I did a search and didn't see this diaried - the original article came from the WSJ. An unusual map of Iraq that became a touchstone for online pundits of opposite stripes this summer wasn't the product of some orbiting satellite or military analyst. It was, instead, a homework assignment....
Tim Klimowicz, a young graphic designer from Queens, considered the overwhelming media coverage of the Iraq war a problem of information design. He thought the daily and nearly instant updates were obscuring the real story and sought to create an accurate, objective and penetrating account -- while avoiding the politics surrounding the war.
Mr. Klimowicz focused on the growing toll of coalition soldiers killed -- a number that already seemed to stand out in the din.
His solution is simple and eloquent: An animated map of Iraq that marks the death of each soldier from the U.S.-led coalition with a small dot, placing the toll of warfare in both time and space. The time-lapse animation runs at ten frames per second, with each day assigned its own frame.
Fatalities first flash onto the map as momentary red blossoms, which quickly subside until only a dark dot remains on the approximate geographic location of the deadly incident. Accompanying the spartan visual effect is an audible "click" sound, with louder clicks and deeper red flashes marking incidents that claimed multiple lives.
"I did this project because the numbers didn't mean much," he explains.
The animation runs one minute and 35 seconds, stopping for the moment on August 14, 2005. Mr. Klimowicz plans to update his creation regularly: "If it goes on for a decade, I'll keep at it," he says. "I'm sincere about it."...