Origins of infographic thinking in the 19th-century Chile

• Main Author: Gonzalo Morales Rojas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de Chile 2018-06-01
• Series: RChD: Creación y Pensamiento
• Online Access: https://rchd.uchile.cl/index.php/RChDCP/article/view/50298

The present proposal is an investigation about the history of the infographics in Chile linked to the development of the educational field, the industry and the press in the country. The corpus consists of images present in printed graphic media such as books, magazines, brochures and newspapers published during the second half of the 19th century. Through a qualitative methodology, the content examination was carried out in documentary sources belonging to libraries and personal archives, as well as interviews and material acquired in antique shops and street markets. According to the research, info-graphic representations have been shown moderately since the beginning of the publishing industry and have progressively increased their national presence based on political, technological and cultural factors. Given that the term infographic did not exist during the period, the relationship between the images researched is defined not by a disciplinary affiliation but by its visualization strategies similarities. Although these first initiatives were carried out in isolation, they constituted a first reference panorama for explanatory illustrations production in the country, which had not been systematically documented.