Since the rise of mass media, about a hundred year ago, people are constantly flooded with information. To make information accessible to everyone, this didn’t just happen in writing, but also by means of imagery. Even then people were worried about the manipulative power and overvaluation of information. Today we find ourselves in a similar position. We are still consistently flooded with information, in order to make this manageable, a lot of information is visualised. Though we often don’t realise that visualisation doesn’t automatically mean that something is reliable.
The exhibition shows what part information design plays in our perception of the world around us. There are many important information design highlights from the past hundred years, but the focus is on contemporary experiment. This elaborate exhibition ties the entire programme together and shows how designers visualise complex information, data and systems. From the visual statistics of ISOTYPE, the encyclopaedias of Wim Crouwel, the iconic work of Gerd Arntz, the human body factories of Fritz Kahn, the animations of Aron Koblin to interactive data visualisation by CLEVER°FRANKE.
Thanks to loans from the former collection of the Graphic Design Museum (MOTI), Graphic Matters shows original historic material for the first time. Information Superpower is curated by Dennis Elbers, creative director of Graphic Matters and guest-curator Sven Ehmann, editor of various books about information design.
Exhibition ‘Information Superpower’
Festival Graphic Matters
Stokvishallen
Belcrumweg, Breda
September 20 – October 27, 2019
www.graphicmatters.nl
Photos: Edwin Wiekens
