3.2
3Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
1st Proof Page:6 0001-184 01212.indd 60001-184 01212.indd 60 12/19/08 3:02:45 PM12/19/08 3:02:45 PM
Typography, information and communication: 3.2 The perception of time-based information
3.1 Communicative stages 3.3 IntelligibilityThe perception of time-based information
Even though static typography can challenge readers
to scan a piece of text more than once, the image–text
relationship is clear as soon as the information has been
classifi ed correctly. What cannot technically transform
cannot epistemologically be expected to change in
shape. Ornamental, modern or postmodern typography
may make reading a diffi cult task. It may even delay the
classifi cation of information. But it cannot repeatedly
challenge the viewer’s expectations towards evolving
signals. Text remains a text, an image remains an image
and a piece of fi gurative type remains a piece of fi gurative
type. Time-based media operates differently. Transitional
typography allows for words and letters to emerge from
and to dissolve into random signals, so viewers are
continually challenged to predict the kind of information
that is about to evolve.EpistemologyThis term stems from the Greek
words episteme, which means
‘knowledge’, and logos, which
means ‘word’ or ‘speech’. This
branch of philosophy deals with
the origins of knowledge. Through
studying the sources of our rational
understanding of the world,
epistemologists aspire to resolve
how we assess what is true and
what is not, and how we justify our
knowledge of the world.Time-based information – Kate Moross
Before entering her undergraduate training, Moross created
an example of motion graphics that was quite unusual due
to its consistent ambiguity between moving image and
moving type. The project was presented during the ‘Typo.
move’ conference, which was organised by onedotzero at
the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London in 2005.
Even the trained eye keeps struggling to detect the
typographic signs within the constellation of various rotating
circle sections. The classifi cation of information is turned
into a guessing game here and reading becomes an
aesthetic challenge. One is inclined to think that some of
the circles might not convey any letters, so the tension is
sustained. Moross’s example is particularly intriguing
because the typographic nature of the information cannot
be determined on the basis of individual stills due to the level
of visual abstraction. Only the succession of several frames
allows the viewer to correctly categorise the information
as typographic.Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
1st Proof Page:6 0001-184 01212.indd 60001-184 01212.indd 60 12/19/08 3:04:18 PM12/19/08 3:04:18 PM