Powerful data visualizations are like masterful paintings– through art and insight, they intimate broad ideas and usher in understanding.
I, however, am neither a master painter nor an expert data visualizer. Neither are many of my contemporaries in the “technically skilled and socially aware” demographic. Still, I believe that even mediocre pieces of art or analysis can help communicate interesting and important ideas.
I propose a new “genre” of data visualizations, centered on accessible summarization and public commentary — political graphs. Think of political graphs as the the numerically supported equivalent of political cartoons — not necessarily “great art” by traditional definitions, but certainly entertaining and informative.
Data visualization techniques have been applied to political topics for ages; I’m just trying to define a niche where you don’t have to be as inspired as Tufte or as laugh-hungry as Indexed to share something of social value with people.
Since I’d like to explore this notion a bit more, I’ll be either generating myself or reporting on good examples of high-quality political graphs in the near future.
