Humanizing data through ‘data comics’: An introduction to graphic medicine and graphic social science

Abstract

In recent years data visualization scholars and practitioners have drawn attention to the need for data to be humanized. In addition to making complex information more coherent, visualizations can work to incorporate empathy and help audiences connect to information. Addressing this call for humanizing data visualization, this chapter considers the emergent area of ‘data comics’, looking at how the new fields of graphic medicine and graphic social science deal with numeric data. We examine recent data comics from graphic medicine and graphic social science that exemplify the complexities and potential of presenting data in humanizing ways. Our discussion is framed around what we call the EMA framework, considering the Epistemic (knowledge and perspective), Methodological (ways of working), and Aesthetic (practices of representation).