Isotype & Hands

After having come to the conclusion that to best illustrate (map, demonstrate, communicate, explain etc.) the process of learning and developing my skills and interests during the course, and to advocate the benefits of the experience, I would like to use the visual potency of the human hands and their capabilities, given their aptitude for doing stuff, I found a direction for the first of what should be a journey of research.

ISOTYPE:

Though Otto Neurath is often credited with its invention, the German Modernist artist Gerd Arntz is responsible for the development of 4000 of the easily recognisable symbol components of this visual language. Their collaboration resulted in a complete (as possible) set of pictograms for the Vienna Method of Pictoral Statistics, later renamed Isotype. Thanks to Paul J Lewi's Essay on Statistical Graphics, 2006, for a lot of citable material. Visual education of the masses. The idea that [large] numbers are represented by a series of identical pictoral signs. Each of them representing a defined quantity. They are intended as teaching pictures. Neurath conceived the idea of an international picture language. ISOTYPE is short for International System of Typographic Picture Education. Simplification & Stylisation. Map symbols? Ie. Ordnanace Survey? I love their little trees and tents and golf flags. Iconic.



Work influenced by this visual language would lend itself well to clean, monotonal techniques, such as screen and digital print, stencil or lino. Above image 5 shows Gerd Arntz's method of creation; the woodcut. This technique would be an unnecessarily lengthy and pricy process these days, but the outcome could be easily achieved with one of the aforementioned print techniques.

HAND LANGUAGE:

Sign languange. Communication of ideas through hand movements. Showing the function or operation of an object. Show how the human hands would interact with the thing. Tell a story? Finger puppets?

Sign language visual representations:

Other handy things:

And now I begin to think about how they drew palm-reading diagrams:


There is such delight in how archaic, mystical context skews with the image generation, producing something magical and evocative.

This has prompted a next batch of visual research; medieval manuscripts, tarot cards, art from other cultures created at the same time. Pre-Renaissance. There's a feel there that I want to see more.

At the moment I am torn between two opposing visual styles; the simple, clean, perfect, direct communication of Isotype, and the magical, embellished, naive splendour of early cultures. It's the difference between warm and cold. Should I opt for balance or contrast? I need to carefully consider technique and process alongside ongoing research.