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The Long View

LV Sketchbook Page 048

Michael Bartalos

LV Sketchbook Page 048 addresses the role of shape and form in conveying ideas in data and art. From Wasily Kandinsky’s Bauhaus paintings to contemporary infographics, basic geometrical shapes serve as as abstract representations of subject matter. They work similarly in this collage, capturing the essence of the subject rather than represent its actual reality. With Antarctic science and data visualization as my subject, I also evoked the language of graphs and measurement in composing the artwork.

Soon after finishing the artwork, I happened across a diagram in a Scientific American slideshow that shares an oddly similar composition to mine. Its subject matter was related too, describing NASA’s radar measurements of Antarctic ice. Call my collage a diagram of the diagram.