Public evidence — autographic visualizations of contagion
Like any complex matter of public concern, the discourse around the COVID pandemic relies heavily on visual information. Over the past months, many iconic visualizations have emerged in the popular discussion. National newspapers explain the interpretation of logarithmic scales and weigh the pros and cons of absolute and relative measures. In this brief post, I want to examine a type of visualization that has received less attention despite its popular resonance: the material visualizations examining the modes of viral contagion.
The visualizations shared online during the pandemic fall into three categories. Most frequently, we find scientific visualizations, including the various portraits of the virus: colorized microscope images or stylized computer renderings of its molecular structure. They provide mental images for an invisible threat but are also a testament to the practical impossibility of publishing an article without a leading picture. The second group includes data visualizations of epidemiological data plotting number of cases and their geographic distributions captured in characteristic curves. The infamous “flatten the curve” chart falls between the two categories—it is an idealized data visualization not based on actual data that conveys a concept. But in this post, I am interested in a third category that I describe as…
