New Book: “The Minard System” (Fall 2018)

This is a catalog of all statistical visualizations by Charles-Joseph Minard (1781-1870), who is considered one of the most important …

Data Trails: “The Stream of Time” (1804)

Timelines seem like such a „natural idea“ these days that we don’t even notice their ubiquity anymore: Facebook timeline, news feeds, graphic interfaces for back-up versions – how did anyone manage their life before there were things like this? Timelines are a universal concept…

Data Trails: “The Tree of Virtuous Behavior” (1608)

I stumbled upon this severe beauty of a tree diagram in the Beinecke digital collections and was immediately thrilled about this hidden gem from 1608. Then I never came around to really studying it — until just now…

Data Trails: “The Geological Time Spiral” (1975)

The Earth is roughly four and a half billion years old. During most of that time—i.e. over the course of some four billion years—the geological and biological development on our planet happened unbelievably slow. How can we possibly form even a faint idea of this unimaginable process that is the history of the Earth?

Data Trails: “The Comparative Machine” (1836)

There is a very basic joy in roaming through atlases and in looking at maps. Atlases are rich collections of places, and if there is one thing they can do it is making you travel around the world, to places near and far…

Data Trails: “Notes on Matters Affecting the Health” (1858)

Visualising data on health and mortality has a most up-to-date ring to it, as if it had required the rise of big data and computational tools for something as intricate as visual health statistics to develop. Surprisingly, however, already the mid-19th century saw a huge upsurge…

Exhibition Review: “Otto Neurath & Fritz Kahn 1920-1945” (Leipzig)

The interwar period in Europe was marked by a whirlwind of contradicting social influences and political turmoil. Revolutionary and socialist …

Data Trails: “The Power of Trees” (1855)

This beauty of a diagram is considered to be the first organisational chart ever. The inception of the railways in the mid-19th century must have been a mind-blowing change process…

Book Review: “Mapping Time” (Esri Press)

There’s hardly any infographic that is more famous, more often cited and more often re-designed than the graphic on Napoleon’s march …

Book Review: “Dear Data” (Penguin)

To craft something requires skills, mastery and patience. It means to create something step by step, with a passion for …

Article: “The Feltron Annual Reports” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Nicholas Felton‘s work has been an inspiration to many people in the field of information visualisation, not only when he …

Article: “Ephemeral City” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

Urban cartography has long been an authoritative matter: companies or authorities invested time, energy and money in researching the data …

Teaching: “Diagrams, Maps, Trees” (Potsdam)

This semester, I have the great pleasure to teach again within the interface design programme of the University of Applied …

Talk: “Mind the Gap” (Helsinki)

For the first time this year, the organisers behind “Visualising Knowledge” conference in Helsinki (most notably the busy and well-connected …

Talk: “Datavisualisation – age-old, brand new” (Helsinki)

As you may have figured, the history of information vis is one of my favourite research topics at the moment, …

Talk & Article: “The Fifty Maps of Minard” (Pamplona)

I have had the great opportunity last week to present at this year’s Malofiej conference one of my currently favorite …

Interview Jer Thorp: “Let the data speak”

For a few years now, Canadian-born Jer Thorp has been working on the forefront of data visualisation, creating ever new …

Research: “The Forgotten Maps of Minard” (Paris)

In the ever growing field of information visualisation, there are a few historical heroes and pioneers who are always referred …

Inspiration: “The Art of Memory” at Victoria & Albert Museum

I am very much into all things related to structuring information & visual storytelling. So it is exciting to hear …