This document discusses the concept of nothingness and absence of data in information graphics. It provides examples of graphics that represent lack of information in various ways such as blank spaces, graying out of areas, and using symbols like question marks. The document emphasizes that absence of data is meaningful and can reveal political and social insights. It encourages designers to thoughtfully consider how to represent empty or missing values.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Landmesser
The defiance of August Landmesser

3. https://twitter.com/AleemMaqbool/status/447306090087452672/photo/1
https://twitter.com/QasimNauman/status/447277789121495040/photo/1
International New York Times, weekend of 22nd/23rd March 2014

4. Measurements of Car Speeds in the Netherlands, by Erik Boertjes

5. Zero cars
Zero speed
No sensor data
Measurements of Car Speeds in the Netherlands, by Erik Boertjes

6. NULL ZERO BLANK INVISIBLE

7. NULL
When ‘nothing’ becomes something
http://dojo4.com/clients/gnip

10. http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/03/20/Foreign/Images/
2014-03-20T072610Z_01_DBG270_RTRIDSP_3_MALAYSIA-AIRLINES-AUSTRALIA-10694.jpg
“We are not used to no information”
BBC News, 16th March 2014

11. http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/latest
Billionaires, by Bloomberg

12. http://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/explore/decade-summary/
Metadata of Australian prints and printmaking, interactive by Mitchell Whitelaw

13. https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2013/05/22/rainfall.jpg
Holiday chill?, by South China Morning Post Graphics
“No data was recorded between 1940 and 1946”

14. http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/dynamic/app/
State of the Polar Bear, by Periscopic
“[The greying out] was a political statement to Russia to release the data
they have about polar bears”

15. http://headwaterseconomics.org/interactive/west-wide-atlas
West-Wide Economic Atlas, by Headwaters Economics
“Data are sometimes withheld by the federal government to avoid the
disclosure of potentially confidential information.”

16. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20070524_REFINERY_GRAPHIC.html
Rising Prices at the Pump, by New York Times Graphics

17. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-25927595
Where is it Illegal to be Gay?, by BBC News Graphics

18. This is one of the first questions we should ask
about any dataset: What is missing?
What can we learn from the gaps?
Jer Thorp
https://twitter.com/chris_swift/status/430688880484831232

19. http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/03/banksy-vancouver-nobody-likes-me/
ZERO
Something to represent ‘nothing’

20. http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer
Mapping America, by New York Times Graphics

21. https://twitter.com/rsimmon/status/406433840807165952/photo/1
NASA space station view of Mount Etna, via Rob Simmon

22. http://johnsnow.matrix.msu.edu/book_images12.php
Cholera Outbreak Map, by John Snow

23. John Snow’s cholera map
Florence Nightingale
Napoleon’s march
William Playfair invented the bar chart
What would Tufte say?
3D Pie charts are not very good
Tall infographics are everywhere…
Red-green colour blindness
Funny xkcd comic
Outrageous maze creation algorithm
Random musical interruption
Heart-stopping live demo
✔

24. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/450008187738450975/
From Pyramid to Kite, by The Economist

25. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3020923/how-the-red-cross-used-tweets-to-save-lives-during-hurricane-sandy
“Even a lack of postings can tell the Red Cross something. If there is a social
media black hole that probably means the area needs help.”
‘Hurricane Sandy’ tweet map, by Floating Sheep

26. Encoding zero?

27. POSITION VS. AXIS

28. http://darkhorseanalytics.com/blog/the-uniform-distribution/
The Uniform Distribution, by Dark Horse Analytics
LENGTH

29. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2013/03/04/sk-drinking-age-1303.html
Drinking Age Across Canada, by CBC News
BASELINE ZERO FOR LENGTH

30. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/242407/EGYPT-INTERNET-BLACKOUT.jpg
The Uniform Distribution, by Dark Horse Analytics
POSITION/AREA VS. AXIS

31. Parallel Coordinates, USDA Nutrient Database
http://exposedata.com/parallel/
POSITION/SLOPE VS. AXIS

32. COLOUR SHADING
Hewlett Foundation Grants Tool, by Periscopic
http://www.hewlett.org/grants-tool/index

33. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html
Geography of a Recession, by New York Times Graphics
COLOUR SHADING

34. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states
TEXTURE
Gay Rights by Type, by Guardian US Graphics

35. http://fukushima.nzz.ch/#die-schulleiterin
DENSITY
Fukushima, by NZZ/Interactive Things

36. http://hint.fm/wind/
Wind Map, by Hint FM
DENSITY

37. http://mapsbynik.tumblr.com/post/82791188950/nobody-lives-here-the-nearly-5-million-census
Nobody Lives Here, by Mapsbynik
DOTS/POSITION

38. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rfid-tags-track-possible-outbreak-pathways-in-hospital
NODE/LINK
RFID Tags Track Possible Outbreak Pathways in the Hospital, by Jan Willem Tulp

39. TITLE
Male Presidents
Female Presidents
ANGLE

40. http://kelsocartography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/carbonatlas.pdf
The Carbon Atlas, by The Guardian Graphics
AREA

41. http://www.smartmoney.com/map-of-the-market/
Map of the Market, by The Wall Street Journal
AREA

42. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/your-own-words/scotus-gay-marriage/
ANNOTATION
SCOTUS Gay Marriage, by The Washington Post Graphics

43. https://twitter.com/arnicas/status/435473001258442752
BLANK
‘Nothing’ to represent something

44. The single most overlooked element in
visual design is emptiness… [but] space
must look deliberately used.
Alex White
‘The Elements of Graphic Design’ by Alex White, pg 65

45. http://www.this-page-intentionally-left-blank.org/whythat.html
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
The primary reason is to offer internet
wanderers a place of quietness and simplicity
on the overcrowded World Wide Web

46. http://13pt.com/projects/nyt071211/
Lunge Feeding, by Jonathan Corum

47. http://graphics-info.blogspot.hk/2012/09/malofiej-20-look-at-our-participation.html
Iraq’s Bloody Toll, by Simon Scarr

48. http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/the-depth-of-the-problem/931/
TITLEThe Depth of the Problem, by The Washington Post Graphics

49. http://kottke.org/06/07/independent-infographic
Middle East: Who Backs Immediate Ceasefire?, by The Independent

50. http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-polio-cases-drop-50-percent/1776099.html
Nigeria Polio Cases Drop 50 Percent in 2013, by Voice of America

51. http://blogs.reuters.com/data-dive/2013/12/10/gms-new-ceo-is-another-small-crack-in-the-glass-ceiling/
http://www.chezvoila.com/blog/glass-ceiling
The Glass Ceiling Persists, by Reuters Graphics | Reworking by Francis Gagnon

52. http://visual.ly/spotlight-movie-profitability
Spotlight on Profitability, by Krisztina Szücs

53. http://www.accurat.it/
Nobels No Degrees, by Accurat Studio for Corriere della Sera

54. http://yusylvia.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/gestalt_illustration-01.jpg?w=604&h=251&h=251
http://www.creativebloq.com/art/art-negative-space-8133765

55. http://www.theispot.com/whatsnew/2014/3/brian-stauffer-out-of-control.htm
New York Time Op-Ed, Out of Control, by Brian Stauffer

56. http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-deaths-in-florida-increased-with-stand-your-ground-2014-2
Gun Deaths in Florida, by Reuters Graphics

57. http://cementeclipses.com/
INVISIBLE
A bit more thinking about ‘nothingness’

58. http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/see-everything-thats-beautiful-about-advertising-two-simple-print-ads-bookstore-154627
Advert for Corre Cutia Bookstore, by Lápisraro Comunicação

59. The best design is invisible; the viewer should
not see your design. They should only see
your content.
Edward Tufte

60. http://woodchanges.com/
Wood Changes, by Luis Carli and Rafael Passarelli

61. You know you’ve achieved perfection in design,
not when you have nothing more to add, but
when you have nothing more to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

62. http://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1193675/remembering-kowloon-walled-city
http://lasombra.blogs.com/la_sombra_del_asno/2013/05/sichuans-earthquake.html
Infographic portfolio of Adolfo Arranz, SCMP

63. http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/19/sexy.data/index.html?_s=PM:OPINION
The clearest, most precise graphic in the world
communicates nothing if nobody looks at it
Fernanda Viegas, Martin Wattenberg

64. Changing Face of America, by NBC Nightly News
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3029318/design-crime/the-worst-infographic-of-2014-so-far

65. Guidance to the user is needed most at the
moment the statistics are first made public. The
news media look to the statistical release to
provide an objective account of the statistics.
They may regard the absence of such text as
indicative of partisan influence.
Saying nothing is not necessarily politically
neutral.
Richard Alldritt, UK Statistics Authority
http://www.statsusernet.org.uk/blogs/richard-alldritt/2012/05/17/a-word-about-numbers

66. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/07/the-less-americans-know-about-ukraines-location-the-more-they-want-u-s-to-
intervene/
Where’s Ukraine?, via Washington Post ‘Monkey Cage’

67. Pay attention to ‘nothing’ because it
really is worth something

68. Thank you…
Contributors: Lynn Cherny, Santiago Ortiz, Kim Rees,
Francis Gagnon, Tony Hurst, Jane Pong, Erik Boertjes,
Carl Manaster, Nigel Hawtin, Deb Grebenc, Alan Smith
The Vine army: @brunodagnino, @mapitup,
@hyperion_hq, @lorgmedia, @jcukier, @andrea_paolini,
@maralllo, @justadddesign, @stefpos, @giorgialupi,
@alignedleft, @stinabacker, @infotrafford, @wiederkehr,
@danielsouza, @chezvoila, @albertocairo, @arnicas,
@ireneros
And, of course, the very wise OpenVisConf committee!