It’s practically impossible to comprehend history without considering the numerous ways art has documented and influenced society’s development  and this through its various forms: art museum, visual art, street art and others. 

In different fields, such as culture, economy, education, and politics, art has been a powerful tool for people to manifest their opinions, tell their stories and register remarkable facts for generations to come. 

One of the main challenges when attempting to create parallels between major historical events and the artwork produced after them seems to be tracing an exact and objective chronological order of elements.

Many interesting methodologies to display a progressive series of facts and their relations to different cultural manifestations emerge from this obstacle. Among these methods, one of the most known and useful are timelines.

Timelines, understand this methodology

Timelines are visual representations of historical events’ chronological sequence and one of the most popular Data Visualization methods. Have you ever heard about it?

Data Visualization is a broader concept that embraces different techniques of presenting information graphically using visual resources to ease data comprehension.

In more recent times, Data Visualization tools have been broadly explored by technological, scientific, and corporate segments with the development of data analyses and business intelligence software programs. 

However, even though timelines may be built and exposed technological and interactively, this resource’s origin is antique, from the Enlightenment Period in the 18th century. 

During this revolutionary movement, intellectuals segmented the notion of history into distinct ages - Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and, now also, Contemporary Times - redefining history as a sequence of significant events.

This new perspective on how to perceive time and facts was so innovative that timelines are still now used in different contexts, from classrooms to professional environments, as a way of optimizing the presentation and analysis of relevant information, the connections between concomitant events and their future unfolding.

But what are, more precisely, the benefits that turned timelines into such a popular resource?

Why should information and history be presented in timelines?

The broad utilization of timelines in different contexts is due to the many benefits perceived by those who present and receive the displayed information.

Firstly, working with timelines is as dynamic as time itself. This tool allows easy editing and adding new dates and events as they happen, guaranteeing that the facts will remain updated.

The possibility of using icons, colors, and graphic elements is another benefit of creating timelines. Visual learners form a large part of the population, and this method may be the missing key ingredient for some people to finally understand the stories you are trying to tell.

Timelines are also excellent tools to synthesize, review, and memorize data. With so much to learn in so little time in this hectic world, it’s always interesting to find efficient ways of keeping in mind what you need to know.

Finally, big stories are full of small - but essential -  details, and timelines make it simple to see the big picture. A macro-view of a time period is fundamental to creating connections among all its parts and understanding how the facts are chained. 

This last benefit is especially interesting to expose how different fronts of human manifestation are related and have been mutually influencing one another throughout history, such as art and society.

Art in the daily life of society 

One of the main products of the interaction between people and the rest of society and its institutions is art, in its several manifestations. We write, build, sing, and dance as a form of bonding, expressing feelings, making a living, having our ideas and demands heard, and documenting our perspective of facts.

Art impacts both individuals and groups. Individually, art may be a way of expressing emotions and thoughts. As a means of socialization, culture is one of the standards of groups’ and nations’ identities, allowing people to celebrate and keep their history and traditions alive.

In education and economy, art has been receiving more acknowledgment as an attractive - and often enjoyable - alternative to learn new subjects or to build a career.

Mainly due to the increase in the number of ways of sharing and trading artistic content through digital means of communication, more people can learn about art, advertise their work, and hence move a significant part of what is known as the Creative Industry. 

Politically, art has been one of the most potent tools of popular manifestation. Investigating the works of art produced in a specific time is an assertive way of understanding the beliefs and demands of that moment’s population.

Now that we have already understood a little more about art, society, and timelines, the next step is learning how to mix them all.

Art, society and history: how to connect these concepts through timelines 

So far it has been made clear that one of the most efficient ways of understanding the connections between art and society is following their chronological sequence of events and also that the ideal method to do it is building a good timeline.

With a simple online search - or in previous posts from the blog - it is possible to find a series of good technological resources to create interactive timelines.

Some of the most often recommended platforms are TimeGlider, Timetoast, JS Timeline, Rememble, and Timelinefy - our personal favorite.

By the way, talking about Timelinefy, after all this conversation about art, society and history, what about taking a deeper look at some of the timelines about these subjects available on our website?

It’s very simple to do it and we can show you right away!

Timelinefy: explore and learn with the platform that allows you to create timelines  

Here on Timelinefy, you can create your own timelines about history, art, science, or any other topic of your interest.

Besides that, it’s also possible to explore content created and provided by great cultural institutions.

With our tools, it is easy to create interactive content connecting the facts distributed through the timelines and exploring many different aspects of the same story. 

You can also integrate your Spotify and Instagram accounts to the platform, which allows you to attach songs and playlists to the events or even create timelines with pictures from your own social media feed.

The Timelinefy is easy to understand and then registering is free. All you need to do is create an account or even register through an existing Facebook or Google one.

What is your first timeline going to be about?

Conclusion 

Art and history share an important common trait: both are fundamental elements for deep comprehension and critical analysis of society.

As much as assimilating and connecting a big amount of data from these two large and complex areas may seem like a challenge, it’s a fact that with all information organized chronologically in a good timeline you will surely understand everything.

And for that, you can count on us! Let’s make history together?