Beautiful Evidence: by Edward Tufte
Beautiful Evidence: by Edward Tufte
Beautiful Evidence: by Edward Tufte
by Edward Tufte
● Brief Biography
● About the Book
● About the Chapter: Mapped Pictures
● Examples of Mapped Pictures
● Conclusion
● Sources
Edward R. Tufte
● Born 1942 in Missouri
● Beverly Hills High School
● Stanford BS and MS in
Statistics
● Yale PhD Political Science
(1968)
● Yale Professor Emeritus of
Political Science, Statistics,
and Computer Science
● Landscape Sculptor
Analytical Design Theorist
Edward Tufte, Spring Arcs (2004) solid stainless steel, arc diameter 12 feet
What are “Mapped Pictures”?
Purpose:
● To present, explain, or document
● Mappings tell why an image matters
Minimal Mapping
● Stop sign
● Street sign
● Basic relative
scale
Problem:
● No scale given
● Same size
● Cross section
location missing
Figure 1: Marcus Bloch, Ichthyologie, our Histoire Naturelle
Generale et Particuliere des Poissons (1795)
Problem Solved
Solution:
● Give scale bar
● Add cross section
mark
Figure 1: Marcus Bloch, Ichthyologie, our Histoire Naturelle
Generale et Particuliere des Poissons (1795)
Evidence Because:
● Credible precision
● Engineering diagram
Proves:
Humans as a commodity (347)
Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors (detail, 1533), Mapped by David Hockney, Secret Knowledge:
Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (London, 2001)
Explanatory Mappings
Paul Cezanne, Still Life With a Basket (Kitchen Table) Erle Loran, Cezanne’s Composition: Analysis of His Form
(1890-95) oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs (1943)
Ernst Mossel, Vom Geheimnis der Form und der Urform des Seins (Stuttgart, 1938)
La Cuisse, Le Repertoire des bals ou theorie-pratique des contredanses decrites d’une maniere aisee avec des
figures demonstratives pour les pouvoir danser facilement (1762, Paris)
Coherent multiple viewpoint
● Investigation of bird
anatomy and flight
● Goal of constructing
gliders
● Quantitative scale
● Cambered airfoil cross
section
● Shifting angles as
flapping wings torque
● Linked and oriented
(a,b,c)
● Side view flying left
Otto Lilienthal, Der Vogelflug als Grundlage dr Fliegekunst
(1889, Munich and Berlin)
Instruction
● Diagram & text overlaid
on image
● Content documentation
and fluent art
● Words double as
horizontal line
St. Kirill of Belozersk with scenes from his life, silk cloth, early 16th century
Contextualizing
● Relative scale
● Easy to compare
● Lines directing
attention
● Needs a universal grid
or measurement scale
Conclusion:
Mappings tell why the image matters