Speed, Death, and Interactive Graphics
I've been thinking about this brilliant piece by friend-of-DLB Greg J. Smith all day. Are there subjects for which information graphics are Too Much Information?
Image from the New York Times info-graphic: Luge Crash at the Olympics
[T]he precision with which this graphic schematizes the death of a man is unsettling.
This past Friday, Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run for the Winter Olympics. Saturday, the New York Times produced this visualization of the circumstances which lead to his death on the track.
I was struck by the experience -- a man reduced to an abstraction, a projectile -- which one manipulates towards the last frame: a photograph showing the moment of his fatal collision. I found the juxtaposition, and my participation in it, troubling.
| Tagged with: | Death, Greg J. Smith, Infoviz, New York Times, Olympics, Taste |