Infographics as Images: Meaningfulness beyond Information

Abstract

What kind of images are data visualizations? Are they mere abstract transformations of numerical data? Should they reduce the phenomenal world into a set of pre-codified shapes? Or can they represent natural phenomena through figurative strategies? What is the boundary between useless decoration, narrative illustration and helpful visual metaphors? Through post-design reflections on a visual journalism project, the paper focuses on the context-dependent role of images in data visualization.

Keywords

• data visualization
• visual journalism
• illustration and decoration
• abstraction and pictographic communication