The History of Information: A blog by Chris Haughton

What inspired you to write this book?  

I'm an illustrator. I have been writing and illustrating picture books for the very young for the last 14 years. But actually i began working on this book 17 years ago. Long before I began work on my first picture book.

The idea came in 2006. UC Berkeley had announced that year they were putting all their undergraduate lectures online for free. They were the first university in the world to do this. I began to listen to some of them, psychology and philosophy and others but one course title stood out as I scrolled through: THE HISTORY OF INFORMATION. In the first lecture the lecturer asked the class a seemingly simple question: ‘Why is technology improving?’ After some discussion it became apparent none of the students could answer it satisfactorily. I was immediately hooked. The course was a history of ‘information technology’ but the lecturers took a wide view of the subject and considered drawing, writing and print as ‘information technologies’. It was a completely different way of looking at the world. Rather than presenting history as lists of kings and queens and events it asked why is it that we had kings and queens at all. And why then all of a sudden we abandoned them and shifted to democracies. They managed to explain so many seemingly unconnected things: why do traditional societies revere their elders, why do we practice ceremonies, why did so many of the worlds religions appear around the same time, why is society dominated by men. the rise of states, science, democracy, the idea of progress, the rise of the west, militarism, racism, fascism, consumerism, big tech, polarisation, AI. Each time the answer was the same: information technology. It was a revelation. It was so simple but explained the world so clearly. But it goes completely against the narrative we are told. Because it is so subversive it makes sense that much of it has been suppressed.

The thing that struck me the most is that this history is connected so closely to the history of graphic design, visual communication and media studies: all the subjects that I had studied. The history of information and the history of visual communication are the same history. So it makes sense to tell the story visually, something I was well-positioned to do. Immediately I knew I wanted to make a book. A history of graphics told through graphics.

I contacted the Berkeley course lecturers, Paul Duguid and Geoff Nunberg in 2009 and we began a correspondence over the last fifteen years. They very kindly gave me their reading lists and helped edit the material. Geoff sadly passed away in 2020 and so the book is dedicated to him.

How would you suggest primary teachers use this book?  

There are 10 chapters and each one is about an information technology. I would suggest if there is time to read it chapter by chapter and after each chapter have a discussion about it. As the chapter unfolds we see how the technology begins and how it develops, who ends up controlling it and what changes and effects it has on society. For example in the LANGUAGE chapter you could discuss how life would have been like if you could not write anything down. It’s a very interesting thought experiment. How would you remember things you needed to do. shopping lists for example. How would you know what day it is? how would you study if there were no books or writing? You begin to see that many of the things we take for granted become almost impossible without writing. There are some remnants of this oral culture that exist in our culture today. Can you think of others? Can you think of other songs or rhymes that help you to remember things? Each chapter begins with a quote. You could discuss the quote. Who wrote it? What were they trying to say?

If time is tighter you could this same exercise page by page. Each double page spreads is a concept related to the technology. So I would suggest reading the spread together and having a discussion about it.

What motivated you to begin a career in writing/illustrating?

I began as an illustrator and was looking for alternative outlets for my illustration. As an illustrator or graphic designer the vast majority of work is in design and illustration and I wasn’t interested in that sort of work. I did some work for activist groups and fair trade companies but I found that I was well suited to making picture books. I could use my illustrations to tell stories. The funny thing is I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in writing when I was in school. Languages and english were my two least favourite subjects. I was more or less the same in college although I was quite interested in the discussions during media studies lectures. It was only when I realised how powerful words could be when they were used in conjunction with illustration that writing sparked my interest. I got some jobs working with a copy-writer at a design agency and I was inspired when I saw him coming up with ideas. He seemed to be having far more fun doing his work than me or the art director. Creativity is infectious. I wanted to give it a go. Now I love writing. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing a story you have created being enjoyed or retold by young children.

What are the major influences in your work and how do you decide on your subjects?

I make picture books because I am interested in telling the story visually. I am interested in the visual communication part. I studied graphics and I approach the stories much as a graphic designer would, I try to be clear and deliberate. So I choose situations that tell a visual story, an owl falling from a tree, a crab exploring the sea. This non-fiction book is totally different from my picture books but in its approach and its subject it is actually very closely related. It is a kind of graphic history of graphics. We don't often think about it, but in fact graphic communication dominates all our lives. We get almost all our information through screens and printed material. Even communicating with our friends is now largely mediated by graphics. Likes, shares, retweets. So to understand our world today we have to understand graphics. It has always been like this. All throughout history graphics has led society. For thousands of years another form of graphical interface dominated society: writing: scripture. The church used written texts as a way to control society in much the same way as big tech today uses code to control information. Then newspapers came along. Then TV. All are graphics.  Our history is really a history of graphics. I think its an important overlooked story. A history of graphic design, told through graphic design.

Which books had a lasting impact on you as a child and why?

I'd have to say the most influential books on me were the DK fact books. I suppose because they were so visual and easy to digest. I was always drawn to them. It was those books that I most often borrowed from my local library. That is one of the reasons I wanted to make this book. I know I would have loved reading it as a child. But I liked all sorts. As a very young child I loved the Muppets on TV and was obsessed with ‘The Muppet Annual’ which was far beyond my age group but it had lots of Muppet pictures in it. I loved Roald Dahl. Charlotte’s Web I think was probably one of the things that stopped me eating meat but I wasn’t a huge reader. I only got into books in college and in the years when I went travelling after college.