Visualizing data is an art

I bet this person has never created a data visualization.

On the contrary, I think data visualization (along with architecture, mathematics, and mechanical watches) is one of the most interesting art forms that requires strict constraints.

By that logic, photography, digital painting, music production, and even architectural design wouldn't count as art because they involve tools and technology

Author of the article here. Great points, thanks for reading and commenting.

I think that data journalism is a great example of that "put it in someone's brain" idea.

I also think there are all kinds of places we're seeing more novel approaches in too: data art, physical data viz (e.g. museum exhibits), visualizing huge datasets, etc. The Climate Stripes project, maybe the most famous data viz of the last couple decades, was made by a climate scientist.

But I definitely agree that this "more experimental than rigid" side of data viz doesn't capture the majority of the field, nor should it!

Congratulations on the book drop!

So I'm not sure if you read my piece or just wanted to drop a promotion, but I think you're misrepresenting my view here. I'm not advocating for "art for the sake of art" and I certainly don't think you should not know your audience.

My main point is that I don't think all of data viz is as simple as you're implying here, i.e. that a pretty chart probably won't "resonate" or that a chart from the Tufte school of thought automatically will.

Almost all pictures on that page are cropped weirdly when viewing on mobile. Words are cut off in many.

I don't see art and design as mutually exclusive. I also don't think that data viz is exclusively about functionality.

Take a project like this: https://www.dear-data.com/theproject... this is clearly data visualization and, to me, quite evocative. These visualizations aren't designed for clarity and they don't need to be, that wasn't the goal.

> Art is about self-expression, evoking emotions, and open interpretation

Art is about these things, but is also about many other things. And art can be clear in its intentions, leaving little to interpret.

What is the purpose of data visualization? Often to evoke emotions and to help someone not familiar with the data understand how to interpret it.

The people who accomplish this most effectively understand that the point isn't just to force data points into a visual form. If it were so simple, more people would be good at it (they aren't).

> Clearly DataViz is Design

I don't understand this sentence. I'm not trying to be difficult, but if DataViz is Design, what is Design?

Art as in craft/field! "State of the Art" is a phrase that refers to what is possible within a domain. There is also the implication that it takes judgement, maybe even an artistic sensibility. This is in opposition to a strain of thought within data viz from the Business Intelligence/Analytics side of the field that has succumbed to the MBA/Process gospel that preaches Repeatable Process and the siren song of good data visualization without using your brain!

Is Design an Art?

there seems to be two competing visions of what is art:

art as a the top degree in any discipline; like in "state of the art"

but there's also art as that little part of science that escapes rationality, the self-expression drive of a human and so on

> "It can be a science, an art, and a craft all at once."

suggests the article leans for the art as the top level of some discipline definition of art

It's "art" as in the phrase "More of an art than science"

data Viz for it's own sake might be design - in real applications, you always have a story you're trying to tell - and it doesn't go away just because you're not consciously aware of it.

Author of the article here! Yes you're completely right. I think they also have other underrated properties, like they fit neatly in a square which can be helpful for laying out a dashboard. And for some reason, in my experience, people just like them.

But when done poorly, they can be a mess. Like any other chart.

Thank you! Yeah, I hear you on the framing. I don't have a formal education on data viz myself (I guess not many people do?), but I've gotten into the world over the last few years. A lot of the literature I've seen has come across as dogmatic to me, which is what sparked this article. That's great to hear that your experience is more aligned with this way of thinking.

And thanks for the nice words about the animations! Glad to hear that work doesn't go unappreciated haha

I think the article addresses your point: "The fact that some disciplines of an art form demand more precision doesn't mean the whole field shares those demands. It would be like saying best practices for photorealism should be applied to abstract expressionism, or how we approach technical writing should be the same as how we approach poetry."

It wouldn't make sense to say "I've grown out of being impressed by complex prose" - you're welcome to enjoy Faulker or not, but he simply didn't have the same goals as the authors of the Stripe documentation, and judging both pieces of writing by the same standard is basically pointless (except, perhaps, as an art project of its own).

I'd even apply this to coding itself. Day to day, I think everybody around me should be writing Blub, grug-brain code, but I'm happy there are people trying creative, weird languages and mind-bending ideas elsewhere and I'm curious what they find out.

I think publications practicing actual journalism like The Upshot and ProPublica do an incredible job of this. The focus is always clear presentation and accessibility above all else but its undeniable that so much of their work is also just gorgeous

I'd call what you describe as impressive, art.

Flashy trashy is just crap. Some might call it art but then again everything is art these days.

I think that's the point of the article. Novel insight is almost a pre-requisite to determining how to present the data in a way that's quickly and easily understandable.

Was looking for some mention of Mike Bostock and his epic odyssey into this space.

For those who aren't familiar https://observablehq.com/@mbostock

Be the change you wish to see in the world!

Giving up precision is different to giving up the narrative. The narrative can be helped by engagement and if that comes at the cost of precision, then that was the cost of getting the message further than it may have otherwise reached.

In this case, what is meant by "give up some precision" is to try removing some sharp edges that get in the way of telling the story. It's a long way from lying (when done with due consideration).

They're examples. Choose what works for your data and you your story to get the best result.

You think the Climate Stripes are an example of "lying"?