Spaciousness and Style: Finding Old Rhetoric in Data Visualizations

This article revisits Richard Weaver’s concept of spaciousness as a rhetorical effect and repositions it within contemporary visual rhetoric, particularly data visualizations. Although Weaver’s account of spaciousness is rooted in a political ideology that presumes shared cultural values, the concept offers a useful lens for understanding how style operates in visual communication. Drawing on the classical Ciceronian styles, this article argues that spaciousness functions as a visual analogue of the grand style, emphasizing abstraction rather than detail. Analyses of sparklines, cartographic maps, network visualizations, and metaphor-based displays show how plain style prioritizes instruction and transparency, grand style cultivates openness and shared meaning, and middle style modulates between visual scales through perceptual or interactive zooming. The article demonstrates how stylistic spaciousness in data visualization reinforces cultural assumptions about connectivity, complexity, and knowledge, offering a rhetorically grounded approach to studying visual style.