“What is typophoto? Typography is communication composed in type.
László Moholy-Nagy
Photography is the visual presentation of what can be optically apprehended. Typophoto is the visually most exact rendering of communication…. a precise form of representation so objective as to permit of no individual interpretation.”
“Universal Communication… exploration of the potentialities of the book of true text-picture integration has only begun and will, by itself, become of utmost importance to universal understanding.”
“‘square span’ is putting words into thought groups of two or three
Herbert Bayer
short lines… the advantages of grouping words support the theory that we do not read individual letters, but words or phrases.”
After reading the writings from Walter Gropius: The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus (1923), László Moholy-Nagy; Typophoto (1925), and Herbert Bayer; On Typography in Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field and reviewing the videos from the Week 5 Agenda, consider the following.
The avant-garde designers were looking for universal methods of communication, often searching for ideal ways to reach the masses using new technologies and modalities.
- Photography and film were the new techologies in the age of the Bauhaus. Combined with typography László Moholy-Nagy stated that Typophoto was the “visually most exact rendering of communication.”
- Herbert Bayer is often credited with modernizing typography in the Bauhaus with his creation of the Universal alphabet. He also speaks of “text-picture integration” and the use of “square span,” short grouping of words for universal communication.
Today we have multiple modes and methods of instant, mass communication. Consider the rise of “deep fakes“, the short, concise messages we send via Twitter, or the lack of subtlety and tone in email, text, or emojis. Is the ability to communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively helped and/or hindered by technology today?
Add your ideas in a comment in the Discussion post by Friday, October 1st at 11:59 pm to allow time for responses. Add at least 5 follow-up responses to your classmates’ comments by Sunday, October 3rd, 6 pm. Reminder: free sharing of ideas helps us learn and it’s also part of your participation grade. 🙂
The ability to communicate truthfully and accurately has helped technology today since we are able to send messages much easier and faster by using acronyms. They are easy to type out and understand in any situation. Emojis also help show a feeling or emotion without having to actually tell them how something makes you feel. This also helps people with language barriers get to understand each other easier, with fewer words or actions. Grouping larger words into fewer ones also help when chatting or messaging friends.
Interesting point. It definitely breaks language barriers. Since most people are shy, most people find communication online to be more comfortable. Some people might prefer to share their feelings this way.
For someone who is introverted it is easier wy to stay connected without putting themselves through social anxiety.
This is very true that it is easier to express your feeling and emotion through text because of how simplified text has become. Especially with the use of gif”s, I am able to communicate with emotion from a viral video,a movie scene, animated image along with a caption. Chatting in larger groups with short-handed text made the conversation flow better.
I forgot about gifs, they are really used in my group chats to express so much without even typing anything. It’s easy to find them too.
I actually prefer to use gifs over emojis in my chats because I feel like it zeros in on exactly how I feel at the moment.
It is true that it is easier to express using emojis and chatting with friends without being there in person but sometimes the way the receiver reads your message may take it differently than what you wanted to imply and it is missing the physical ability to communicate in person
While we can send messages faster, the meaning of those messages can get lost due to the fact that there is little meaning or subtly behind a text message. People can misinterpret the points you’re saying and someone may take something you said out of line. No matter the meaning behind your message, you will always look like a villain in someone else’s eyes.
It is harder to understand how people are expressing themselves, I have a hard time understanding if someone is upset at me when messing with short responses, or if they are just busy and that’s how they type.
True, messages can sometimes be misleading. Not everyone will agree with you. Let’s say you like anime. Not everyone will agree with you. There are people in the world who hate anime and we can’t do anything about it. If you have a favorite hobbies or you’re trying to make a point with something or someone, not everyone will feel the same way.
I agree without tone a message can easily be misinterpreted and cause a wedge of miscommunication.
It’s almost like we have created our own language on the online spectrum with the use of our acronyms and emojis you don’t have to speak English to understand them.
Yes, I agree acronyms are faster but may not always be understood by everyone. I think we shouldn’t always assume someone can decipher a message. It might take a person a while just to make out what the acronyms mean with the verbiage consistently changing.
The ability to communicate by technology really depends on situations. Just because something is good doesn’t necessary mean it’s good. It can be bad too. For example, let’s take technology as an example. Technology can help a lot people especially in their design or communication. However, technology can also be used to do the opposite. You can steal people’s information online like credit card information by hacking into their system or you can provide misleading information.
Now back to topic, does our ability to communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively helped or hindered by technology today? I would say 50% on both side. You can use technology to convey a message easily. You can critique someone online or buy a product online and have it delivered to your house. On the other hand, technology may also hinder our ability to communicate. Sometimes, you may sound a bit too harsh compare to real life. Since you’re not talking face-to-face, your communication might relax a little bit and you may sometimes go overboard with your words. Some people might find that offensive. In real life, you normally follow the society’s rule like everyone else. However, when you’re online, you start to relax yourself and sometimes, you had to say what you had to say when in real, your communication is a bit restricted. Technology has its goods and negatives. Nothing is perfect. If everything was perfect, we wouldn’t need to change ourselves.
Technology has greatly expanded communication in terms of how accessible and simple it has become, but it has also restricted in-person communication without it, and it is an invasion of privacy that no one has if they have any kind of online presence. Some good that came out technology is how fast we can communicate to the other person using very little used of proper grammar such as instead of “what you are doing? ” it could be wyd? ,wat u doing or a gif with a caption that expresses the emotion. These short-handed messages make it quick to type and send but also fast to understand. Anyone can learn this because it is straightforward; but, whether or not you can fully comprehend shot-handed text depends on your generation and culture. Autocorrect helps with spelling issues as well as voice text for people who do not want to text or have a disability. There is a big disadvantage to having technology that is privacy, information can be shared, stolen, corrupted, or used against you easily. An online presence can be from banking information to social media uses can be found on the internet even after being deleted. Companies will pay lots of money to collect data on you to advertise their products to you for profit for example the issue with Facebook selling data to other companies. Deep fakes are the use of facial recognition and voice to make people say something they didn’t really do. Fake tweets can be made in photoshop allowing the misinformation and confusion to thrive. In-person commutation is hard to make than behind a screen; behind the screen, you can become another person or be very honest and truthful than you would in person. While in-person you are experiencing a moment of connection developing social skills that are needed for every day.
Yes they are some advantages to technology for commutation but they are also not so good this about to . If you are carefully enough you can have a wonderful time.
Oh yes, many people shorten their text to words, and sometimes you might message someone who doesn’t know what those letters stand for and you’re like “what??”. That kind of takes a toll on the skill of how to spell since we are shortening what we want to say into just a couple of letters that mean the same thing. I also agree on how people can just steal information from you to create a scam.
Lily, I get that feeling. How you can use abbreviations. Sometimes, we may know about them and sometimes, we don’t. I agree on your last point. Technology isn’t always safe so things like this may happen.
in-person communication feels like something that has been dying for a while but has been accelerated by covid because of the quarantine it’s kinda sad that eventually, everything will be online.
Bryan, that’s very true. Since we’re in the pandemic, I do feel in-person communication been dying. I just hope everything won’t be online and the pandemic disappear in the future.
Shauntaya, that is very true. Technology can be good but it can be dangerous because your personal information will get stolen. There are some company who sell other people’s information to other companies. Despite, the bad things, technology is still convenient even today.
I also agree privacy issues are a big disadvantage for technology. People have the access to create who they want to be and mislead others through fake accounts, and we have all at least once had a social media account hacked because of clicking on a link we thought was sent from someone in your contacts.
I Agree with you the ability to communicate through technology has it advantage but the disadvantage can also be harmful. People sometimes expect that their privacy is protected but it is truly is not if you have an online presence. In addition, it is even hard to spread information to help people know that you need to protect yourself while using the internet because some people do not know what that means or where to start. The most protection people know about is virus protection and VPN but the so much more to that.
Privacy really is a huge issue these days. With social media, almost anyone and everyone has a presence online and is open to having their identities stolen or information about them leaked. It also leads to people being more paranoid as having little security can make it feel like everyone is out to get you, even unsuspecting folks like your neighbors. The spread of information is also tough as there is also equal amounts of misinformation that slip through the cracks and manage to influence people in some negative ways (ie: recent misinformation about voter fraud, vaccines and the misinfo peddled by cults like Q-Anon).
Oh, that’s very true. Privacy’s one of the biggest problem when surfing online. You may believe that you’re protected or that you have your privacy but however, that’s isn’t the case as long as you go online.
VPNs and virus protection services are something that is greatly needed for today’s use. Especially if the person using the computer is not very knowledgeable about technology and which sites to avoid. They can easily click on a website with an eye-catching title and they will be directed to a malware invested site that can completely ruin your computer.
I agree with you how it is much more easier to order things online but once in a while it doesn’t hurt to go to the store in person to buy something you need since with technology we are missing the communication aspect if everything is done online.
Yes, I agree, I enjoy shopping in person even though online is easier it’s not always as convenient time-wise. In-person shopping trips give you the opportunity to see the quality or ask a question about the item, which could take up to 24-48 hrs for someone to get back to you online.
I agree. The use of technology and social media is almost like a double-edged sword. While it has proven extremely useful to communication and the spreading of information, it has its downsides. Communication can lose its meaning and the messages you send can be interpreted in ways you didn’t expect or want. Information is harder to come by as well since every person or outlet has their own ideal of what truth is and people can spread blatant misinformation that could at worse, harm others physically.
I agree. The use of technology and social media is almost like a double-edged sword. While it has proven extremely useful to communication and the spreading of information, it has its downsides. Communication can lose its meaning and the messages you send can be interpreted in ways you didn’t expect or want. Information is harder to come by as well since every person or outlet has their own ideal of what truth is and people can spread blatant misinformation that could at worse, harm others physically.
I agree with what you said especially when our online selves is not how we would talk informally or casually in real life
That’s so true how something can also be so bad but good. The whole deep face topic is really advanced but that could be used for other wrong things.
The ability to reach billions of people with just technology in the palms of your hands is quite an incredible era we are in. Being able to send information and receive information back in a snap of your fingers is pretty amazing considering how back then it would take days to even months to send a letter. You are able to also express your design digitally and have many copies of it if you feel like you would mess up or if you want to come back to change it in the future. Sometimes technology can also be a bit misleading like how everyone says “don’t always believe what is online” unless it is a useful source. Also using the pandemic for example we are all using technology to communicate and have zoom meetings to get our work done. Sometimes using technology can give confidence to people who might have anxiety talking in person in front of people and also like how people say “you act differently behind a screen.”
Yeah, it is insane that we have the power to reach anyone and everyone just in the palm of our hands. It is such a powerful and dangerous thing as there are those who want to do good but those who want to hurt others.
The downside of posting your design means its open for theft unless you copyright it. The spread of misinformation on social media is always a likelihood and while platforms like Twitter and Facebook try to scrub that away, some misinformation will always get out. An overreliance on technology and social media can also make you more reserved and reclusive. You may abandon the appeal of being outside with the comfort of staring at a screen. Technology is addictive and like everything, should be used in moderation.
I agree that with technology it is vital that we don’t have to start from scratch all over again when we make something or just type a paper. With this mistakes can be erased
Yes, it’s quite surprising technology can influence us so much. In our generation, we mostly rely on technology to get by life. Technology can be dangerous if you’re not careful.
Communicating through technology gives people a sense of anonymity since we don’t know what the person is like behind the screen. This sometimes leads to people acting differently online from how they are in real life, either by allowing them to be more confident or giving them a mask to hide them from consequences. We as individuals and a community need to understand that technology can be both a powerful and dangerous tool.
I believe that the ability to communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively is helped by technology because you can basically express yourself everywhere and everyone can see it. Most use this to their advantage and try to express themselves and how they really are. They can also show off their work if they are a designer or an artist. And they are able to express their thoughts on subjects and opinions. But I can see the other side of it as there are those who try to lie or give an impression of them living the best life while it is a lie.
I disagree. I believe with the advancement of communication comes more opportunities for the spread of misinformation and unintended discourse. Some artists have also gotten away with creating some absolutely offensive art. Freedom of expression isn’t always a good thing since there is a line that needs to be drawn in what should and shouldn’t be expressed through art. Should a piece that expresses hatred toward a race or a religion be seen as “art” and “freedom of expression”? You need to draw that line yourself and tell yourself what is and isn’t okay to express through art and design.
yes just as on social media you can pretend to be someone you’re not and that goes for any occupation. Some artists are nice and some others aren’t pleasant to communicate with.
Expression is something that an artist and designer needs to be able to communicate in their work and it is great that today a person and post some work online and be able to see comments from other people with the same interests or fond for the same hobby and so they can offer their opinions and thoughts on whatever it is you want to show or talk about. That is definitely a plus for communication technology for today.
I believe that technology has hindered meaningful and truthful communication more than it has helped it. Whilst the advent of the internet and social media has allowed for more conversation and freedom of expression, freedom of expression can backfire and the spread of misinformation has managed to burrow itself into our timelines. Freedom of expression on the internet has allowed people to get away with distributing, saying, and creating some horrid things. Texting also doesn’t have the same subtlety and nuance as a vocal recording or physical speech. Meanings get muddled up and people interpret things in different ways, meaning that no matter what you post, your words will be twisted and you might end up being portrayed as someone you’re not.
Sometimes social media is good to have but in terms of communication, just doing it for work is better than doing it for personal business. People do put out too much of themselves instead of their actual merit and capabilities.
Well, I can see your point. Sometimes, when online, we got way too much freedom compared to real life. Because we’re online, we may sometimes go overboard with what we said and that offends many people. Just because technology is harmful doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful. Sometimes, we just have to look at the positive side of technology instead of the negative.
I agree that texting doesn’t have the same subtlety and nuance as verbal communication, people can interpret a single message in a variety of ways that it loses its original meaning. A sarcastic text sent to a friend could be seen as an insult if seen by someone who doesn’t have any context or idea of the sender as a person. Even though we are able to instantly communicate globally, we personally don’t know everyone as they are in person so we lose their tones and meanings when speaking via technology.
Wow very true, People can sometimes either twist your words or take it out of context to make you seem like a bad person.
For the most part, the ability to communicate accurately has been helped by technology because we can say what we need to say without meeting in person. It’s much quicker to send feedback or any other kind of messages. We can do everything digitally especially when it comes to business and public work. What if I needed someone to check over my design and I dont have time to waste coming into the office, I can quickly contact the other person by email or text. Sometimes when we text casually to a friend and we’re being sarcastic or we’re not being serious, we text the word “relax”. “Relax” could be taken as “relax you’ll be fine” or “relax alright” something that sounds a little mean. Technology can’t sense our tone but overall we’ve been able to communicate and work efficiently over the past decade.
yeah, but don’t you miss that in-person meeting or that in-person communication I do. Like I get the ease of communication but meeting someone in real life is way better to build an in-person relationship with them instead of an online one.
I agree with you about missing meetings and communicating in person. Yeah, we are able to message people easier than before, but it can’t recreate a person’s tone or the subtleties that happen when speaking in person.
Oh, that is relatable. Texting someone or emailing someone is way easier than having to go the whole mile to meet someone. This is definitely true when you’re extremely busy with your projects that you won’t be able to move from one spot for a while.
Being able to text or email someone and receive their reply in an instant has made communicating with one another easier. Especially when it comes to giving critiques on projects, receiving this feedback allows us to more effectively correct any mistakes and concerns that were brought up.
The relax example is so true, just goes to show you that how we communicate usingTechnology isn’t always one hundred percent perfect.
That is true as well, there is now a text etiquette where if you were to text something then it could be easily be misinterpreted by the other person. Now we have to make sure and go over our message to see the person would understand or just not even send the message. Although later on, I feel there will be technology to prevent this from happening with technology changing every year.
Definitely agree with this point when it comes to tonality and the way it is conveyed through digital messaging. The fact is that no matter how it may seem, we cannot always understand emotion through digital media unless we are physically able to read a person’s facial expression, the tone of voice and the words that they say. The only way we would really be able to is through video methods of communication like the well adapted Zoom or Facetime communication platforms.
I think that technology has helped us to communicate effectively by allowing us to send messages globally via the internet and social media in mere moments. Being able to quickly communicate messages and feedback saves time and effort, then having to meet in person to receive said feedback. However, sometimes it hinders us from communicating truthfully or accurately with the loss of subtlety and our initial tone for the message. There is even a chance that someone might misinterpret and misunderstand the intended meaning of the message. Since communicating is almost instantaneous, the spread of false and misleading information is much more common and sometimes hard to manage if not dealt with immediately. I’d say that technology has its good and bad moments when it comes to communication, but is left to us to make the effort to try and communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively.
Rumor and lies are a big thing in social media especially since some people believe almost everything they see online and that is dangerous because it can spread like wildfire and people get misinformed.
Yeah, I agree. Technology can help us send a message anywhere more quickly. Especially when one of your friend’s from Japan or France. It’s true there are some people who will spread lies and rumors around the world. Most of us might even fall for that. All I can say is look at informations with your own eye. Whether that information’s accurate or reliable.
Yes, I agree, for example, sometime someone can take a text the wrong way and think you are mad at them when in reality you aren’t and that is just your way of communicating with people using text.
I agree there is a balance of both where humanity now gains this futuristic technology around the world but not we have to deal with stuff like fake news or information that may be not what it seems. Although you are right when you say “left to us” because it’s our generation that has to learn from this and find ways to avoid misleading information.
I find it convenient and efficient we are able to express our thoughts and idea through text on social media. Not only that, but we are able to have contact to all sorts of people around the world just by the availability of technology. Though communicating online is not without its faults. Take cancel culture for example, several people have their freedom of expression ruined because social media decides to harass them with insults and overexaggerated lies. It does not help that some people can easily believe what words are said online without having a second thought.
That is something I can see and understand, cancel culture is something we can live without, people are quick to assume a celebrity for being in the wrong, and even after they apologies they are still disliked and for their actions. We’ve gotten to the point now where you are not allowed to make silly mistakes or any jokes.
Cancel culture is really bad. Rather than helping the person change it feels like they can’t and everyone just knows on the internet. Even though it seemed like a good way for some people to just point out fingers.
In my opinion, technology has effectively helped education and information having access anywhere at any time with the internet (Google). We can dive in and learn just about anything, which always leads us to more information. Having the ability to contact anyone around the world due to technology has also been helpful for us. Sending and receiving messages and emails for feedback is much less time-consuming than writing and mailing a letter. Yet with all the advantages technology offers us it does have some disadvantages. Though, emails, texts, and emojis are quicker to send the nonexistence of tone hinders the ability to communicate truthfully or accurately. There is no real emotion actually attached than there would be with the tone of one’s voice. There’s a possibility of miscommunication or confusion in perception. The absence of actual human conversation can also be an issue that will hinder social and group interactions. During the pandemic communicating daily online was our new normal, and much of that normal still exists. How are we to build human bonds through technology? Dialogue and video chats can start a bond, but no matter how hard we try nothing can replace touch, or the emotions of looking directly into someone’s eyes, a real human connection. Being around one another helps us grown as individuals socially, and emotionally.
This is a really great point that technology has opened up so many means of assisting our understanding of education and accessibility to large, almost infinite modes of information. When it comes to the disadvantages, I also agree that tone is practically nonexistent within these forms of technological communication. It is true that emotion is so hard to perceive and especially if we all understand and read text messages and digital voices different, an “Okay” to one person may seem normal but an “okay” to another person may possibly be perceived as passive aggressive or similar. Real, face to face dialogue is as good as it can get when it comes to understanding and communicating with one another.
In my opinion, technology has effectively helped education and information having access anywhere at any time with the internet (Google). We can dive in and learn just about anything, which always leads us to more information. Having the ability to contact anyone around the world due to technology has also been helpful for us. Sending and receiving messages and emails for feedback is much less time-consuming than writing and mailing a letter. Yet with all the advantages technology offers us it does have some disadvantages. Though, emails, texts, and emojis are quicker to send the nonexistence of tone hinders the ability to communicate truthfully or accurately. There is no real emotion actually attached than there would be with the tone of one’s voice. There’s a possibility of miscommunication or confusion in perception. The absence of actual human conversation can also be an issue that will hinder social and group interactions. During the pandemic communicating daily online was our new normal, and much of that normal still exists. How are we to build human bonds through technology? Dialogue and video chats can start a bond, but no matter how hard we try nothing can replace touch, or the emotions of looking directly into someone’s eyes, a real human connection. Being around one another helps us grown as individuals socially, and emotionally.
Technology really has helped us withe education. Being able to use online platforms to interact during the pandemic, was so useful for going to school.
While technology does have its negatives, when it comes to the ability to communicate, truthfully, accurately, and effectively, I do believe for the most part it helps a lot. Not only do we have the ability to understand other languages in just a matter of seconds vid Google translate or other translation engines, but we also can communicate with people who are miles and miles away from us by text. Are these methods one hundred percent accurate and perfect? no, however, compared to how we communicated in the past, it certainly is much better in my opinion.
Bringing up the thought of being able to translate instantaneously is a really good point. I definitely agree that the ease of being able to hit a button that translates a tweet written in a language from across the world into your language in a second really is astonishing. Prior to these technological advances we would find ourselves possibly searching for translators in their obscurity depending on the time period, and even then when things weren’t as accessible that brought about many challenges and kept many communities isolated from one another.
I really see many cultural differences in nations now that we are able to see aspects of other cultures and incorporate a blend into our own lives. There are people in one country that are lucky enough to be able to learn a language from a country across the world from them, without hassle. That is one beauty of technology and communication.
The ability to communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively has in my opinion both helped and hindered by technology. We can see this being help by spreading news fast so that many people can know about the issue and if something can be done in a positive sense then that’s great. People today can just go on Twitter or google about a topic and thousands of websites relating to that topic can appear. However, I would lean more towards the hinder side because while yes more people would know about a situation whose to say that information is correct. We have seen how easily information said by one person can be manipulated by another. All those websites that appear when you google a topic, how do you know if they are to be trusted. This global spread of communication had made people a lot more doubtful of what they see online and now requires concrete evidence to prove if something is real.
I agree with your point on how easily words and thoughts can be manipulated when it comes to digital communications, and it is very serious in so many aspects. The ease of being able to put a text post out there without second thought can have so many consequences as everything we say is logged in a database depending on the platform.
This leads to points whether who can be held accountable for their misinformation and the impacts it has caused. For example, throughout Trumps’ presidency and towards the beginning of the global pandemic the tweets that he would send out without second opinion or thought had a catastrophic effect due to the millions of people it reached and inflicted. Comments that refer to blaming an entire race of people led millions to believe the same ideologies and it seemed to set many people back when it came to growing progressively as a country, and the fact that it was so simply done by just a few words by a large influence is what makes it kind of scary to approach.
To be honest, I feel as though the past two-three decades have been such a revolutionary change in the way we use technology in order to communicate, down to the use of acronyms to catch phrases that we so commonly recognize that we wouldn’t if it weren’t for these forms of communication.
Despite the world of deep fakes where almost anything can be duplicated and manipulated as though to appear realistic, it is so important to note that we communicate now more than ever thanks to these applications and forms of media. We no longer (yet it is okay to do so) communicate solely by paper or physical word but we are able to keep up with one another at the touch of a button. We can see what funny thoughts people come up with and want to share with the world, we can see whether a person understands a message to be surprising, sad, or neither.
Despite these positive communicative aspects, the concept of overthinking definitely plays part in the aspect of truthfulness and legibility in the messages we convey to one another.
Every message or post we put out there has an impact that means it can never be reversed, and people can always have a comment or thought upon what you say. In so many cases, these forms of communication have led many people down dark paths, have ruined many lives and so forth. But on the other hand, it influences the way we approach ourselves and those around us in a new light.
While there is always judgement, people seem more inclined to be a good person when they are in front of a large audience. At this rate, I truly appreciate the fact that more people can be called out for their wrong actions, and thus learn from the impacts of the words and actions they take that can inflict harm upon marginalized groups of people or individuals.