Part of the “Colour and Information” apply to all visualization and had threads in common with photography and videoography, which are also very influences by art theory. For example the eye will be drawn to the lightest object in a frame, the brightest colour and sharp obects over blury objects. In this way some of the principle he discusses in mapping are similar to the ways artists manipulate the eye in a painting or photographers manipulate the eye in a photograph. Poorly done the eye is drawn to the wrong object in the photo or none at all. It was interesting to think of the way colour theory can aid or fail the process of displaying information. I think prior I only though of colour on maps as either pleasing or not pleasing. Not a “missing the point” or distracting from information.

I think there is a similar thread in the design piece, but while colour is an almost universal problem. ( except for the nuanced differences we see) With design having an audience skilled at interpreting the design also matters, because not all design is intuitive. In the mapping of the moons from Galileo’s simple recording to the modern one which has much more detail, but requires skill to “read.” When visual representations work they are faster to understand than texts, the tension is in displaying information meaningfully. Some of the examples here remind me of the earlier reading wherethey become complicated to decode and more “art than information” in Will’s words.