electronic literacy is taking hold, providing a new way of envisioning information. We now write with images and sounds in real time.

5

C) Multi-media: "a new depth of vision" Multi-media is a means of communicating complex information. Multiple projections of images are not simply a trick; it is a method to employ all the viewer's senses. The reinforcement by multiple images made the story seem credible. Multi-media environments are perhaps the most effective method for presenting everyday things in new ways and relationships. Often using cinematic juxtapositions of close-ups, medium shots, and long views, these environments give the spectator, in Charles Eames words "a new depth of vision." Charles and Ray Eames’s graphics were additive and visually complex. All of their graphics were characterized by a dramatic presentation of a complex subject in relatively simple terms. Each design was packed with stimulating information, stunning images and typography combined in an innovative layout, which presented the richness of the subject at hand. The content was never diluted or oversimplified, thus making their experience as rich and "fun" as possible.

When you really see, you use all the tools (Frank Gehry, Disney Concert Hall)

Conclusion When you put a mark on paper, take a photograph or shoot some film, everything matters. But if you don’t see it on the paper, it doesn’t matter to you. You must strive to see, to envision information, which reflects the density of your thoughts and dreams. “Drawing is putting a line around an idea” Henri Matisse

6

The Vietnam Memorial Competition (Maya Lin, 1981- 21 years old) “Walking through this park-like area, the memorial appears as a rift in the earth, a long, polished, black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth. Approaching the memorial, the ground slopes gently downward and the low walls emerging on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead. Walking into this grassy site contained by the walls of the memorial we can barely make out the carved names upon the memorial's walls. These names, seemingly infinite in number, convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole. The memorial is composed not as an unchanging monument, but as a moving composition to be understood as we move into and out of it. The passage itself is gradual; the descent to the origin slow, but it is at the origin that the memorial is to be fully understood. At the intersection of these walls, on the right side, is carved the date of the first death. It is followed by the names of those who died in the war, in chronological order. These names continue on this wall appearing to recede into the earth at the wall's end. The names resume on the left wall as the wall emerges from the earth, continuing back to the origin where the date of the last death is carved at the bottom of this wall. Thus the war's beginning and end meet; the war is ‘complete,' coming full- circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side, and continued within the earth itself. As we turn to leave, we see these walls stretching into the distance, directing us to the Washington Monument, to the left, and the Lincoln Memorial, to the right, thus bringing the Vietnam Memorial into an historical context. We the living are brought to a concrete realization of these deaths. Brought to a sharp awareness of such a loss, it is up to each individual to resolve or come to terms with this loss. For death, is in the end a personal and private matter, and the area contained with this memorial is a quiet place, meant for personal reflection and private reckoning. The black granite walls, each two hundred feet long, and ten feet below ground at their lowest point (gradually ascending toward ground level) effectively act as a sound barrier, yet are of such a height and length so as not to appear threatening or enclosing. The actual area is wide and shallow, allowing for a sense of privacy, and the sunlight from the memorial's southern exposure along with the grassy park surrounding and within its walls, contribute to the serenity of the area. Thus this memorial is for those who have died, and for us to remember them. The memorial's origin is located approximately at the center of the site; its legs each extending two hundred feet towards the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. The walls, contained on one side by the earth, are ten feet below ground at their point of origin, gradually lessening in height, until they finally recede totally into the earth, at their ends. The walls are to be made of a hard, polished black granite, with the names to be carved in a simple Trojan letter. The memorial's construction involves recontouring the area within the wall's boundaries, so as to provide for an easily accessible descent, but as much of the site as possible should be left untouched. The area should remain as a park, for all to enjoy.”