Jacques Bertin Quotes (20 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Jacques Bertin: 20 quotes1 like

Famous Jacques Bertin Quotes

“Graphic representation constitutes one of the basic sign-systems conceived by the human mind for the purposes of storing, understanding, and communicating essential information. As a "language" for the eye, graphics benefits from the ubiquitous properties of visual perception. As a monosemic system, it forms the rational part of the world of images.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 2

“If, in order to obtain a correct and complete answer to a given question, all other things being equal, one construction requires a shorter observation time than another construction, we can say that it is more efficient for this question.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 139: Bertin’s definition of efficiency as cited in: Naomi B. Robbins (2009) Creating More Effective Graphs http://www.ssc.ca/ottawa/documents/SSO2009FallRobbins.pdf

“And now, at the end of the twentieth century, with the pressure of modern information and the advances of data processing, graphics is passing through a new and fundamental stage. The great difference between the graphic representation of yesterday, which was poorly dissociated from the figurative image, and the graphics of tomorrow, is the disappearance of the congential fixity of the image.
When one can superimpose, juxtapose, transpose, and permute graphic images in ways that lead to groupings and classings, the graphic image passes from the dead image, the 'illustration,' to the living image, the widely accessible research instrument it is now becoming. The graphic is no longer only the 'representation' of a final simplification, it is a point of departure for the discovery of these simplifications and the means for their justification. The graphic has become, by its manageability, an instrument for information processing.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 4

“The aim of the graphic is to make the relationship among previously defined sets appear.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 176

“To analyse graphic representation precisely, it is helpful to distinguish it from musical, verbal and mathematical notations, all of which are perceived in a linear or temporal sequence. The graphic image also differs from figurative representation essentially polysemic, and from the animated image, governed by the laws of cinematographic time. Within the boundaries of graphics fall the fields of networks, diagrams and maps. The domain of graphic imagery ranges from the depiction of atomic structures to the representation of galaxies and extends into the spheres of topography and cartography.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 2

“As with any graphic, networks are used in order to discover pertinent troups of to inform others of the groups and structures discovered. It is a good means of displaying structures, However, it ceases to be a means of discovery when the elements are numerous. The ﬁgure rapidly becomes complex, illegible and untransformable.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Graphics and graphic information processing (1981), p. 129: About why draw a network?

Jacques Bertin Quotes about doubt

“Information is the reply to a question.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 11

“There are as many types of questions as components in the information.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 10

“[Overall level questions involved an] understanding of the deep structure of the data being presented in their totality, usually comparing trends and seeing groupings.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 16; as cited in: Stacy Kathryn Keller (2008) Levels of Line Graph Question Interpretation.... p. 6

Jacques Bertin Quotes

“[The special properties of visual perception of data]… is the visual means of resolving logical problems.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Graphics and graphic information processing (1981), p. 16 as cited in: Riccardo Mazza (2004) Introduction to Information Visualisation http://www.dti.supsi.ch/~mazza/infovis_introduction.pdf

“[Bertin's 'color' refers to] the repertoire of colored sensations which can be produced at equal value.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 61, as cited in: Jörg von Engelhardt (2002). The Language of Graphics: : A Framework for the Analysis of Syntax and Meaning in Maps, Charts and Diagrams. p. 27

“The plane is the mainstay of all graphic representation. It is so familiar that its properties seem self-evident, but the most familiar things are often the most poorly understood. The plane is homogeneous and has two dimensions. The visual consequences of these properties must be fully explored.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 44

“When the correspondences on the plane can be established between:
- all the divisions of one component
- and all the divisions of another component, the construction is a DIAGRAM.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 50

“A graphic is a diagram when correspondences on the plane can be established among all elements of another component.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 193

“Data is transformed into graphics to understand. A map, a diagram are documents to be interrogated. But understanding means integrating all of the data. In order to do this it’s necessary to reduce it to a small number of elementary data. This is the objective of the “data treatment” be it graphic or mathematic.”

Jacques Bertin

About the true value of graphics
Interview with Jacques Bertin (2003)

“The use of computers shouldn’t ignore the objectives of graphics, that are:”

Jacques Bertin

Treating data to get information.
Communicating, when necessary, the information obtained.
Computers are able to multiply useless images without taking into account that, by definition, every graphic corresponds to a table. This table allows you to think about three basic questions that go from the particular to the general level. When this last one receives an answer, you have answers for all of them. Understanding means accessing the general level and discovering significant grouping (patterns). Consequently, the function of a graphic is answering the three following questions:
Which are the X,Y, Z components of the data table? (What it’s all about?)
What are the groups in X, in Y that Z builds? (What the information at the general level is?
What are the exceptions?
These questions can be applied to every kind of problem. They measure the usefulness of whatever construction or graphical invention allowing you to avoid useless graphics.
About the role of computers in Information Visualisation.
Interview with Jacques Bertin (2003)

“The problem that still remains to be solved is that of the orderable matrix, that needs the use of imagination… When the two components of a data table are orderable, the normal construction is the orderable matrix. Its permutations show the analogy and the complementary nature that exist between the algorithmic treatments and the graphical treatments.”

Jacques Bertin

About the traditionally low interest in theory of graphics
Interview with Jacques Bertin (2003)

“The author has the reputation of being against color. I am indeed against color when it masks incompetence; when it allows the superimposition of characteristics to the point of absurdity; when people believe it capable of representing ordered data.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Graphics and graphic information processing (1981), p. 222; partly cited in: Laura R. Novick and Sean M. Hurley (2001) " To Matrix, Network, or Hierarchy: That Is the Question http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/faculty/Markman/PSY394/NovHur.pdf" in: Cognitive Psychology 42, 158–216 (2001)

“Graphics owes its special significance to its double function as a storage mechanism and a research instrument.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 2

“Value perception dominates color perception.”

Jacques Bertin

Source: Semiology of graphics (1967/83), p. 87