(Re)Presenting Complexity
Using shapes, symbols, and text to interpret information and power abstract thinking
Faculty Lead:
Tomoko Ichikawa
Class:
Diagram Development
Students:
Justin Bartkus
Dmytri Gouba
Kait Silva Forsythe
Sze Wing Alpha Wong
by Sze Wing Alpha Wong
As designers who engage in solving complex problems, we need to use a visual language that can communicate high-level concepts and support abstract, goal-directed, thinking. Diagrams serve to do just that. An imperative language for designers to master, we learn to traverse the concrete-to-abstract scale in our visual representations in a way that is appropriate to the context at hand.
Whether to help us solve a problem, analyze research, or present concepts, capturing the essence of a body of information using symbols and text allows the viewer to focus on the conceptual substratum of the topic and to pass over irrelevant details. Situated midway between written prose and visual illustration, diagrams help designers become better communicators under conditions of complexity and ambiguity.
by Dmytri Gouba
‘These were created with the intent of translating complex data visually, into diagrams. Executed for the class Diagram Development, we explored two-dimensional symbolic representations of information.
Using tools already familiar to me, it was interesting how diagramming information required me to approach the work in new and unfamiliar ways. While I read articles and passages to put into layout, it really helped me to take notes by highlighting the information that I decided was important. Beginning from a large pool of undifferentiated information, I was able to give a point of view on that pool of information to tell a story.’
by Justin Bartkus
‘There are many ways that human activity contributes to environmental degradation. While we often hear about fossil fuels warming the atmosphere, the use of nitrogen in fertilizers and factories is a serious contributor to the release of greenhouse gases and a cause of deadly shocks to ecosystems. This diagram shows several ways in which nitrogen wreaks havoc on human life by means of its effects on ecosystems. The irony? Nitrogen kills through explosions of excessive life and growth. ‘
by Kait Silva Forsythe
‘Quickly after the explosion of the British Petroleum-licensed oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, BP, the U.S. Coast Guard, and scientists from various government agencies responded with varying estimates of the amount of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. These estimates changed throughout the 5-month period before the leak was fully capped and even continue to change today.’