Defying the limits of the plane: Two-dimensional space and its consequences in the search for the order of nature
Loading...
Authors
Author (Corporation)
Publication date
01.04.2015
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
Journal of Illustration
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
2
Issue / Number
1
Pages / Duration
51-73
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Intellect
Place of publication / Event location
Bristol, UK
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
The discussion about the order of nature holds a central position in the History of Biological Science. It reached its culmination between the mid-eighteenth and the late nineteenth century, when new knowledge forced a rearrangement of existing thought patterns to adapt them to the recently discovered complexity. Not only different concepts about the relationships among organisms were superseding one another, but also images, as a variety of structures were used to visually display these ideas. Each of these visualizations, usually described as ladders, maps, networks and trees, developed a particular, individual formal language, generating a unique and fascinating collection of graphical examples. This formal variability is a product of the changing ideas about nature, about its origins, and even about the position attributed to human beings within it. However, it is also the result of the authors’ struggle with the drawing space in which this order was to be inscribed.
By studying the history of the illustration of the order of nature from the perspective of applied image production, by analysing the strategies their authors used to visually express their ideas, the graphical elements they employed, in summary, the visual choices they made, much can be learnt about the visual medium itself, its specificity, its possibilities, its power. Using this approach, the following article will show that the transition from the scala naturae to maplike or treelike structures cannot be seen exclusively as proof of an intellectual transition, as a succession of abstract ideas, but as creative attempts to solve specific spatial problems imposed by the realm of the visual.
Keywords
biological classification, diagrams, heuristic models, information design
Subject (DDC)
Event
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
2052-0204
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the abstract
Open access category
License
Citation
López Grüninger, P. (2015). Defying the limits of the plane: Two-dimensional space and its consequences in the search for the order of nature. Journal of Illustration, 2(1), 51–73. https://doi.org/10.1386/jill.2.1.51_1