Data on Display

In a society that is constantly producing ever greater amounts of data in every imaginable area, information graphics and other types of visualisation are gaining in importance—in exhibitions and museums, too. Regardless of whether it concerns the presentation of global migration flows, climate changes, technical production chains, or artistic relationship networks, the use of diagrams, statistical charts, maps, and other types of graphical representation enable complex issues to be depicted which otherwise could not be grasped using objects alone. The range of applications in museums extends from the selective use of information graphics that convey contextual information on individual objects to space-defining arrangements to exhibitions that have completely done away with the original object and now present the content only in the form of information design. Together with curators, graphic artists, and information designers, the workshop will explore the contemporary use of visualisations in different types of museums and inquire into what options exhibitions have to work with ‘data on display’. What sorts of issues can best be represented by forms of data visualisation? What types of content pushes these to their limits? Which specific analog or digital means can be used to make the data accessible and consumable? And to what extent does this require a process of close cooperation between the different actors involved, both in terms of content and design?