I am happy to enter into a discourse on “what is knowledge” but that is not the intent of this post. Rather I want to explore the idea that knowledge representation is becoming more visual. In his 1997 book ‘The Measure of Reality ’ Emeritus Professor Alfred Crosby suggested that visualisation and measurement were the two factors most responsible for the rapid development of all of modern science. Now this is an interesting proposition, and one I think I largely agree with.

The first attempts to represent knowledge were probably pictorial, and can be seen in the elegant cave paintings of our ancestors. Indeed some of these are still maintained by indigenous people today – see for example the Aboriginal rock art of the Gagudju people of Northern Australia, one of the oldest cultures on the planet. Numerals and text soon followed and have been the mainstay of knowledge representation for at least the last 6,000 years. But is this changing?

Since the turn of the century graphs seem to have come to the forefront, with an almost exponential increase in attempts to map or graph almost everything. If you don’t believe me have a quick browse around Many Eyes , Swivel , or Visual Complexity . Huge databases are now publicly available allowing casual users to ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions; questions which collectively make up the Six Knows Knowledge Model . It is now possible to visualise the answers and seek patterns in the data. These visualisations have meta-data associated with the nodes that allow one to drill down and deconstruct complexity , or to answer what if questions.

There is also an emerging academic discipline called visualisation studies. These studies are mainly positioned in the information and computer science schools, and have the aim to “use pictures to improve access to information or the communication of knowledge”. My own work seeks to do exactly this – see for example Dollars or Links? Visualising Collective Knowledge and Deconstructing Complexity . The diagrams in both of these blog-posts represent collective knowledge. Indeed the pictures are probably the most effective way to represent this knowledge.

In my day job I increasingly encounter senior managers who are time poor. They lurch from meeting to meeting, and make decisions on one page briefs that “summarise” 1000-page reports. I can see why they are attracted to graphs, maps and pictures. A properly constructed picture does convey a story, and does enable decision making and knowledge exchange. It can also include measurements.

My problem with all this relates to what I call the SOILS Syndrome . A SOIL is a senior officer interest light, which goes on when they are attracted to a diagram, graph, map or picture. The SOILS Syndrome is a propensity to privilege these visualisations over other forms of knowledge, usually at the expense of proper understanding.

I think knowledge representation is becoming more visual, but I don’t see visualisations replacing the written word, music notation, or numbers. Rather I see visualisations as an adjunct to these artefacts. I think the strength of visualisation lies in the ability to display collective knowledge, from which questions can be generated. The written word in one form or another will continue to matter for a long time yet.

Regards Graham