"I've been a scientist, so I look at graphs all the time, and I think they're beautiful," said Jenifer Wightman '02.

So Wightman, a researcher in crop and soil sciences with the eye of an artist, asked Cornell faculty and staff members to send her their own examples of "important, meaningful or remarkable charts, graphs, maps, diagrams or tables," and she is gathering the results into an ongoing collection on the theme of "visualizing meaning."

A small selection of the images, blown up to 6-feet-square or more, were on display during Reunion Weekend in the courtyard in front of the Mann Library addition.

"I want to create images that are bigger than you," Wightman explained. The exhibition is only a beginning, she said, and she has requested additional submissions through the summer from staff, students and faculty. Submission forms are available at a table near the Mann Library reference desk.

Most of the images she has collected are examples of how a visual representation can make information clearer and more meaningful than words or numbers alone. They include graphs of the relationship between climate change and population growth, a diagram showing how a wasp uses geometry to decide how many eggs to lay, and a scrawled notebook page with Mendeleev's first version of the periodic table of the elements.

"A painter uses color to resonate, and a scientist uses numbers," Wightman explained. "Both of those are mediated forms of information. I think it's a fascinating abstraction from the world to make these concrete representations that we can reflect upon."

She has named the project "Vector." In physical science, the word refers to something that has both magnitude and direction. In biology, it identifies the mechanism that carries something from place to place. "I like multiple definitions," Wightman says. "This information sort of moves through people."

Wightman mailed almost 2,000 formal invitations for submissions to faculty members. So far she has received about 80 responses.

The images collected, along with submission guidelines, are on the project Web page at http://martha.mannlib.cornell.edu/charts. The project is supported by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.