Computers and Design Author(s): Muriel Cooper Source: Design Quarterly, No. 142, Computers and Design (1989), pp. 1+4-31 Published by: Walker Art Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4091189 Accessed: 17-10-2016 06:32 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Walker Art Center is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Design Quarterly This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DQ 142 Muriel Cooper Computers and Design The New Graphic Languages 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory 18 Visible Language Workshop 22 This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Today's personal computer is a continued to be added to the functional tool that mimics old printed page by hand, emulating tools. But the next generation of the methods of the monastery. graphic computers will permit the Since the industrial revolution, merging of previously separate the expanding tools of the print professional tools; at the same and broadcast technologies have time, powerful networking, made the broad dissemination of increased bandwidth* and process- information possible. A rich and ing capabilities will make the overlapping array of related design transition from print to electronic and communication fields evolved communication the basis of a vast and matured rapidly in response to industry. The primary interaction mass communication needs. of electronic communication These included graphic and environments will be visual. typographic design, illustration, Traditional graphic design skills photography, multi-image design, will continue to be important for exhibition and interior design, The New Graphic Languages display and presentation, but a industrial, and environmental new interdisciplinary profession, design. While the conventions and whose practitioners will be adept performance of each often over- in the integration of static and lapped, they also depended in dynamic words and images, will be unique ways upon the physical required to organize and filter constraints and characteristics of information growing at an expo- their trades: reproduction tools of nential rate. typography, photography, and In each period of our history, print; slide, film and video projec- design and communication have tion, and synchronization tools; evolved synchronously with the sound making, reproduction and technology of the time. Each new mixing tools, for example. As the medium has extended our sense tools of these media were honed of reality and each has looked to its and adapted for broader penetra- predecessor for language and tion and use through continuing conventions, referencing and loops of research and market adapting its characteristics until its testing, so were the conventions unique capabilities can be ex- and languages, the methods of plored and codified. Print, in its production, and the patterns of infancy, emulated the conventions communication within each of the of calligraphic writing on vellum; design fields. typography was modeled on the Natural visual and aural penmanship of the scriptorium; languages were gradually trans- images and color embellishment lated into message making conven- * bandwidth= a range offrequencies tions that coupled intuitive under- within a band of wavelengths in standing of human perception with which a computer can function. the organization of images and words into two dimensions. Reality was filtered and organized 4 This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms p | | l l E l | | l l | l | : I 11 . .3e < l l _lI l 1ll 11 l- .., 11 _I '!i = | Cs_ !; _ '' !iS igr- ,... _ ..._ .1 it rS: w_ s T' W&':: _F. ...... , .e Al, sj , ! _ W ,1!).5t t ?"! .:,: _ : :n'iry!f:r:a:!: L_ n_a _[!" ' :0gi:t'i'!_ _i',$ i > z @! : - ,, . 2 W . .!!tlE ' : ' ! " .X - _ _ _ 'S;_ >.::: E ''S ; ' .4! :j E: j | ....... $ | I ,,U, ..S | . _--_ jjj!!,ji:i,> -iS vIts-g;;,,_,. :!j1_ g i s - , _b__ . ! w. _l _ _ , _ All technologies are surrogatestor _ . _ - i F _ _ physical experionce forexample, _;, f t _ i_ ' j M_ _ typography is a substitute for audible - speech. This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PA~OC? yIAL14G' I'oW 'ELI Ill .I F w7AD ii 4 1 5 S (OMIOksWow W N lt j~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i :,~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \tA KI Io w,I, ' NIS |N H A EtTTI I4 4 IjJ)' =_- i. W a7~~I ^D ES tf1t 1111IN4 11 p C o{t4titOH? wU lECTE)RN,14B~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0010 u T.SVE COL _j wt} !~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PP 140.515 SNUS - -LAYw t_t The Little Nemo cartoon is an amusing and remarkable exploration of simultane- ity. Its multiple voices and serial images bridge time and space and use typo- graphic size, style, and placement to simulate sound and expression. Created by Winsor McCay for the New York Herald, 2 January 1910. 6 This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms through the limitations of the the marketplace, artists and media, modifying the way we designers have pushed the time think. The restrictions of the page, and space limitations of print and the frame, the aspect ratio* of the mass production with experimen- television set, the physical space of tal works in limited editions. The an exhibition hall, and the manu- traditions of binding, of the page, facturing tools also defined the of sequence, of materials, of the degree to which audience or user package, of audience participation, could interact with the medium. have all been violated in an effort Communication with large audi- to break away from the tyranny of ences could only be accomplished a fixed set of relationships. The through expensive, complex media ever evolving art of Robert channels, traditionally controlled Rauschenberg hovers between by the few, motivated and driven kinetic sculpture and redefining primarily by sales and advertising visual "literacy," in his 1967 print Eadweard Muybridge's turn-of-the- in the United States and often by series Revolver. In these century experiments with photographic political expediency in other parts silkscreens, images are printed on motion studies provide both visual and of the world. At this scale, the translucent rotating Plexiglas discs, scientific information. filtering and editing of information in which the time overlaps charac- became a consequence of eco- teristic of his previous work are nomic control. As H.J. Liebling achieved in real time. once quipped, "freedom of the Special purpose educational press is guaranteed - to anyone productions have extended old who owns one." boundaries. A medical encyclope- In that context design is dia opens to reveal the underlying interactive and recurrent. It is also anatomy of the human body - a focused and goal dependent. The third dimension or spatial under- beginning and end of the process standing is achieved through die- are clearly defined and demand cutting, pop-ups, pullouts, and conceptual clarity and closure. transparencies. Tables are made This limits evolutionary interaction dynamic by the use of wheels and with the medium and the audience pullouts. Children's books have Bonanza Books Foldout Atlas of the or user and requires generalized included scratch and smell, built- Human Body, by Alfred Mason solutions for large audiences. It is in sound, and holographic illustra- Amadon, MD, achieves simultaneous counter to a more intuitive or tions. Artists and designers have three-dimensional views of elements of evolutionary approach to the often become their own authors the human anatomy by using pop-ups, thinking and problem solving and producers, gathering to pullouts, and transparencies that associated with the arts and re- themselves the autonomy that reveal underlying structure. This book search, which depends on constant allows control over all aspects of Is a 1984 reprint of the original 1906 testing and refinement, and edition. encourages lyric leaps. At the frontiers of expression, unencumbered by the restraints of * aspect ratio= the ratio of the width of a television or film image to its height. 7 This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms _ i.;, <Ji8 _^,s,f,8; 54?,,5,i','F'';5Z: ~~experimental computer programs In S @' >,wt ffi ,* @,0fSj4*ft>;r ~~~r s < . .4}r*<1as<f~+;<the the Visible pocket Language watch (1983), Workshop in which such _ ; tS' ? l;l ; t * - S t s ^; Q Q ~~~~~~size, placement, and dimension were _ "i izt. %;Qt ' j~tJ >,+ ~s_ :,*r4ri?, kmanipulated in paint and animation_ w_e! aF . th i. "si, S_s&}_?,. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~typifying V >F; * $ ? 8 , , * ~4 ithe programs. range Two-dimensionalcreated by faculty_ Images _ ^ t5 _;$ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Workshop" ^ 1',-,:: 'tt'"- - X < and students are mapped at the onto Visible this Language_ three-i - - J ? A ~~~~~~~~~dimensional cube (1985). Software by i ? FX _ ,.i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~nakage. / >> * * s ~~~~~~~Masa Inakage; Images by Alka ;.q>R.;si.W S I~~~~~~~~~~~~~n *b.?-x' i _ v .^'' .At This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Mon, 17 Oct 2016 06:32:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms the objectification of an idea, and behavior of physical oil and breaking away from the limitations watercolor painting were laid on of mass production.