Tufte Flatland Response Mikel
Sunspot and train schedules were super confusing to me.
Even though I know nothing about music, the little sheet to teach dancing looked cool. I’m not sure how useful it would actually be, although the bit that dancer’s prefer symbolic notation over stick-figure poses was interesting. It makes me think about games like Just Dance where future movement is represented by figures on a timeline.
The weather map of Japan was interesting because of how it was designed specifically for the location, as Tufte said that this representation won’t be as useful for countries that aren’t thin. I wondered then if data in the California pollutant map works with the perspective it has. Not saying that it doesn’t, but I wonder if there are interesting areas of the map that are hidden by the angle.
I really liked the usefulness of small multiples, even though it felt like Tufte didn’t want to explain them, especially when talked about in regards to the colorful t-shirts. How easy it is to compare them is great, but the “active eye” idea engages a person more in the same way that investigating an image for more information can.