Artist Statement
I see the visual world as a continuum from pure expression to clear, direct communication – from completely abstract painting and sculpture to entirely descriptive info-graphics and everything in between. I note that both ends have elements of emotion and cognition because we are integrated human beings who always have aspects of both thinking and feeling in our ongoing human being-ness. We cannot avoid emotion and cognition as always deeply intertwingled.
I tend to operate somewhere in the middle of this continuum, usually integrating visual and verbal elements, trying as much as possible to use words when they do the job best, and visual elements (images and diagrams) when they do the job best. Mostly I work with large-scale (5 x 15 foot) information murals. Because most of them have a strong communicative purpose, the cognitive elements dominate. But the expressive elements are always present, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes in a more ancillary role.
My work appears under a variety of names – visual language, the new cartography, information murals, info-graphics, knowledge mapping.
Synthesizer Statement
Often I am in the role of “synthesizer” of deeply complex subject matter content based on contributions of many different members of a decision-analysis or decision-making group or task force. My ability to integrate these different points of view or even world views significantly helps my clients, who are very often large international task forces, NGOs, and governments with many disagreements. I think of the aim of my work as “Art + Science + Policy.”
Speech about My Art: The Representation of Meaning: Visual Information Design as a Practical and Fine Art
(A speech prepared for the InfoArcadia Exhibit, the Stroom Center for the Visual Arts, The Hague, The Netherlands, April 3, 2000) PDF
Commissions – on the Communication Side of the Continuum
- Radioactive waste disposal – UK PDF
- Global sustainability – WBCSD PDF
- NASA research management – USA PDF
- Policy Options for a Resource Efficient Economy (POLFREE) – EU
Climate change – Commissions, Exploration and Research – 2006 – 2011
- Climate Pathways 2008 – 2009
- Metrics – 2007 – 2008
- Climate Urgency – 2008 PDF
- Why We Can’t Think Coherently About Climate Change 2011 PDF
- UK Research Study -2006
- History of Divesting in Fossil Stocks – 2015 PDF
Global sustainability – Commissions, Exploration and Research – 2010 – 2012
- Dashboards of Global Sustainability -2012 PDF
- Sustainability Dynamics
- Vision 2050 – World Business Council for Sustainable Development – 2010
- Scenario – One Degree War Plan sketch PDF
Mess Mapping
- Suicide Prevention – National Health Service – Fife, Scotland – 2003
- Long Term Care Integration – Alameda, California – 2001
- Methodist Health Care Mess – 2004 PDF
Exploration and Research – both cognitive and expressive
- Avian Flu – The First Year of the Not Quite the Worst Pandemic PDF
- History of Systems Science and Cybernetics PDF
- Info-murals for decision-makers on massive computer screens PDF
- China – 2007
- Can computers think? – Seven Giant Posters – order from info@macrovu.com
- 1 – The Turing Debate PDF
- 2 – Can The Turing Test Determine Whether Computers Can Think? PDF
- 3 – Can Physical Symbol Systems Think? PDF
- 4 – Can Chinese Rooms Think? PDF
- 5 – Can Connectionist Networks Think? Can Computers Think In Images? PDF
- 6 – Do Computers Have To Be Conscious To Think? PDF
- 7 – Are Thinking Computers Mathematically Possible? PDF
- What we don’t know
Books
- The Little Book of Wicked Problems and Social Messes – DRAFT PDF
- Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century BUY
- How High Can It Fly? Examining the Evidence on Information Mapping’s Method of High-Performance Communication Chapter 1 PDF Chapter 2 PDF
Contact: bob@bobhorn.us