“图像”的“图像”——论信息图表的视觉表征与建构

“Image” in “Image”: The visual representation and construction of information graphic

媒介中的"大数据"并非是一个单纯的技术征候,当"大数据"以信息图表的方式演化为一种视觉叙事手段时,已悄然开始了文本化,进而转变为一种被媒介所左右的话语形态。在"大数据—图像"的逻辑关联中,信息图表的"精确"叙事在"图像主因型"的文化中已不由自主地开始了"奇观"之旅,其视觉性的实践不但是对他者的"表征",也是对主体的"建构"。信息图表的视觉表征与建构应是逐步建立数据与"真实"的相关性的过程,这个过程不是单纯的技术命题,也不是设计范畴的视觉化,而是对数据社会性的挖掘与解读方式。在后现代视阈中,"表征"让信息图表的视觉实践可见可知,而"建构"则让这种新媒体姿态的视觉形式可行可塑。"表征"与"建构"并非是两种截然的"视觉"过程,将二者统一思考,才能让我们深切理解媒介言说的"大数据"以及作为视觉性实践的信息图表。

The “Big Data” in medium is not a simple sign of technique. When the “Big Data” evolved as a recounting measure in the form of information graphic, its journey of textuality began. In the logical relationship of “Big-data-image,” the accurate narrative of the information graphic became a marvelous spectacle in the culture of “image as the major cause,” whose visuality is practically not only a representation of the Object, but also a construction of the Subject. The visual representation and construction of information graphic should be a process which is gradually established on the correlation of data and “the real.” This process is not a purely technical proposition, nor a visual design, but a way of mining and understanding the data. Under the postmodern perspective, the “representation” lets the infographic practice visible and knowable, and the “construction” renders such a new medium form practicable and shapeable. The “representation” and “construction” are not two completely different “visual” ways. Only by combining both of them, can we deeply understand the “Big Data” in medium and infographics as a visual practice.