Water is an emancipatory medium for diverse ecological agents, resulting in their entanglements and complex ecosystems. How can a graphical language correspond to this vast openness of water?
Our immediate response to this question was to make a complex diagram that minimizes exclusion. Information designer Jaap Knevel stated in the interview with us that complexity does not equate to confusion. A lot of visual systems still do not lose their communicative function when more information is added in the negative spaces hollowed out for simplicity. This extra capacity for holding meanings can be utilized for the representation of marginalized economic subjects.
However, as we practice diagramming, we also realize the inevitable limitation of resource, not only the surface area but also perceivers’ attention we can afford. This makes abstraction to a certain extent unavoidable, and reimposes the question of what to reduce. In this case, we find ‘affirmative action’ – understanding whose representations are typically reduced in the process of schematization and giving priority to those when allocating the resource of representation – as a meaningful strategy.
💧Reduction by Graphic Design
💧Tanglegram
💧Margin
💧Hydrofeminist Visual Language