"We make the world by structuring our experience of it" (74). - Joanna Drucker, Graphesis (Interpreting Visualization: Visualizing Interpretation)
Druckers' chapter on Interpreting Visualization: Visualizing Interpretation brought to mind the many mechanisms and tools we may take for granted to structure our navigation of time and space.
Clocks, planes, coordinates. We overlay these abstract conceptions across our daily lives and they make sense.
To re-examine what has been established and standardized can be a struggle. I am led to ask: To revolutionize for the sake of revolutionizing, or to identify an evolutionary expansion? What paradigm shift can re-adjust how we perceive humankind for the better?
To date, you could argue that administrative or logistical necessities have shaped our current realities. Maps to understand where we live, sure. But proliferation for military strategic advantage, standardized time and currencies to run orderly empires and to trade with others for gain and betterment.
I am hopeful by the thoughts prompted in reading this chapter that we are entering an age where pragmatism + compassion continues the efforts that have come before us. Further aided by the knowledge that mechanization and understanding do not go hand in hand, perhaps we can also standardize a globally understood vocabulary to see from multiple angles, all the time, and not be overwhelmed.