1200 – Pop-Up and Movable Books

While gatefold mechanisms were already used in the 1100s, one of the first movable paper mechanisms was a volvelle created by Benedictine Monk Matthew Paris to calculate the dates of Christian holidays in his book Chronica Majorca (1236-1253, see left image above). Volvelles are paper discs or rings placed on top of each other that rotate around a string or rivet. Many other types of paper mechanisms have been invented since then, such as flaps, which were used in anatomy books starting from […]

While gatefold mechanisms were already used in the 1100s, one of the first movable paper mechanisms was a volvelle created by Benedictine Monk Matthew Paris to calculate the dates of Christian holidays in his book Chronica Majorca (1236-1253, see left image above). Volvelles are paper discs or rings placed on top of each other that rotate around a string or rivet. Many other types of paper mechanisms have been invented since then, such as flaps, which were used in anatomy books starting from the 16th century (see second image above, 17th century, and third image, undated). Only in the 19th century did movable books started to be used for entertainment purposes and for children. Ellen G.K. Rubin (aka the pop-up lady) has a rich website and a must-watch talk about the history of pop-up and movable books. For a modern example of a pop-up book used to convey data, see our entry 2013 - Pop-Up Infographics. Sources: Ellen G.K. Rubin, Pop-up Lady Website. Mugdha Kale, Pop-Up Design. E.D.W. Lynch (2011) Animated Anatomies, An Exhibition of Antique Medical Pop-Up Books. (with link to a video) Left and middle image from popuplady.com, right image from laughingsquid.com.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Benjamin Bach. Category: Enabling technology Tags: anatomy, book, mechanical interaction, paper, pop-up

1875 – Van't Hoff's Molecular Paper Models

Van’t Hoff disseminated his stereochemical ideas to leading chemists of the day by sending them 3-D paper models of tetrahedral molecules, like these now housed in the Leiden Museum. There might be some difficulty in following my reasoning. I felt this myself, and I have made use of cardboard figures to facilitate the representation. Not wanting to require too much of the reader I will gladly send him the complete collection of all these objects Sources: Van der Spek, Trienke M. Selling a […]

Van’t Hoff disseminated his stereochemical ideas to leading chemists of the day by sending them 3-D paper models of tetrahedral molecules, like these now housed in the Leiden Museum. There might be some difficulty in following my reasoning. I felt this myself, and I have made use of cardboard figures to facilitate the representation. Not wanting to require too much of the reader I will gladly send him the complete collection of all these objects Sources: Van der Spek, Trienke M. Selling a Theory: The Role of Molecular Models in JH van't Hoff's Stereochemistry Theory. Annals of science 63.02 (2006): 157-177. Gross Ari, Form and Function: Seeing, Knowing, and Reasoning with Diagrams in the Practice of Science, 2013. PhD Thesis. University of Toronto Chemical Heritage Foundation website Image courtesy O. Bertrand Ramsay

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Uncertain Tags: chemistry, paper, science, tetrahedral molecules

1933 – IBM's Cosmograph

The left image above shows a physical flow chart (Sankey diagram) made of 1000 sheets of paper. It was not meant to be directly read, but to be photographed (see right image). The physical apparatus, called Cosmograph, allowed people without graphic skills to easily produce nice-looking Sankey diagrams. It was copyrighted by IBM in 1933 and sold for $50. Sources: Willard Cope Brinton (1939) Graphic Presentation, p. 78. Jim Strickland (2012) Cosmograph? What's a Cosmograph?

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: Brinton, flow chart, Sankey diagram, paper

1941 – Traffic Flow Profiles of the Interregional Highway System

2D area diagrams encoding average daily traffic as height and color are set up along their respective highways on a background map of the US. Background map seems to be a cut-out wooden panel; area diagrams potentially cardboard, or also wood veneer. Source: In: Fortune, June 194, pp. 94-95. Original by-line reads "Map by PRA. Photograph by Richard Carver Wood". PRA is presumably the Public Roads Administration (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Highway_Administration#History). Accessed […]

2D area diagrams encoding average daily traffic as height and color are set up along their respective highways on a background map of the US. Background map seems to be a cut-out wooden panel; area diagrams potentially cardboard, or also wood veneer. Source: In: Fortune, June 194, pp. 94-95. Original by-line reads "Map by PRA. Photograph by Richard Carver Wood". PRA is presumably the Public Roads Administration (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Highway_Administration#History). Accessed via https://archive.org/details/fortune23aprluce/page/94 (Last visit: 30 April 2019)

Added by: Till Nagel. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: cardboard, cartograpic, map, paper, roads, traffic

2011 – Sleep Patterns

Laurie Frick's Pokey Red is a physical visualization of sleep data over a month. Frick makes an interesting use of the physical support: in her visualization, periods of sleep of a lesser interest (light sleep) are folded up, giving more importance to the periods of quality sleep (coloured rectangles), while remaining integral part of the visualization. "Pokey Red" 12 in x 12 in, cut paper, watercolor and ink. Based on a month of sleep data, with the light sleep (aka trash sleep) periods folded […]

Laurie Frick's Pokey Red is a physical visualization of sleep data over a month. Frick makes an interesting use of the physical support: in her visualization, periods of sleep of a lesser interest (light sleep) are folded up, giving more importance to the periods of quality sleep (coloured rectangles), while remaining integral part of the visualization. "Pokey Red" 12 in x 12 in, cut paper, watercolor and ink. Based on a month of sleep data, with the light sleep (aka trash sleep) periods folded up out of the way, and only deep, REM and awake periods remain. 2011 Source: Laurie Frick (2011) Pokey Red

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: paper, quantified slef, sleep, temporal data

2011 – Paper Models of 3D Plots

Paul DeMarco from Maplesoft explains how to slice up 3D plots to build solid paper models. Source: Mapleprimes

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Enabling technology Tags: mathematics, paper

2013 – Pop-Up Infographics

In 2013, Italian graphic designer Elena Turtas crafted four books that convey data about sustainability using pop-up and movable paper mechanisms. Source: Elena Turtas (2014) The Four Books of Visualising Sustainability.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: book, environment, mechanical interaction, paper, pop-up, sustainability

2013 – Examined Life: Giving Shape to Activities

Designer Alex Getty logged his daily activities for 40 days and turned them into data sculptures that look like colored paper origami. Source: Alex Getty (2013) The Examined Life

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: activity data, origami, paper, self-logging

2015 – 3D Paper Model of Shrinking Aral Sea

The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, formerly one of the largest lakes in the world, has been drying up since the 1960s and is currently 10% its original size. Peter Vojtek made a 3-D paper model that shows the shrinkage — from 1957 on top, down to 2007. Each layer represents the surface outline during the corresponding year on the right. Vojtek also provides his paper template in case you want to fashion your own box. Sources: FlowingData Peter Vojtek (2015) 3D Paper Model of Shrinking Aral Sea.

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: cartographic, paper, temporal visualization

2015 – Paper Cut Terrain Models

Paper models of terrain/landscape. Mapquest Elevation API is used to gather the elevation isolines and the paper layers are cut on a blade cutter machine. Source: Peter's DIY Blog

Added by: Peter Vojtek. Category: Physical model Tags: cartographic, paper

2017 – Hand-Crafted Magazine Infographics

Infographic designers at the National Geographic crafted a 3D physical visualization out of paper and colored cardboard in order to prepare a 2D infographic. Source: Alberto Lucas López (2017) Handmade #dataviz (tweet). Related: Also see our entry on IBM's cosmograph.

Added by: Aurélien Tabard & Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: animation, hand-made, infographic, paper

2019 – Data Beyond Vision: Physicalizing Bookshop Data

[Data Beyond Vision] explores new ways of engaging with a dataset and the arguments and narratives behind it, in order to challenge the dominant paradigms of conventional screen-based data visualization. The project currently comprises: 3D printing a model of library member activity over time from the Shakespeare and Company Project juxtaposing documented activities from two sets of archival materials Folding paper forms of borrowing activity from the Shakespeare and Company Project surfacing […]

[Data Beyond Vision] explores new ways of engaging with a dataset and the arguments and narratives behind it, in order to challenge the dominant paradigms of conventional screen-based data visualization. The project currently comprises: 3D printing a model of library member activity over time from the Shakespeare and Company Project juxtaposing documented activities from two sets of archival materials Folding paper forms of borrowing activity from the Shakespeare and Company Project surfacing the activity of women and and non-famous members Weaving representing intertextuality based on references in Jacques Derrida’s de la Grammatologie from Derrida’s Margins Images from left to right and top to bottom: (1) some of the data physicalizations designed in the course of the project; (2) lollipop chart of Shakespeare and Company membership; (3) unit origami volumetric representation of Shakespeare and Company membership; (4) folded model of Shakespeare and Company lending library membership activities; (5) weaving Derrida’s references. Sources: Koeser, Rebecca Sutton, Gissoo Doroudian, Nick Budak, and Xinyi Li. “Data Beyond Vision.” Startwords, no. 1 (October 2020). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3713670. Koeser, Rebecca Sutton, Nick Budak, Gissoo Doroudian, and Xinyi Li. “Data Beyond Vision,” July 11, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3261531.

Added by: Rebecca Sutton Koeser & Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: 3d printing, digital humanities, kirigami, origami, weaving, paper

2020 – I am a Book. I am a Portal to the Universe.

All-ages book by Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick. Each of the book's dimensions – from its height, weight and volume to the loudness of the sound made when it is slammed shut – embodies a fact or measurement about the universe on a 1:1 scale. Hello. I am a book. But I’m also a portal to the universe. I have 112 pages, measuring 20cm high and wide. I weigh 450g. And I have the power to show you the wonders of the world. I'm different to any other book around today. I am not a book of […]

All-ages book by Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick. Each of the book's dimensions – from its height, weight and volume to the loudness of the sound made when it is slammed shut – embodies a fact or measurement about the universe on a 1:1 scale. Hello. I am a book. But I’m also a portal to the universe. I have 112 pages, measuring 20cm high and wide. I weigh 450g. And I have the power to show you the wonders of the world. I'm different to any other book around today. I am not a book of infographics. I'm an informative, interactive experience, in which the data can be touched, felt and understood, with every measurement represented on a 1:1 scale. How long is an anteater’s tongue? How tiny is the DNA in your cells? How fast is gold mined? How loud is the sun? And how many stars have been born and exploded in the time you’ve taken to read this sentence? Using all the elements that make a book, well, a book in a completely original way, I blend playful design and data storytelling to introduce scientific concepts to a broad, all-ages readership. Source: Stefanie Posavec and Miriam Quick, https://www.iamabook.online/

Added by: Miriam Quick. Category: Uncertain Tags: book, typography, paper

2022 – Making with Data: Book Cover

Making with Data is a physical data-driven papercraft sculpture that serves as the cover of the book, “Making with Data: Physical Design and Craft in a Data Driven World.” The paper waves of the piece reflect the undulating word counts of each of the book’s 24 chapters. Each of these chapters tells the story behind the creation of a physical object, space, or experience that represents data — with the artists and designers who crafted the piece explaining the unique and creative process through […]

Making with Data is a physical data-driven papercraft sculpture that serves as the cover of the book, “Making with Data: Physical Design and Craft in a Data Driven World.” The paper waves of the piece reflect the undulating word counts of each of the book’s 24 chapters. Each of these chapters tells the story behind the creation of a physical object, space, or experience that represents data — with the artists and designers who crafted the piece explaining the unique and creative process through which they gave that data physical form. The Making with Data sculpture captures the lengths of each chapter’s Motivation, Practices & Processes, Materials & Tools, and Reflection subsections and reveals them via a physical ridgeline plot. To create the piece, the book’s editors (Samuel Huron, Till Nagel, Lora Oehlberg, and Wesley Willett) compiled the data and created vector graphics files for each paper layer. We then commissioned a paper artist, Betty Soliman, to select paper colors, cut each layer, and assemble them together. Graphic designer Elodie Maigné then composited photographs of the piece to create the final cover. The resulting visualization embodies the vision of the book — representing its contents as an evocative data object and bringing the idea of making with data full circle. Source: Samuel Huron, Till Nagel, Lora Oehlberg, and Wesley Willett (2022) Making the Cover with Data. Related: Also see our other entries of physical visualizations made with paper.

Added by: Samuel Huron. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: book, paper, horizon plot