This experiment (below) by graduate student Pedro Miguel Cruz shows the decline of Maritime empires during the 19th and 20th centuries .

Pedro explains:

I donâ€™t wanna call this small experiment of information visualization neither information art. Either way sounds too pretentious – as the visuals are not very sophisticated or elegant, and the way that the information is treated doesnâ€™t enable the extraction of advanced knowledge. Although, it works very well as a ludic narrative. I ultimately found it very joyful.

So sit back and enjoy. It’s fun to watch.

Let’s for a second consider an alternative to view this data more analytically for some more insight and what not. I’m thinking an area graph ala Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg’s History Flow for Wikipedia dynamics could be interesting. What do you think?