“History is not the past; it’s the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” —James Baldwin

Human beings have been involved in the visual representation of information for thousands of years. While some books on Data Visualization go as far back as the 18th century, to what's considered to be the golden age of information graphics, the history of the practice is much deeper. The participants on this panel have spent years exploring key characters and major contributions to the field of Data Visualization over many centuries. We will be discussing ancient visual metaphors, the challenges of doing research in this area, what we can learn from the past, and many other topics. Please join us for a lively conversation followed by a QA session.

Manuel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, TED Speaker, and Design Lead at Google. He is a mentor, educator, and author of 3 bestseller books, including Visual Complexity and The Book of Trees. His latest, The Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge (2017), covers 1,000 years of humanity's long-lasting obsession with all things circular.

Michael Friendly is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and Professor of Psychology at York University. His current research work includes the development of graphical methods for data visualization, and the history of data visualization. In the latter, he directs the Milestones Project, a comprehensive catalog and database of the principal developments in the histories of thematic cartography, statistical graphics and data visualization. His current book, to be published by Harvard University Press in 2020, is titled, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication.

Sandra Rendgen is Head of Design at Berlin-based visualization studio Infographics Group. She is the author of several books about data visualization and the history of information graphics, most recently The Minard System and History of Information Graphics. Prior to joining Infographics Group, she worked as an independent author, concept developer and strategic consultant with a focus on data visualization, interactive media and the history of infographics.

A conversation on historical data visualization