Modeling the Revenge of Analog

Visual representations of large-scale change through a series of models

Faculty Lead:
Tomoko Ichikawa

Class:
Modeling Complexity

Students:
Audrey Gordon
Alexandria Rengifo
Julia Rochlin
Kait Silva Forsythe
Robert Grossman
Yifei/Evie Yu
Xiaoqiao Tang

Using the chapters from The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter by David Sax as content, this class represented transformations of complex phenomena in a series of visual models. Every chapter exemplifies a part of life (e.g., vinyl records or pen and paper) that originated in analog form, then shifted to a digital mode, and is now seeing a resurgence in its original analog form.

Working from the premise that the explanation of complexity requires a multi-faceted lens, designers challenged themselves to represent multiple entities and relationships, their changes over time, and the causes and drivers of this change. In addition to synthesizing the material and translating the main concepts from prose into a series of visual models, they were tasked with expressing their overarching concept in narrative form while developing a visual language to unify the models.