The erotics of infographics...
The erotics of infographics... Hard Data: The Erotics of Infographics. What is it about charts and graphs that get us hot around the collar?
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In his introduction to The Best American Infographics 2016, NPR correspondent and former Radiolab host Robert Krulwich confessed, “The best work in this field grabs those eyes, keeps them glued, and the grip is sensual.... Sometimes the images are just so gorgeous you want to linger and explore and caress them.” Everywhere we turn, data visualizations are flirting with us. Health and fitness tracking tools purvey data on sleep, nutrition, heart rate, and stepping frequency with colorful line and bar graphs. Banking apps and credit card bills are replete with pie charts showing spending habits. Sports broadcasts are punctuated by flashy animations of ball paths and spray charts showing made and missed three-pointers.
Journalistic outlets have joined the orgy. Marquee publications from FiveThirtyEight to The New York Times seduce readers on a daily basis with elaborate infographics that promise quantitative revelations. In an article for Vox, its founder Ezra Klein remarked, “The best visualizations help you see things you never thought the data would tell you.... Some of them genuinely changed the way I think about the world.” In his foreword to The Best American Infographics 2014, Pulitzer Prize winner Gareth Cook extolled the animal pleasures of data visualization. “The best infographics are so satisfying,” he mused. “When the pattern emerges and we see the point, we experience the same primal thrill as a hunter who sees an animal track in a line of broken grass.” Election coverage hinges on infographic explicator Steve Kornacki, a “chart-throb” and “map daddy” who was named one of People’s 2020 Sexiest Men Alive. Interactive line plots and stream graphs showing economic health, approval ratings, and drug deaths draw us in with their curves. We wait with bated breath as election needles quiver and build toward climax.
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https://www.gawker.com/media/the-ero...f-infographics
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