In this reading, Tufte discusses space and time. From this chapter, I gained a few new insights about the time/space relationship. Tufte presented various examples of designs where movement over time was expressed. This showed how space and time can be depicted in such different ways: either segmented out in a grid time table, continuous movement of a line, and abstract zigzagging and representations of movement steps. Movement becomes an abstract concept that can be translated from the 3-dimensional world to the flatland design while maintaining the transitions over space and time. Another interesting thing I noticed was how the depictions often had to visualize something that we do not necessarily see in the same way normally. For example, in the dance notations, the figures are limited in their space. They are frozen as an illustration, but simultaneously, they are used to show something that translates over time. The lines in the drawing on the “floor” track the dancer’s movement, but it is a different visualisation than we normally see in real life. While we see a dancer’s body lines and shapes in the 3D world, the notation diagram breaks it down into a series of lines and symbols.

Questions:

  1. How must designers consider balancing accurate depiction of movement versus visual aesthetic? For example, in the New York to New Haven timetable, there is a difficult balance between being straightforward to viewers while also avoiding ambiguities.

  2. How are symbols integrated into the designs to fully convey space and time (like movement)? What leads designers to use these symbols and how do we ensure that the viewer understands it? I found it appealing to look at the dance notations, but it would require more information for me to fully understand it.