Re: The Alphabet vs the Goddess

[Wayne White <jewe -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM>]

Richard Matheosian wrote:

 

<snip>I've seen a huge increase in the amount and role of visual content since I've been reading and writing technical documents. Is this just because our tools are better, or is our audience changing as well?  ...RM<snip>

 

Since I'm new to the field and don't have the experience most of you do, I think I can qualify as audience. Comic strips use visual as an emotions prompter. However, when someone wants to know about the artist, they read. Words convey a mental picture that the brain uses to draw it's own picture. I think in this process our brain has to make a few notes and some of the information will be available for recall later. When I view a picture or illustration, my brain doesn't analyze it. I pass right over it. Comic books are for kids learning to read, books are for adults. When I use MS word or e-mail, I have to hold my pointer over the icons so the window will appear and tell me what the icon stands for. I have been using Windows for several years and I could have learned the icons by now but I hate icons. I first discovered I hated icons when the government started using them on the road signs. I always felt they had room on the sign to put "Don't Walk" and their icon instead of just their stupid drawing of an uplifted hand. I always thought an uplifted hand meant "HI".

 

The use of symbols or drawings can add color to the work but I don't think it adds any pertinent information. The Mayan hieroglyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphics were an evolutionary process to the written language. We got there. Are we going backwards to develop a language like Chinese where each symbol constitutes a picture word? Are icons progress or regress? Is technology taking us to realm of mathematical symbols like those used in calculus and differential equations instead of words? I hope not. I really like words, the right words convey the meaning much better than pictures. Pictures are stagnant, words soar.

 

Just my opinion.

Wayne White

jewe -at- mindspring -dot- com