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October 04, 2007
Subtraction
Tufte's chapter was interesting. I was especially drawn to the idea of subtraction and its role in visual and literary forms. That subtraction of weight plays a chief role in illuminating a form, or areas of it, is to be expected. Yet I'd never considered that it could play a part in symbolism, as seen in the comparison of the 1748 Nolli map of Rome with the redesign in which the river encoding is muted.
The excerpt from Calvino's "Invisible Cities" was interesting to read in light of this. I find his stories alluring but difficult to talk about, yet it's possible to get a very good sense of the subtraction of weight from them.
Posted by Dominique at October 4, 2007 11:50 AM