Planning, democratization and popularization with isotype, ca. 1945

a study of Otto Neurath's pictorial statistics with the example of bilston, england

Sybilla Nikolow

pp. 299-329

in: Friedrich Stadler (ed), Induction and deduction in the sciences, Berlin, Springer, 2004

Abstract

In Otto Neurath's pictorial statistics ("Bildstatistik"), statistics communicate not through numbers or graphical representations but through larger and smaller numbers of symbols. We are dealing with an attempt to create a visual, transparent and universal language for the global communication of information and arguments. Here, I want to further explore Neurath's pioneering work as a visual pedagogue and as an expert on the popularization of knowledge on the example of how his International System of Picture Education (ISOTYPE) was used in an exhibition on new housing in Bilston, a town in the Midland Counties of England. I use this case in order to expound the design and practice of his picturestatistical method in the context of contemporary scientific, artistic, political and pedagogical culture.

Cited authors

Neurath Otto