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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 24/09/2026

In the newsletter: "Visualization as epistemic representation" openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/visualizat... Or: Building bridges between information design and the philosophy of science & scientific representation #dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics

A diagram depicting the cycle of epistemic representation. An object called the "vehicle" (a chart, for example) represents another object, called the "target" (for instance, a data set). The reader of the "vehicle" can make inferences about the vehicle itself, and later they can use those inferences to make inferences about the "target"

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 16/09/2026

One day, not far in the future, I'll create a workshop titled "Information Design for Philosophers" (this one comes from an otherwise excellent paper by G. Sanches de Oliveira: lnkd.in/e9emapSz)

A Venn diagram that shows two partially overlapping circles, each representing a philosophical perspective on how scientific models work. One is "representationalism", the other is "artifactualism", The area of overlap is "hybrid artifactualism". The diagram doesn't explain any of this. You have to read the entire caption to understand it.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 07/09/2026

Testing new waters: I'm working on my first philosophy paper. It'll try to begin a dialogue between visualization and the philosophy of scientific (epistemic) representation. Let's see where this crazy idea leads me...

Tentative title: Visualization as Epistemic Representation

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 16/08/2026

In early September we'll resume releasing courses through the Open Visualization Academy openvisualizationacademy.org Two of the new releases are already announced: @alyssafowers.bsky.social's amazing 'Visualizing Loss and Tragedy', and my own new elementary tutorial, 'Tidy Data, Tidy Infographics'.

Screenshots of the two upcoming courses announced in my post. They show the titles, author names, and two abstract illustrations based on their content

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 14/08/2026

DON'T MISS THIS ONE! The program for Computation + Journalism Symposium (C+J 2026) is live: www.cj2026.northwestern.edu/schedule/ You can register here (early registration is just $75!): www.cj2026.northwestern.edu/registration/ Chairs are @ndiakopoulos.bsky.social and @jeremygilbert.bsky.social

Photo of Northwestern University's campus with the dates of the Symposium on it: October 2nd and 3rd, 2026

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 06/08/2026

Este artigo fala algo relacionado con o video que estou gravando

The other question Suresh implicitly raises is: "How can you reconcile the failure of AI in the enterprise with the individual claims of skilled technologists who insist that AI is helping them do great work?" The answer is that these AI users are "centaurs" – experienced workers who are assisted by automation on terms that they set for themselves.
Thanks to their skill and experience, these workers possess discernment, the ability to tell good code from bad, and (more importantly) good uses of code-generation tools from bad. They demonstrate the adage that worker-driven automation improves quality, while capital-driven automation improves throughput.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 06/08/2026

I'm about to record a video lesson about AI in information/visualization design. I'll share the following heuristic. Does it make sense?

A personal heuristic about using AI in information design/ visualization: Consider using it…

A) If you can clearly envision your desired design and the decisions and process that would lead to it if you were using non-AI tools instead.

B) Even better: If you —alone or as part of a team with sufficient time and resources— could recreate that same design with non-AI tools.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 09/07/2026

One of my favorite tabletop games, 'Star Wars: Rebellion' (with its expansion 'Rise of the Rebellion'). A design masterpiece with immense replayability

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 25/05/2026

There's a lot (and I mean A LOT) to like in 'Magnifica Humanitas', the encyclical about technology and AI published today, but here's my favorite sentence: "Every design choice reflects a vision of humanity" www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

A photo of the Pope next to the cover of 'Magnifica Humanitas'

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 14/05/2026

I don't usually post photos of my dogs & cats; I'll make an exception with this one because it's hard to concentrate on work when she looks at you like this

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 14/05/2026

In the Open Visualization Academy newsletter, Melissa Strong reviews @nadiehbremer.com's 'Chart' openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/chart-by-n... #dataViz #infographics #dataVisualization

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 30/04/2026

One of the data-driven stories that @rodolfoalmd.nucleo.jor.br, @gilberto.codes and I developed for the European Union has won a Data Sonification award: www.sonificationawards.org/winners-2526 It's the fifth story of the series we designed: data.europa.eu/en/publicati...

A screenshot of the visualization. It looks like sound waves

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 30/04/2026

'Baltic Empires', one of the newest historical games by @gmtgames.bsky.social, looks incredible. The artwork, particularly the map design, is beautiful

Map of the Baltic style, drawn in a style that resembles historical maps from the time

A photo that shows all components of the game: Player aids, game board, and the manuals

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 20/04/2026

I got the kid a 3D printer and now we're both addicted to it.

The photo shows 3D-printed busts of Albert Camus, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 31/03/2026

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday found that laws banning asbestos in construction materials likely violate free speech". Exact same thing. Utter contemptible madness.

Screenshot of a news story saying that "The Supreme Court on Tuesday found that a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for gay and transgender minors likely violates free speech, the latest in a string of decisions by the high court rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ people and expanding the rights of the religious."

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 28/03/2026

Some pics from #noKings Coral Gables (Miami)

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 27/03/2026

I think I've found a title and subtitle for the next book...

Principled Design: A Philosophy of Chart Making

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 24/03/2026

I love the radical incongruity of my shelf decor

A photo showcasing two figures, a 3D printed portrait of Albert Camus and the dog-creature from the movie The Thing, by John Carpenter

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 12/03/2026

These quotes are from this nice piece about trust in visualization www.storybench.org/how-designer.... I see that the abyss between (at least) two ways of understanding chart making hasn't narrowed. I'm fine with that; after all, philosophically I'm a pluralist. I'll make just two comments 1/3

From the story:

For Tufte, the answer is uncompromising: “Maximize signal/content. No toy graphics.” His philosophy, developed over decades and multiple influential books, argues that credibility emerges from visual discipline. Graphics should approach “the pixel resolution of typography”—dense, restrained, stripped of decoration.

“Commercial designers have it wrong,” Tufte wrote in response to our questions. “High-resolution graphics usually have more clarity and more information.” In his view, the profusion of “story-telling” in data visualization is “intellectually impoverished,” failing to distinguish between truth and fiction the way advertising does.

It’s a philosophy rooted in deep skepticism of commercial media. Tufte points to advertising-saturated platforms as actively harmful to truth. By contrast, he praises large language models as “ad-free tools that try for truth,” describing them as vindication of his decades-long argument for concentration and clarity over entertainment.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 08/03/2026

I'm sure that I'm not the first to say this, but this hollow question, which is becoming increasingly common among Substack types, is the 'Russell's teapot' of our times.

Substacker Stephan Geering wrote "Challenge for those who are very confident that Claude isn't conscious: Explain how human consciousness works."

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 06/03/2026

In the Open Visualization Academy: NEW COURSE: The Craft of Building Stories with Data, by @chartwaali.bsky.social: openvisualizationacademy.org/courses/the-... Newsletter: Open Source Fuels the Future of Visualization (P.4 4) by Melissa Strong: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/how-open-s...

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 18/02/2026

In today's newsletter: • NEW FREE COURSE! 'Figma for Data Visualization' by @rodolfoalmd.nucleo.jor.br • New talk about the ethics of charts • New visualization with @nadiehbremer.com openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/new-ova-co... #dataviz #infographics #dataVisualization #dataJournalism

Abstract collage of images extracted from Rodolfo's course about Figma

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 11/02/2026

As someone who has thought a bit (and even done some research) about how to communicate confidence and uncertainty, I believe that this is not the reason why a portion of the public mistrusts science (www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...) The core reason is deliberate and widespread disinformation

Quote: "In recent years, I have grown increasingly concerned that public health has become too siloed, too dogmatic and too uncomfortable communicating uncertainty. I have seen colleagues on all sides digging in, becoming less willing to engage across disagreement or to acknowledge limits and trade-offs. That retreat may feel protective, but it ultimately undermines trust, both within science and with the public we serve."

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 30/01/2026

The Open Visualization Academy (OVA) IS LIVE! openvisualizationacademy.org Thread follows #dataViz #infographics #dataJournalism #dataVisualization

Screenshot of the OVA website, showing all courses

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 29/01/2026

The Open Visualization Academy launches TOMORROW MORNING (EST) openvisualizationacademy.org with 7 courses; we'll release 1-2 more/month beginning in February. Sneak peek at our website, designed by @vsueiro.bsky.social and Melissa Strong #dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 28/01/2026

I'm sometimes accused of “political bias" for statements I make in my books, and I'll admit it's 100% true: I'm politically biased in favor of empirical reality and reasoning. When too many lack such a bias, things like this happen: www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/h... #dataViz #infographics #dataJournalism

A CNN story with the title: "South Carolina measles outbreak is largest in US since measles was declared eliminated". The story includes a line graph showing cumulative cases of measles in the U.S. In 2023 and 2024, the lines are flat. The line for 2025 shows a steady increase, adding up to a total of 2,253 cases. The line for 2026, which counts only the first 28 days of January, is almost vertical: More than 500 cases in just one month

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 27/01/2026

The Open Visualization Academy launches on FRIDAY! openvisualizationacademy.org More information in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/the-open-v... #dataViz #dataVisualization #infographics #dataJournalism

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 26/01/2026

On Tuesday, February 3rd I'm giving a public talk at MIT www.csail.mit.edu/event/hci-se... To give you an idea of what I'll discuss, this is one of the slides. #dataViz #dataJournalism #infographics #dataVisualization

Photos of four people murdered by ICE in the past few months (Silverio Villegas, Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti) and a visualization by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Two pie charts compare the number of homeland security federal agents deployed in the city (3,000 personnel) to the the Twin Cities metro police forces (2,482 personnel)

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 04/12/2025

Headlines that make you lament the societal tragedy that probabilistic and statistical reasoning isn't a core class in journalism education

A Fortune headline that reads: "Scott Galloway got mostly B’s and C’s in high school, never studied for the SAT, and had to try twice to get into UCLA. Now he’s worth $150 million"

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 20/11/2025

The charts in Elliott's posts are 🔥

A scatter plot of 2000 voters's ideological leanings. X axis is economic policy and Y axis is social policy. There's correlation between those two axis, but there are more center-left and left voters than center-right

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 17/11/2025

The Computation+Journalism Symposium is less than a month away cplusj2025.com See the full agenda cplusj2025.com/agenda/ and register here events.miami.edu/event/cplusj... ($150 for professionals, $30 for students) #dataJournalism #dataViz #dataVisualization

Screenshot of the website, showing a hand interacting with a data visualization on a touchscreen

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 06/11/2025

Computation+Journalism 2025 is a month away (December 11-12); we're finishing the last details of the symposium: cplusj2025.com Here's the full agenda: cplusj2025.com/agenda/ Join us! You can register here ($150 for professionals, $30 for students): events.miami.edu/event/cplusj...

Screenshot of the symposium's website. It shows a hand interacting with a touch screen, and buttons to register and to see the agenda

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 05/11/2025

I saw this headline this morning, then noticed the author, and I haven't been able to stop chuckling

"Do Dumb Ideas Ever Die?" by Bret Stephens

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 05/11/2025

I'm reading S.A. Cosby's latest, 'King of Ashes'; this man has a gift for memorable sentences...

"We love our parents not because they are perfect but because they persevere despite their imperfections. We all fall short of grace, but the beauty lies in the attempt"

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 20/10/2025

The full agenda of the Computation+Journalism Symposium is online! Join us in Miami for two days (December 11-12) of great talks, workshops, panels, and paper presentations: cplusj2025.com/agenda Register here: events.miami.edu/event/cplusj...

Screenshot of the website, showing the dates (December 11-12) and the place (Miami)

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 27/09/2025

Thoughtful essay on the ethics of mapmaking by Sam Dresser psyche.co/ideas/what-m... "While we may frame big moral issues as absolutes, we need to acknowledge that we are constantly negotiating even with them"

A world map that illustrates the article

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 27/09/2025

This sounds like a video game I'd play: bloody-disgusting.com/video-games/...

The game sees you as wander through the Alps as Friedrich Nietzsche, haunted by the wind-scattered pages of your final manuscript. Your shadow has taken form, speaking to you with sarcastic provocation, mercilessly exposing your contradictions and suppressed thoughts. What begins as a journey through flowered meadows transforms into a nightmare of twisted realities and philosophical terror.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 25/09/2025

BIG NEWS! We've updated the website of the Open Visualization Academy, where you can see all its contributors: openvisualizationacademy.org This is the announcement in our newsletter: openvisualizationacademy.beehiiv.com/p/we-re-back... #dataViz #infographics #dataJournalism #dataVis 📊 1/x

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 05/09/2025

I'm reading my father's latest book (only available in Spanish consorcioeditorial.com/es/articles/...) and it's full of hand-drawn explanatory infographics; I guess that there's something genetic in certain propensities...

Two black-and-white infographics explaining sailing and global warming, respectively

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 03/09/2025

Here are our Computation+Journalism (Dec. 11-12, Miami) keynote speakers: Homa Hosseinmardi (U.S), Yevheniia Drozdova (Ukraine),S Attila Bátorfy (Hungary) cplusj2025.com/speakers/ Full schedule coming soon. Register here: events.miami.edu/event/cplusj... #dataJournalism #dataViz #dataVisualization

Screenshot of the website with photos of the three keynotes

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 26/08/2025

The Computation+Journalism Symposium will take place on December 11-12 at the University of Miami. Join us: cplusj2025.com The deadline to submit a talk, workshop, or panel is September 7th: cplusj2025.com/submissions/ We've already announced several speakers. More coming soon!

Screenshot of the C+J website, including the dates, December 11 and 12, and the two keynotes, Attila Batorfy and Homa Hosseinmardi

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 20/08/2025

What this article describes is *unequivocally* extortion, so writing “Critics call it...” is disinformation, plain and simple: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/u...

Title and subtitle form a New York Times story: Trump Wants Universities to Show Him the Money, or No Deal
President Trump has personally stipulated that hefty financial penalties be part of agreements his administration is negotiating with the elite universities. Critics call it extortion.

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 11/08/2025

A president with a straightforward autocratic agenda is deploying troops in the nation's capital for no good reason. Our news media has made the deliberate choice to cover this as business as usual while refusing to use plain language to explain how dangerous our current moment is.

A Washington Post headline: Trump readies federal moves on D.C. crime, takes over D.C. police

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 04/08/2025

Big news: The archive of my old weblog, The Functional Art, is back online: www.thefunctionalart.com The blog won't be updated anymore, though. In the next 2-3 weeks I'll share some news about resuming the newsletter of my upcoming big project: openvisualizationacademy.org #dataViz #dataVis 📊

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Alberto Cairo @albertocairo.com · 29/07/2025

The deadline to propose a session/workshop/panel/paper for the Computation + Journalism symposium cplusj2025.com is Sep. 7 cplusj2025.com/submissions/ If accepted, registration will be waived and we can offer a stipend to help with travel expenses. To submit: cplusj2025.com/submissions/

A screenshot of the conference website. It shows a person interacting with a data visualization

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