We interviewed Dr. Lina Michelkevičė, the co-publisher of 'Mapping the Real and the Imaginary: Innovative Forms of Visualisation in Research, Arts, Cultural Communication, and Education.' We discussed how diagramming can be an intuitive part of workflows in research and artistic practices. Its intuitiveness also means that diagrammers might unconsciously reproduce biases. In published form, diagrams can suggest visual authority and a singular version of truth. However, Lina cited that 'all maps are lying' because abstractions can only show a fragment of a system, omitting aspects of reality. We explored whether complex diagrams, or 'tanglegrams,' could display more relationships to mitigate this downside. Lina suggested including typically unrepresented elements in a simplified abstraction of a system, such as agency in economic diagrams. Overall, Lina encouraged reflection on the use of diagrams in knowledge practices, questioning who diagrams, what is diagrammed, and for whom.
Dr. Lina Michelkevičė holding the book Atlas of Diagrammatic Imagination.
💧Fernand Deligny
💧Reduction by Graphic Design
💧Diagramming Diversely