Jacques Bertin’s legacy and continuing impact for cartography

Jacques Bertin’s (1967) book with the original title Sémiologie Graphique was first published 1967 in Paris, translated to German (1974), then English (1983), and is currently in translation to Arabic. This work provided a seminal contribution to cartography and information visualization. It remains a widely cited work today and is the first of numerous works from Bertin with global impact. His concepts and analysis from this and other publications hold, 50 years later, a significance in cartography and scientific visualization and other graphical fields. The graphical variables, the best know contribution from the 1967 book, remain at the core of cartography. Other concepts from this book and his later books and publications, based above all on his hands-on cartographic modeling and his conceptual framework, retain significance.

Why consider Bertin’s Sémiologie Graphique after 50 years?

When cartographers, and for that matter, people working on graphic design, scientific visualization, and information visualization look for clear scientific principles of visual communication, Bertin’s contributions remain central. 50 years after the publication of Sémiologie Graphique, Bertin’s system of graphic variables and concepts for improving visual communication remain one of cartography’s central concepts with broad impacts in other fields. Since 1986 Sémiologie Graphique has been cited over 3,000 times (English translations) and over 1,700 times (French editions) according to data from Google Scholar (See the article by A. MacEachren in this special issue for further details). The 11 most cited publications of this group have been cited over 30,000 times. While Bertin’s work on graphic variables is undoubtedly seminal, the complexity and challenges of applying graphic variables and developing the related concepts to changes in media and technology have inspired additional research. In visual analytics and other fields, his underlying efficiency principle has taken on new influence beyond the original conceptual framework of matrix manipulation that he described. It has gone on to influence work with big data and modern scientific analytics.

In these 50 years, many things have changed – not just cartography and visualization. First, the production of paper-based products has altered completely, while new media emerged to provide access not fully imagined in 1967. We have vastly expanded access to data and information, the production of traditional paper-based media has radically changed, and different media dominate. Also, given the breadth of the associated formats and modes of distribution (e.g. viral cartography), cartographers can and should point out that many of Bertin’s concepts remain challenging for implementation and for production. This special issue directly engages a number of them. Beyond the reflection, the engagement with translation issues, and consideration of more complicated concepts from his publications, in this special issue current students and researchers in cartography and related fields from around the world also engage with his concepts based on contemporary approaches.

Some context for Bertin’s research contributions

The lucidity of Bertin’s seven graphic variables remains a crucial factor for their continued significance, but the timing of their publication and the development of his other concepts are additional reasons why they gained prominence and retained it. At the cusp of the information age, Bertin presented a framework for graphical work in science that handled information and graphics as transformable and re-orderable. His 1967 framework for the objective presentation of statistical data drew on structuralist semiotics going back to the original work of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913). Sémiologie Graphique was seen at the time in France as a watershed rejuvenation of the semiological project (Palsky & Robic, 1998). Bertin’s response, they explain, was to step back from this attention and focus on a more meaningful project, in his eyes developing his information processing theory and methods through practical application. Striving for results was the most significant contribution for him rather than theory. The attention that Sémiologie Graphique received in France through numerous reviews and soon afterward in English language research publications speaks to the significance and importance this work quickly received. Umberto Eco, for example, situated Bertin with the likes of Johannes Itten, Roland Barthes or Erwin Panofsky among semioticians of the twentieth century (Eco, 1979). The attention to Bertin’s book long preceded the publication of the English translation in the 16 years after its original publication in Paris.

By the time the University of Wisconsin Press published the English translation in 1983, Sémiologie Graphique was widely acknowledged as a foundational work among cartographers. However, it had already taken on some mythological characteristics due to the lack of an English translation, its iconoclastic mixture of conceptual presentations and practical orientation, and Bertin’s refusal to engage with significant theoretical changes. Its practical character remains strong in French writing about Bertin, notably in the innovations from Sémiologie infographique (see G. Palsky’s and L. Jegou’s articles in this special issue), which only slightly modifies Bertin’s theory and methods. The mythological character was enhanced practically for readers by the complicated terminology and organization of Sémiologie Graphique, maintained in the translation. As with all of his publications, his limited citations or engagements with other work continue to make situating Bertin’s work difficult in any terms except his own. The lack of a final section on typography in the English translation, essential to the practical communication aspirations of Bertin, further adds to these challenges (see R. Brath’s article in this special issue). The extensive use of figures and the lucidity of the seven visual variables make the concepts appear initially very comprehensible, but following specific details and their implementation remains an extremely challenging task (see T. Morita’s article in this special issue). Harvey and Losang (in this special issue) propose a reworking of Bertin’s information processing approach that tackles the further development of these concepts by Bertin.

In this light, a guiding concept for readers considering the contributions of this special issue would be to follow G. Palsky’s admonition that researchers avoid treating Sémiologie Graphique and any of its parts as dogma, but as a contribution in its own right to scientific research. The articles in the special issue provide many entry points in this sense for developing a continued scientific discussion of Bertin’s research.

Brief background to the special issue

The 2017 anniversary of Bertin’s 1967 publication provided an opportunity to consider how this work has aged, what issues and concepts researchers today take from his publications and how they develop them. Sara Fabrikant and Francis Harvey organized a track at the 2017 ICC in Washington DC. We issued a Call for Papers and contacted academics who had directly engaged Bertin’s contribution and provided important insights and innovations. At this conference, eight presentations engaged and reflected on his work and contributions, showed developments of his concepts, and presented related current research. Authors were invited to refine their papers for journal publication. Six papers that went through the CaGIS multiple-stage blind review process form the core of this special issue. To speak to the developments of the last 50 years, the special issue also includes three short papers from French researchers in cartography and visualization science. The overarching goal of this CaGIS special issue is to position Bertin’s work in connection to current research and scholarship and provide future researchers a reference point for considering Bertin’s influences. The special issue facilitates continued international exchange, which for language reasons has often been wanting, through the contributions of international researchers and its engagement with translation issues, a persistent theme in understanding Bertin’s contributions (see Dhieb’s article on these issues).

In summary, the special issue refreshes cartography’s engagements with Bertin’s contributions and complements these reflections with research that shows how Bertin’s work continues to be the basis for cartography, visual analytics, information sciences and other related fields in the 21st century.

Special issue digital supplement

Reflecting the international interest in Bertin’s concepts and seeking to assure the special issue is accessible and reaches diverse international issues, this special issue includes a digital supplement with the following contents:

• Supplementary material provided by special issue authors

• English language abstracts for all papers in the special issue

The special issue digital supplement is available here.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Sara Fabrikant for her help in getting this special issue project started, Katy Börner for related discussions during its inception at an IPAM meeting on scientific visualization, and the authors for their contributions and their diligence and timeliness during the peer-review process. The unsung heroes of the peer-review process are the anonymous reviewers, whose timely responses kept this issue on track. Special thanks go to the editor and editorial staff at CaGIS for their efforts and assistance to the contributors and myself during the review and production processes.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.