I love information. This is a silly thing to say, I know, and a silly thing to have an affection for, perhaps. After all, "information" is so general as to be useless. But don't despise the useless, because some useless things are quite worthwhile, such as art, for example — which leads me to this week's fillip.
information aesthetics is a website that posts finds from around the web that present information graphically. There's a world of wonder here for the infomaniac or the visual communicator. Take, for example, his entry on creative calendar design, where he draws together half a dozen different ways of measuring out our days (spiral, dodecahedron, minimalist…), or the astonishing gigapixel photography that gives you more detail that you can believe possible, or the very funny video that has people acting out on-screen activity, or… just about anything on the site.
Must say, though, that I don't find his information presented as clearly as I would have liked. Took me some time to figure out the drop-down lists for categories etc. And I don't like the clutter. Too much information — wait — that's not what I mean — I mean, aw you get the picture.
I'm thinking you mean you would like to see it represented in a better graphic presentation. 8-)
I thought this was an interesting website when I first saw it, and have tried to keep my eye out for good graphic representations of information for submission. Alas, haven't seen anything that really grabbed me. It's worth another visit, though, since it sounds like they have added a lot of examples!
If you're looking for more serious or structured works on the site, you might find them in his "locative" section, which in some sense takes advantage of maps and geography, either literally or as a metaphor we're all familiar wth.
There are several mentions on the information aesthetics site of Edward Tufte's work on the graphical display of information. I thought it worth mentioning Tufte's work; if you have had a chance to view his work, it is truly wonderful. Tufte's website is at:
https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/index
Ah yes, Ted, but consistent with the post on the gorgeously tactile nature of the printed leather bound word, Tufte's books (which I acquired for Ted's library) are even more impressive.