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  • Ernst Müller, Falko Schmieder

    Begriffsgeschichte zur Einführung

  • Bädicker, Klaus

    Sofort Abreissen! 1984 - 1994. Von der Wohnungsmisere in…

  • Butler, Judith

    Die Macht der Gewaltlosigkeit - Über das Ethische im…

  • Gerald Siegmund

    Theater- und Tanzperformance zur Einführung

  • Veronika Kracher

    Incels. Geschichte, Sprache und Ideologie eines Online-Kults

  • Susanne Kaiser

    Politische Männlichkeit. Wie Incels, Fundamentalisten und…

  • Vereinigung der Landesdenkmalpfleger (…

    wohnen 60 70 80. Junge Denkmäler in Deutschland

  • Beckh, Ruiz-Funes, Ludwig et al. (Hg.)

    Candela, Isler, Müther. Positions on Shell Construction

  • Marius Töpfer, Rebecca Wall

    Everyday Urban Design 6. Planung als Vektor, Skript und…

  • Alexandre Gaiser Fernandes

    Everyday Urban Design 5. Everyday State of Emergency. The…

  • Erin Manning

    For a Pragmatics of the Useless (Thought in the Act)

  • Christine Hannemann, Karin Hauser (Hg.)

    Zusammenhalt braucht Räume. Wohnen integriert

  • Studio Michael Beutler (ed.)

    Michael Beutler. Things in Slices

  • Florian Ebner, Susanne Gaensheimer,…

    Hito Steyerl. I will Survive

  • Johannes Hossfeld Etyang, Joyce Nyairo…

    Ten Cities. Clubbing in Nairobi, Cairo, Kyiv,​ Johannesburg…

  • Eva Maria Froschauer, Werner Lorenz,…

    Vom Wert des Weiterbauens. Konstruktive Lösungen und…

  • Christoph Lueder

    Diagrams: Tropes, Tools, Abstract Machines

  • Julia Bee, Nicole Kandioler (Hg)

    Differenzen und Affirmationen. queer/feministische…

  • Christian Gänshirt

    Werkzeuge für Ideen. Einführung ins architektonische…

  • Helge Oder

    Entwerferische Dinge: Neue Ansätze integrativer Gestaltung…

  • Mette Marie Kallehauge, Lærke Rydal…

    Anupama Kundoo (The Architect’s Studio)

  • Helen Hester

    Xenofeminismus

  • Benjamin H. Bratton, Nicolay Boyadjiev…

    The New Normal

  • Jack Halberstam

    Wild Things. The Disorder of Desire

  • The Care Collective

    Care Manifesto. The Politics of Interdependence

  • Oliver Sukrow

    Arbeit. Wohnen. Computer. Zur Utopie in der bildenden Kunst…

  • Andreas Malm

    Klima|x

  • LAN – Benoit Jallon, Umberto Napolitano…

    Napoli Super Modern

  • Mari Laanemets (Ed.)

    Abstraction as an Open Experiment

  • Dorothee Brantz, Avi Sharma (Eds.)

    Urban Resilience in a Global Context. Actors, Narratives,…

  • Eva Barois De Caevel, Koyo Kouoh, Mika…

    On Art History in Africa. Condition Report

  • Amy Sillman

    Faux Pas. Selected Writings and Drawings (Expanded Edition)

  • Richard Zemp

    Bauen als freie Arbeit. Lina Bo Bardi und die Grupo…

  • Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Arnd Wedemeyer

    Weathering. Ecologies of Exposure

  • Luke Wood, Brad Haylock

    One and many mirrors: perspectives on graphic design…

  • John Darlington

    Fake Heritage. Why We Rebuild Monuments

  • Gerhard Steixner, Maria Welzig (Hg)

    Luxus für alle. Meilensteine im europäischen…

  • Rafael Horzon

    Das Neue Buch

  • Sebastian Schels, Olaf Unverzart

    ÉTÉ

  • IDEA Magazine

    IDEA 391. Alternative Reality Design and imagination in…

  • Markus Ritter

    Der Reiz der Vögel seit 1870

  • Daniel Rubinstein

    Fotografie nach der Philosophie. Repräsentationsdämmerung

  • Legacy Russell

    Glitch Feminism. A Manifesto

  • Georg Seeßlen

    Coronakontrolle, oder: Nach der Krise ist vor der…

  • Sasha Geffen

    Glitter Up the Dark. How Pop Music Broke the Binary

  • Iris Därmann

    Undienlichkeit. Gewaltgeschichte und politische Philosophie

  • Ludger Schwarte

    Denken in Farbe. Zur Epistemologie des Malens

  • Isabell Otto

    Prozess und Zeitordnung. Temporalität unter der Bedingung…

  • Alejandro de la Sota

    In Defence of a Logical Architecture and Other Essays. 2G…

  • Bruno Latour

    Der Berliner Schlüssel

  • Mark W. Rectanus

    Museums Inside Out. Artist Collaborations and New…

  • William O. Gardner

    The Metabolist Imagination. Visions of the City in Postwar…

  • McKenzie Wark

    Sensoria. Thinkers for the Twenty-first Century

  • Maria Isserlis (Hg)

    Nadira Husain

  • Sheila Williams (ed.)

    Entanglements. Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and…

  • Maria Hlavajova, Sven Lutticken (Hg)

    Deserting from the Culture Wars

  • Brandon LaBelle (Ed.)

    Dirty Ear Report #3

  • José Esteban Muñoz (ed. by Joshua…

    The Sense of Brown (Perverse Modernities Series)

  • Jean-Paul Martinon

    Curating as Ethics (Thinking Theory Series)

  • Chris Ingraham

    Gestures of Concern (Cultural Politics Series)

  • Harmony Bench

    Perpetual Motion. Dance, Digital Cultures, and the Common

  • Suad Garayeva-Maleki, Heike Munder (Eds…

    Potential Worlds. Planetary Memories & Eco-Fictions

  • ETH Zurich, MAS Urban Design

    Migrant Marseille. Architectures Of Social Segregation And…

  • Antony Radford, Amit Srivastava, Selen…

    Elemente der modernen Architektur. Analyse zeitgenössischer…

  • Kirsten Otto

    Berlins verschwundene Denkmäler. Eine Verlustanalyse von…

  • Howard Eiland, Michael W. Jennings

    Walter Benjamin. Eine Biographie

  • Per Leo

    Der Wille zum Wesen. Weltanschauungskultur,…

  • Lukas Feireiss,Tatjana Schneider,…

    Living the City. Von Städten, Menschen und Geschichten

  • Joanna Zielińska (ed.)

    Performance Works

  • Kirsten Wagner, Marie-Christin Kajewski…

    Architekturen in Fotografie und Film. Modell, Montage,…

  • Christa Kamleithner

    Ströme und Zonen. Eine Genealogie der "funktionalen…

  • T.J. Demos

    Beyond the World's End. Arts of Living at the Crossing

  • Elvia Wilk

    Oval

  • Brian Dillon

    Suppose a Sentence

  • Panos Louridas

    Algorithms

  • Michael Schrage

    Recommendation Engines

  • Hans-Christian Dany

    Ode to Routine

  • Mieke Gerritzen, Geert Lovink

    Made in China, Designed in California, Criticised in Europe…

  • Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art

    Rethinking Cosmopolitanism. Africa in Europe, Europe in…

  • Julia Popova

    How many female type designers do you know? I know many and…

  • Hannah Wehrle, Jonas Wehrle, Klaus…

    Geht doch! Ein Buch über bezahlbares Wohnen

  • Barkow Leibinger

    Revolutions of Choice

  • Silvio Lorusso, Pia Pol, Miriam Rasch (…

    Here and Now? Explorations in Urgent Publishing

  • Jeffrey Hogrefe and Scott Ruff with…

    In Search of African American Space. Redressing Racism

  • Gabu Heindl

    Stadtkonflikte. Radikale Demokratie in Architektur und…

  • Klaus Jan Philipp

    Architektur - gezeichnet: Vom Mittelalter bis heute

  • Quang Truong

    Composite Architecture. Building and Design with Carbon…

  • Yvonne Rainer

    Revisions. Essays by Apollo Musagète, Yvonne Rainer, and…

  • Geert Lovink, Andreas Treske (Hg)

    Video Vortex Reader III: Inside the YouTube Decade. INC…

  • Andrés Jaque / Office for Political…

    Superpowers of Scale

  • Christopher Dell

    Das Arbeitende Konzert / The Working Concert

  • Sandra Schäfer

    Moments of Rupture. Spaces, Militancy & Film

  • Linda Lackner

    Belgrads radikale Ränder

  • Uta Hassler

    Bauen und Erhalten. Eine Einführung

  • Vít Havránek, Tereza Stejskalová (Eds.)

    Come Closer: The Biennale Reader

  • Jeanne Gerrity, Anthony Huberman (Eds.)

    Where are the tiny revolts? (A Series of Open Questions,…

  • Hilde Heynen

    Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. Kritikerin der Moderne

  • Lisette Smits (Ed.)

    Master of Voice

IDEA 405. Sneaking a Look. Cross Sections, Floor Plans & Exploded Diagrams: Visualizing the Invisible

Direction by Idea 
Design by LABORATORIES (Kensaku Kato, Sae Kamata)

Visual representations depicting the inside of cities and structures that human eyes cannot normally see have a mysterious allure that captures the imagination of the viewer, including structural drawings and floor plans depicting the framework of buildings, cross- sectional views of subways and sewers crawling underground in huge cities, and bird’s-eye views of production lines inside closed factories. The illustrations in thepicture books, which depict exploded views of vehicles and machines, human anatomy, and the contents of vegetables and plants, attract many children. Bird’s eye views of the city and house floor plans also serve as visual devices that engage adults’ memories and imaginations.
 
Seeing or drawing invisible objects is one of the fundamental human desires. When and how did illustrations, such as cross sections and bird’s eye views, come into existence? Its origins can be traced, for example, to the cave paintings left by Aborigines in prehistoric Australia (known as “x-rays,” paintings of animals and fish with transparent bones and organs). As time progressed, many cross- sectional representations were used in medicine and engineering to explain the inner workings. Some of them, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings of the human anatomy, went beyond their original use and reached the realm of art. Furthermore, from the latter half of the 19th century to the 20th century, with the spread of printing technology, people in Europe and the United States became familiar with cutaway or cross-section illustrations for newspapers and magazines. During the Great War in the 20th century, many cutaway illustrations of modern fighter jets, tanks, and battleships were drawn in Japanese children’s science magazines and comics.
 
In Japanese visual culture, which has a long history of grasping space with a perspective that differs from the realistic pictorial representation of the West, such as suiboku-ga (ink painting) and ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints), illustration seems to be familiar as a method of expressing lyricism and ambiguity rather than a functional one. We might say it is an intermediate expression, neither written nor painted. This may be due in part to the influence of the“Heta-uma” illustrations (designating a work poorly drawn, but with an aesthetically conscious quality)by artists such as Teruhiko Yumura and Kotobuki Shiriagari, which became popular in the field of commercial illustration in the 1980s.
 
On the other hand, “infographics” and “data visualization” in the field of graphic design play a functional role in explaining things through diagrams, a role that illustration has not played in Japanese visual culture. But we have a concern that the rise of computer graphics and the tendency of people to place an excessive priority on “comprehensibility” in recent years have led to the uniformity of expressions. What kind of expression is it that sublimates the rich expression that illustration has fostered and connects both illustration and design?
 
In this special issue, we explore the “visual representation,” that is graphics, regardless of field. The eight artists of all times and places we feature in this special issue are from different backgrounds, some as illustrators and others as architects and game-graphers. They all focus on depicting the “inside of things” and continue to produce eye- catching works using expressions such as cross-sectional drawings and floor plans. We will also introduce the work of authors who are fascinated by drawing the invisible, such as spatial expressions in picture books and illustrations in the areas of maps and architecture in our contributions and small features in the latter half of the special issue. We hope that many readers will encounter new discoveries and excitement through their perspective.


IDEA Magazine
IDEA 405. Sneaking a Look. Cross Sections, Floor Plans & Exploded Diagrams: Visualizing the Invisible
Seibundo Shinkosha, 2024, IDEA395 2024.03