Edward Tufte is still turning heads with his mind-blowing ways of displaying information and knowledge through images. This collection of works is the intersection of all reductionist science and art.
Introduction
Edmund Tufte is an artist and data scientist best known for his work with information design. To understand how important his work is, you have to understand how much he's influenced the world of art and science. He's helped artists see the beauty in data, created a new way to look at charts, and shown us all that it's possible to teach complicated subjects through simple methods. If you're not familiar with his work, start here—and then go deeper!
Although he is known for his work as an artist, he's also a data scientist.
Edmund Tufte is a data scientist and an artist. He's also a futurist, statistician, and mathematician. In fact, he has multiple degrees from Yale University in mathematics and political science. He kept his options open by taking up art in high school as a way to explore other areas of study that weren't available to him at the time.
Tufte is famous for his cutting-edge analysis of data, but he's also an accomplished painter. He's interested in using the two fields to inform one another and has been doing so since he first began working as an artist.
He transforms data into beauty.
Edmund Tufte is a professor, statistician, and artist. He’s also a consultant and writer.
His work focuses on information visualization and data analysis—he applies his expertise in statistical theory to creating beautiful representations of data that enable people to see patterns within large masses of information.
He’s also a speaker and leader. Tufte is a mentor to many young people who want to learn more about his work in the field of data visualization, and he teaches them how to create their own visualizations based on data sets they've collected.
He's done some interesting projects.
He has written many books, including The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative, Beautiful Evidence,Visual Business Intelligence 2.0: Data Visualization with Excel and Power BI. He has been professor at Yale University (1974–2001), Stanford University (2001–2005), Princeton University (2006) and the University of Virginia (2006–2009). He also holds several honorary positions such as being a member of the board at Apple Inc., member of the board at Zillow Group Inc., member of the board at Tableau Software Inc., member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1994 and president since 2004....
He's a renegade in his field.
Tufte is a renegade in his field. He has his own way of doing things, and he's not afraid to challenge the status quo. Tufte doesn’t just want to be right; he wants to be right about what really matters.
He’s not afraid to be controversial, either: "The data isn't going anywhere," says Tufte, who advocates for more attention on how we present statistical information visually rather than relying solely on numbers and percentages.
Tufte lives in the minds of many artists and scientists.
Tufte’s influence is felt most strongly by the data science community. But he has also impacted the art world with his work, which often explores how we interpret data through visual displays.
Tufte has vision issues, but that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his passion for teaching others about data and visual perception. He teaches classes at Yale University and Stanford University in addition to writing books on the subject of information design (like The Visual Display of Quantitative Information).
Conclusion
Tufte lives in the minds of many artists and scientists. His work has influenced the way we look at data and art, which is why he's so important to this field.
