Visible Language

The article offers two approaches to the question of ‘invisible punctuation,’ theoretical and critical. The first is a taxonomy of modes of punctuational invisibility, identifying denial, repression, habituation, error and absence. Each is briefly discussed and some relations with technologies of reading are considered. The second considers paragraphing, or lack of it, in Sir Philip Sidney’s Apology for Poetry: one of the two early printed editions and at least one of the two MSS are monoparagraphic, a feature always silently eliminated by editors as a supposed carelessness. It is argued that this is improbable and that one form the Defence may have taken at Sidney’s hands (and those of his literary executors) was monoparagraphic, a matter affecting the tone, genre and the understanding of his argument. A short conclusion considers the current state of punctuational invisibility in relation to digital awareness.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

The essay presents a revised history of the punctuation mark [ “ ], drawn from the earliest communities who made it their own. By situating the development of [ “ ] in its historical context, from first uses of the diple [ > ] by the Greek scholar Aristarchus, it explains how it was the general applications which persisted into the sixteenth century and beyond, before the mark finally settled into its modern use to enclose quotations. While literary and bibliographical scholars have suggested that emphatic marking was primarily attached to rhetorical figures as sententia, it is shown that printed marks were used by authors to achieve a rich variety of semantic effects and by their readers to create personal editions.
Beginning with a modern comparison, the adoption of [ / ] as a new mark of punctuation for modern British drama, the essay explains how peculiarities in the deployment of [ “ ] in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts—including works as central to the literary canon as Shakespeare’s Hamlet—are situated at a transition point between a small or ‘privy’ group and what the Shakespeare folio called ‘the great variety of readers.’

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

At first sight the speech mark would seem to be one of the easiest to use of all punctuation marks. After all, all one has to do is take the piece of speech or written language and surround it with the appropriately shaped marks. But, are speech marks as easy to understand and use as suggested above, especially for young children beginning their punctuation careers? Some readers may well at this point be asking, ‘But what is a speech mark?’ It is a good question, firstly, because outside of the UK the term is hardly ever used and secondly, because the term is extremely recent. The speech mark is simply an alternative title for those punctuation marks used to frame speech or quotation in written language and it is the latest in a long line of terms used to name them.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

Communication is increasingly taking place through written messaging using online and mobile platforms such as email, instant messaging and text messaging. A number of scholars have considered whether these texts reflect spoken or written language, though less is known about the role of punctuation. In fact, it is commonly assumed that punctuation on such platforms is either random or absent. This study explores the nature of punctuation (including emoticons) in electronically-mediated communication by analyzing sets of focus group data from adolescents discussing text messaging and by assessing a corpus of text messages sent by university students. Some usage patterns are gender-based. More generally, there is evidence that young people are developing coherent strategies for how such marks should be used in messages created on new digital media.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

In a literary form such as the comic that combines images and text, punctuation is likely to play a specific role. From the comic’s invention at the beginning of the 19th century, creators like Töpffer or Doré played with punctuation, especially the expressive signs, imitating what was happening at the same time in numerous novels. The habit of overloading the images with exclamation and interrogation marks or dashes led progressively, however, to saturation during the golden age of superhero comics and therefore to a sort of punctuation crisis. There was increased questioning as to the ideological meaning of such signs: a rethinking of what punctuation meant. Nowadays graphic novelists tend to invent new uses for the signs, making language newly visible with interesting effects.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

This introduction to this special issue of Visible Language examines why, and in what circumstances, punctuation may become visible: when especially does it come into view and demand our attention? While punctuation marks are, of course, visible signs, when they are functioning according to our expectations (and sometimes even when defying them), they can be barely noticed. The essay begins with discussion of a passage from Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit in which a character’s punctuation is referred to. This serves as a starting point for identifying a number of questions raised by such visibility, matters that are developed further, and variously, by the essays that follow. These include: punctuation’s roles in articulating grammar and suggesting orality; what punctuation may tell us about views on education and literacy; defining punctuation; its historical visibility or invisibility; its variation according to technological change; and its iconic and figurative potential.

August 2011  ·  issue 45.1  ·  abstract permalink

Little historic context is generally provided regarding design phenomena; ideas, names, events and relationships are disregarded in design’s typical superficial coverage; it is as though design exists in a vacuum. This paper seeks to put Helvetica, the face, the font and the movie into context by exploring its relationship to Swiss Design philosophically and practically. The infiltration of Helvetica, the font, into American design practices is also explored, along with some variation on typographic education from both a formal and informal perspective.

December 2010  ·  issue 44.3  ·  abstract permalink

A Balance of Ergonomics and Style, Regulation and Power

This paper explains the historical development of analogue and digital speedometer dial designs using the linguistics theory base of pragmatics, which asks researchers to explain a visual design by describing its purpose as well as how its various visual features meet people’s needs, how people read dials and how people use dials to coordinate with one another or machines. The paper is useful for researchers interested in methodologies for studying the development of language-like visual communication, and for those interested in the history of information graphics, machine interfaces or speedometer dials in particular. A range of dial designs from the early 1900s to the current day are described and analyzed. In this paper, results show that drivers read speedometers to avoid fines, keep safe, change gears, set cruise control or record high speeds. Designs also, however, serve marketing and aesthetic purposes. Features of analogue displays are described with the paper concluding with a taxonomy of dial features. The entire system of speed containment could be improved since even with easy-to-read dials, drivers continue to speed. Dials that work with satellite systems to continually display the current speed limit may be the way of the future.

December 2010  ·  issue 44.3  ·  abstract permalink

This experiment investigated how two factors that relate to icon representations affected Taiwanese computer users. These were: alphabetic or non- alphabetic representations and cultural or standard imagery. Alphabetic representations are representations that show Chinese characters or English words/letters. Non-alphabetic representations are representations that show either concrete or abstract objects. Cultural imagery is imagery that uses ethnic depictions, often shown in a traditional manner. Standard imagery is imagery used in icons found in present software packages used internationally. Fifty-two Taiwanese citizens with a similar ability in English were shown a series of twenty-six icons on a computer screen along with a list of labels, and asked to match the labels with the icons. The results indicated that cultural elements, especially alphabetical cultural elements aided the recognition of icons by participants not familiar with computers.

December 2010  ·  issue 44.3  ·  abstract permalink

This investigation proposes the need for a paradigmatic shift in the production of formal and behavioral online information to accommodate the differing learning preferences of its audiences. Developments in the presentation of information itself and the management of its complexity have not progressed at the same rate as the technology that produces it. Psychologist David Kolb (1974) found that the combinations created by an individual’s perception and processing techniques form a unique learning style, which becomes the most preferred and comfortable way to process information for that individual. This project poses the question: In what ways can the redesign of online information presentations, formal and behavioral, support the different learning preferences of complex audiences? As a response I share my work-in-progress research into audience/online information interactions. It emphasizes the need to acknowledge that information must be flexible and customized to enhance meaningful experience for different learners.

December 2010  ·  issue 44.3  ·  abstract permalink

Organization and Communication in Immersive International Field Programs with Artisan Communities

Under the umbrella terms of “humanitarian design,” “social design” and “social responsibility,” educational institutions and specifically design programs are more and more searching for opportunities to engage their students in critical and hands-on learning via collaborations between students, faculty, communities in need and non-profit organizations. Such active learning is rich and meaningful for all parties involved, but the challenges are rarely discussed and yet compromise the collaborations’ sustainability and potential for activating local change and development. This article uses the first two years of “The New School Collaborates,” (TNSC) an ongoing project between The New School’s divisions of Parsons (design), Milano (non-profit management and urban development) and General Studies (international affairs) in New York, several external partners and groups of Mayan artisan women in Guatemala, as the central case study for the abovementioned type of work. Of particular interest is the central role that organization and communication play in immersive international field programs. This article argues that the key to a successful collaborative process includes a clear and transparent partnership upfront, with a clear understanding of the roles and opportunities for each organization involved and a communication infrastructure that is sensitive to participants’ skills and resources. The article refers to, and includes, documentation from specific experiences from two years of courses on campus as well as in Guatemala and the overall process and evaluation of this particular case. Of particular interest is a reflection on challenges faced and how an active and thoughtful analysis of them can lead to a more appropriate, and in the long-term more sustainable structure for this type of work.

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

The concept and use of the synchronous and asynchronous forms of virtual conferencing is central to the experience of global design education. Easy and ready access to people and information worldwide is at the heart of a paradigm shift in design practice and education, defined by collaboration and digital technology. The dream of smooth, global interaction via virtual conferencing rests on the concept of presence, namely, the ability for people to feel as though there are no barriers to their communication. The reality, however, is to encounter such things as dropped video or audio signals, rastered images and e-mail attachments that will not open because the sender and receiver have different versions of a software application. This paper explores the dissonance between the dreams and realities of virtual conferencing in global design education by discussing the idea of presence, examining the relationship between virtual conferencing and contemporary design practice and education, presenting the virtual conferencing experiences of three international student projects and addressing what we still need to know in order to best use such technology within the context of global design education. The paper concludes with comments about providing students with valuable international design experiences.

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

University art and design programs are branching out and creating cross-disciplinary programs and research centers that connect design students and faculty across various disciplines such as business, engineering, architecture, information studies, health sciences and education. A human-centered, problem-based approach to design research looks to position industry and academic leaders to work alongside students, community leaders, artists and non-profits to develop creative and innovative solutions to the challenges facing contemporary society. But, as these challenges become more global in scope, participatory design research and the Internet become critical tools in addressing cultural differences in visual and verbal messages. This paper looks at the role of social networking tools and participatory research in addressing cross-cultural and multicultural challenges. It addresses the question: Can the use of classroom collaboration, participatory design research and online critique and workspaces encourage creativity, innovation and critical thinking in student and professional designers?

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

Addressing Ethics and Stereotypes in Design Education

Graphic design’s messages can reach across streets and across the globe; they can bring together countries, communities and strangers for a common cause; they can also serve to divide otherwise amenable neighbors. Design students must fully understand this potential reach and thus the responsibility they have to create tolerant, informed messages. The need to understand how personal beliefs of race, religion, socio-economic class and other differences influence visual messages is an ethical component of the graphic designer’s professional duties. For if these differences and the potentially skewed perspectives are not recognized, then slippage between accurate and faulty messages will seep into graphic compositions. Sticks + Stones deliberately composes a highly diverse “classroom” of students in an effort for students to learn from each other as well as an erudite curriculum. Studies show that students who learn in a diverse curriculum not only gain a broader perspective and appreciation for other cultures, but they also develop better thinking skills. Sticks + Stones collaborators aim to propagate knowledgeable, culture-savvy future designers who have learned first-hand from an extraordinarily diverse group of peers about the insulting and potentially harmful effects of image misuse. The innovative curriculum requires ethnic profiling and stereotyping as well as reflection, conversation and collaborative design on the way to multicultural understanding.

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

Western historians working in the first half of the twentieth century established a scheme for writing design history that continues to influence the global histories of today. The historians Douglas McMurtrie, Lucien Febvre, Henri-Jean Martin and Lawrence Wroth believed that the modern history of visual communication began with the advent and spread of typographic printing in fifteenth-century Europe. Within their historical narratives, printing leaves Europe to reappear in other parts of the world as a benign instrument of cultural conversion. These scholars used their histories to assert the privileges of European expansion, and they viewed indigenous design as any form of communication technology practiced outside of Europe after the export of printing. They clung to the notion that American peoples were destined to develop cultural histories that duplicated the European historical trajectory. In their eyes, the history of print culture belonged to Europe, and their histories today read as attempts to silence the “strangeness” of non-Western cultural difference. In this article, I examine design histories of the Americas from the first three centuries of New World settlement and describe the ways that Western historians have misrepresented indigenous American cultures by suppressing local forms of visual language and communication technology. In opposition to the dominant strand of Western design historiography, I present evidence that local meanings and values migrated with the products that colonial administrators printed overseas for European audiences. I question the degree to which design historians of the Americas have positioned indigenous peoples as subordinate subjects of print culture rather than as agents of cultural difference and productive assimilation. The primary significance of this contribution to this special issue is to contest the worldview of graphic design history as a singular and unified field of representation, and to encourage greater engagement with indigenous design histories in the contemporary movement toward cross-cultural design research and collaboration.

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

Based on a virtual conference, Glide’08 (Global Interaction in Design Education), that brought international design scholars together online, this special issue expands on the topics of cross-cultural communication and design and the technological affordances that support such interaction. The author discusses the need for global interaction in design and its impact on design education and research. Authors in this issue are introduced.

May 2010  ·  issue 44.2  ·  abstract permalink

In closing, the guest editors of this Visible Language special series reflect on the failures identified in the various papers and interpret what this suggests for design education and research in the context of changing practice. The failures cited in this series point out the fractures in our understanding and practices from user-centered, digital, process-oriented, cultural, ethical and even safety-oriented perspectives. Three common themes are explored as context: theory, ethics and process. The need to update design education and identify research needs are discussed based on what the papers in this series suggest.

January 2010  ·  issue 44.1  ·  abstract permalink

Nakheel, a Dubai World Company has created the world’s largest themed mall based on the narrative of Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Muslim explorer whose world travels are well documented. The Ibn Battuta Mall is located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and utilizes a communication strategy called edutainment: a neo-logistic portmanteau whose goals are to educate and entertain an audience. Through the use of diffusion theory and its five innovation attributes, this paper recognizes that the architects and designers of the Ibn Battuta Mall have placed edutainment goals into the context of a mall expressing a predominantly Arab and Muslim identity. This paper argues that the mall has failed to achieve many of its educational goals and has replaced historical fact and authenticity in favor of expressing a message of opulence and social prestige, which defines the mall as a place of commerce rather than a stimulating learning environment.

January 2010  ·  issue 44.1  ·  abstract permalink

This study examines patterns of system failure (communication, typographic, material, economic, maintenance) and the resulting workarounds in signs that are intended to communicate frequently changing information in the built environment. The observed failures and workarounds in the communication of ephemeral data and the accompanying narratives in the everyday or vernacular expose a need for designers to expand their practice beyond the design of individual client-driven solutions to engage more fully in the design and distribution of open-ended systems and default templates that are affordable, accessible and successfully accommodate customization and ongoing change. Control of the scale, design and content of changing messages rests in ongoing negotiations with local zoning boards and more specifically in a revised relationship between designers and message senders in the context of evolving digital technologies and practices that offer message senders increased control over content appearance and display. The templates and defaults used in the everyday communication of frequently changing information are often driven by decisions made by sign manufacturers and programmers, resulting in communications that are built upon conventions that are often unexamined by message senders, who chose methods from a limited selection of manufactured options and increasingly enact template driven message sequences displayed on digital screens.

January 2010  ·  issue 44.1  ·  abstract permalink

An area of visual communication that might be classified as a ‘design failure’ is the visual presentation of information about ‘prescription-only medicines’ for patients. This information is provided on packaging, leaflets, brochures, labels and websites. The practical issue is that there are problems in convincing patients to take medicines appropriately and effectively. Some of the assumptions that underlie the development of visual information for patients could be incorrect. A visual rhetoric framework is applied to help this article answer two questions: Is the current visual information about medicines a ‘communication failure’ and can visual rhetoric be used as a framework to indicate failures? The results show that visual rhetoric can be used as a basis for describing communication failures, but it needs to be incorporated into a larger ‘visual argument’ structure. ‘Visual rhetoric’ should be augmented by ‘visual dialectic’ (dialogues between commissioner and designer, and interactions between patient and artifact) and ‘visual logic’ (fundamental visual relations). The analysis indicates that visual information about prescription-only medicines for patients is — in general – not optimal and can therefore be seen as a failure. Application of some of the visual rhetorical principles indicates possible ways forward.

January 2010  ·  issue 44.1  ·  abstract permalink