Articulation of language through transformation via design : historical, technological and user contexts

Černe Oven, Petra (author)

In this text, we explore how the transformation of language from the audible sound to the visual form representing these voices takes place. For that reason, we cannot ignore the context of language, despite the fact that language is too often left out of the discussion in the design profession. We will be interested in whether the articulation of lan-guage is really always natural and to what extent it is successful. The text presents some concepts of verbal graphic language, its components and expressive possibilities, and we also discuss the elements of artic-ulation and configuration of language. The article discusses the influ-ences that can be defined in the transition from the spoken word (or thought) to the visual. The most basic ones are technology and means of production; conventions, regulations and rules; and the purpose and context of the message. Since the articulation of a text that communi-cates content to a specific target group is not necessarily a professional activity, in the last part of the paper we try to analyze what is »natural« based on a sample of simple informal vernacular messages collected between years 2010 and 2021, which all have a common objective, start-ing point, target group and method of distribution. We are interested in whether there are common objective parameters by which people transform verbal messages into visual documents. One of the conclu-sions points to the fact that lay people take advantage of a very small part of the possibilities offered by the visualization of language; most often they communicate »naturally« and use instinct. They take advan-tage of the technology at hand and use only a few of the most basic var-iables of verbal graphic language. Although we live in a world oversatu-rated with visual images, the level of visual literacy is not increasing. Due to the importance of the visual in the modern world, the text appeals for better and systematic visual education of all, not only professional designers, based on theoretical insights at the intersection of linguistics and typography and other disciplines involved in the process of trans-forming language into visual form.

• Language: English
• Keywords: transformation, graphic language, "natural" in communication, typography, vernacular
• Typology: 1.16 - Independent Scientific Component Part or a Chapter in a Monograph
• Organization: ALUO - Academy of Fine Arts and Design; FF - Faculty of Arts; AGRFT - Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 113-137
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-148443
• UDC: 766:7.01
• COBISS.SI-ID: 147515907
• Publication date in RUL: 23.08.2023

Record is a part of a monograph

• Title: Art between practice and theory : theoretical reflections on artistic reality on the threshold of the third millennium
• Editors: Jožef Muhovič
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: University of Ljubljana Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN: 978-961-297-084-0
• COBISS.SI-ID: 143807491

Licences

• License: CC BY-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
• Description: This Creative Commons license is very similar to the regular Attribution license, but requires the release of all derivative works under this same license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: transformacija, grafični jezik, "naravno" v komunikaciji, tipografija, vernakularno