ILLUSTRATING POLITICS:Beyond the clichésJohn Parkinson, Associate Professor of Public Policy

The situation

Politics textbooks, websites, lecture slides, brochures and banners all with the same visual material

... showing a limited idea of “politics”

Legislatures Guns Globes

But politics is more than that

Power and influence Institutions,

networks, governance, governmentality

Ideas, norms, values, beliefs

Macro political-economic structures and discourses

We undermine this broad conception by the limited visual cues we send

Problem:

How do we illustrate ideas like:

governance discourse power without resorting

to clichés or dull, lifeless images?

Painting

Pros Artists often already thinking in

conceptual terms Some good digital libraries online (eg,

the Tate)Cons Need to pay for the rights

and prices vary enormously

“Deliberation”

The Discussion (1959-60) by Renato Guttuso © DACS 2006; photo © Tate London 2005.

“Public space”

Hard to get it just right Only one person here Illustrates “space”... ...but not “public” so

well

Alcañiz (1961) by Tristram Hillier © Estate of Tristram Hillier 2010; photo © Tate London 2010.

Tips for using paintings

Go modern classical portraits and

landscapes don’t stand out less likely to get budget

approved Go for obscure artists rather

than household names more affordable!

Secure worldwide, all-format rights costs a little more, but worth

it

Photography

Pros Commission shots to get exactly what you want Lots of downloadable sources

some with free licenses eg, Creative Commons (Wikimedia); Flickr

Cons Free shots variable quality

not well-composed not well-lit or well-exposed poor resolution not attempting to illustrate a concept

Professional work can be expensive (eg, Getty Images)

“Control”

Surveillance cameras, Singapore. Photo by ‘Isderion’, licensed by Creative Commons 3.0

Barricades at Union Square, San Francisco © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons

“Sharing space”

‘Ricoloop’ at the Bern Street Music Festival 2007. Photo Philipp Zinniker, licensed by Creative Commons.

Mission district, San Francisco. Photo © Jack Simon, by permission.

Photography tips

It is not just about recording an event, it is illustrating an idea

Avoid “grip and grin” Pay a photographer

who understands lighting, composition, focus (!), etc

Give a sense of place, not just talking heads

US Department of the Army award ceremony. Photo public domain.

Other approaches

Cartoons Abstract

graphics Textual

design Graphs

Graph of the destruction of Napoleon’s Grande Armée

It takes time

What slows you down Permissions - essential and often

overlooked... but in my experience, very often granted Online archive searching

pictures rarely categorized according to our categories

But it is worth it more effective communication of what we

do better sales!

Further reading

Edward Tufte Beautiful Evidence (2006) The Visual Display of Quantitative

Information (2001) Envisioning Information (1991)