Poster Parade - Painting by Numbers, London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, Londres

Description:

A new poster display showing artistic, historical versions of data visualisation will open at London Transport Museum on Friday 6 January 2012.

Often thought of as a 21st century phenomenon, data visualisation – the presentation of information abstracted into a visual form – has been in use since the 2nd century when Egyptian people used tables to organise astronomical information. It was not until the 1920s that the importance and power of data visualisation for examining and making sense of data and information became more widely used.

Most of the posters in the display date back to the 1930s or earlier and were designed to promote the benefits of travelling by London transport or as propaganda to tell the public about the excellence of the public transport services being provided.

The display of 20 posters includes work by Hans Schleger, Misha Black & David Langdon, Theyre Lee-Elliott, and James Fitton.

The poster display complements the Museum’s current temporary exhibition Sense and the City: smart, connected and on the move which explores how emerging technologies are transforming the way we live, work and play in our cities. As well as looking at modern day and future data visualisation, it poses questions about mobility, society and work in the Capital over the next decade, and compares this with past visions of the future. The exhibition closes on 18 March 2012.