Shapes and Patterns in Visualizing Human Knowledge: Part 1: Origin From a Historical and Cognitive Perspective

Historical Draft

The visual metaphors meant for the expression of the structures of the world that surrounds us have been humanity companions for thousands of years. Manuel Lima in the Book of Circles (2017) attempts to apply the methodology of historical sciences to explain why people are so much accustomed to the graphical representations in the form of circles. He proves that the first round inscriptions are dated at around 40,000 years ago, when the ancient people carved round characters called Petroglyphs in the rocks. These are important pre-literary forms of symbols used in the Neolith. The Petroglyphs from the African Twyfelfontein preserved 212 of stone plates covered with different shapes, where the circle or spiral were the predominant elements. If we want to treat the contemporary methods of visualization as visual patterns, then we should investigate the historical role of curvilinear shapes used in the visualization processes. Lima states in his book that he tries to prove that “the data visualization is much older discipline than it appears to us today”. Although today we perceive it as a new and cutting-edge thing, trying to even assign this discipline the status of a new fourth scientific paradigm (Gray, 2007). However, a more detailed analysis will allow us to discover that the visualization of the structures of knowledge is closely linked with the form of language. Despite this, in the 21st century it must stand up to the new technological requirements, but it is rooted in the very distant past.