Science Studies
Fibre optics
How does an optical fibre transmit light?
Three features of an optical fibre are its capacity to transmit information extremely fast (top), its flexibility to change its size and shape (middle) and its ability to guide energy that may extend beyond the fibre boundary (bottom).
A cross-section of an optical fibre (top) reveals that the intensity of light is strongest at its centre, and radiates outwards with decreasing intensity. Light is represented by red (most intense) through orange, yellow, green and blue (least intense). The shape of the looped fibre is shown below the cross-section. This looping of the fire allows for more precise coupling of light from the fibre to another device.
These rough sketches were drawn in conversation with PhD student Cameron Smith, from the Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) at the University of Sydney, on November 30, 2006. His area of research is all-optical switching and evanescent coupling where light is injected into a switching device by looped tapered optical fibres.
The way the information is presented above is through pictures and captions. Your eye needs to move between the two in order to understand it. Paintings will be made from these sketches, with further consultation with Cameron on the use of the most appropriate use of line, tone and colour for symbolic conveyance of concept. My aim is for the information to be visually integrated in a triptych (an image in three parts), so that the overall image IS the information, which leads me to Edward Tuffte: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/
Selected Texts of Edward R. Tufte
Orbital pollution: debris circling the earth. Illustration by Nicholas L. Johnson, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Dots are not to scale of Earth.) Cited by Edward R. Tufte, (1991) p.48.
Kellom Tomlinson, The Art of Dancing, explained by Reading and Figures (London, 1735), book II, plates IV, XIV, VIII, VI. Cited by Edward R. Tufte, (1991) p.115.
Escaping Flatland
To envision information - and what bright and splendid visions can result - is to work at the intersection of image, word, number, art. The instruments are those of writing and typography, of managing large data sets and statistical analysis, of line and layout and colour. And the standards of quality are those derived from visual principles that tell us how to put the right mark in the right place. (Tufte, 1991. Introduction)
Panorama, vista, and prospect deliver to viewers the freedom of choice that derives from an overview, a capacity to compare and sort through detail. And that micro-information, like smaller texture in landscape perception, provides a credible refuge where the pace of visualisation is condensed, slowed, and personalized2. (Tufte, 1991. p. 38)
Our philosophy of information design - self-effacing displays intensely committed to rich data - parallels Balanchine's approach to dance. Lincoln Kirstein, in his 1972 essay "Balanchine's Fourth Dimension" (Vogue, 160 (December 1972), 118-129; and Kirstein, L, Ballet: Bias and Belief, New York, 1983), 111-119. describes an attitude governing the nature of dancing: "A committed Balanchine dancer (with a small 'd') comes to realise that Personality (with an enormous P) is a bundle of haphazard characteristics frozen in a pleasing mask for immediate identification and negotiable prestige. No matter what is danced - and it makes little difference - stardom dims the dancing. What is danced is perforce secondary. (Tufte, 1991. p. 35)
Macro / Micro Readings
...the deepest reason for displays that portray complexity and intricasy is that the worlds that we seek to understand are complex and intricate. (Tufte, 1991. p. 51)
Small Multiples
Christian Huygens, Systema Saturnium (The Hague, 1659), p. 55. Cited by Edward R. Tufte, (1991) p.67. Envisioning Information Graphics Press. Cheshire, Connecticut
In this splendid 1695 drawing by Christian Huygens, the inner ellipse traces the earth's yearly journey around the sun; the larger ellipse shows Saturn's orbit, viewed from the heavens. The outermost images depict Saturn as seen through telescopes located on Earth. All told, we have 32 Saturns, at different locations in three-space and from the perspective of two different observers - a superior small multiple design.
At the heart of quantative reasoning is a single question: compared to what? Small multiple designs, multivariate and data bountiful, answer directly by visually enforcing comparisons of changes, of the differences among objects, of the scope of alternatives. For a wide range of problems in data presentation, small multiples are the best design solution. Tufte, (1991) p.67.
2Appleton, Jay. (Chichester, 1975), The Experience of Landscape, ; Jakle, John A. (Amherst, 1987), The Visual Elements of Landscape.
Colour
In defining the 'fundamental uses of colour in information design', Tufte draws upon the metaphor of written (or spoken) language:
to label(colour as noun)
to measure(colour as quantity)
to represent or imitate reality(colour as represent)
to enliven or decorate(colour as beauty)
Narratives of space and time
A complete yearlong life cycle of the Popillia japonica Newman (the Japanese Beetle) L. Hugh Newman, Man and Insects (London, 1965), pp. 104-105. Cited by Edward R. Tufte, (1991) p.110.
Tufte, Edward R. (1991) Envisioning InformationGraphics Press. Cheshire, Connecticut
