Virtual Typography

5.6

5

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

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Typography and the process of reading: 5.6 The dialectics of transition

5.5 Time consciousness

‘...successful communication must

ultimately depend on the reader’s

creative activity.’

Wolfgang Iser

The dialectics of transition

Virtual typography exists prior to the manifestation of

a linguistic code; before it turns into ‘actual’ typography

it cannot transport any literal meaning.

‘The wandering viewpoint’

The display of seemingly typographic patterns in the

context of transitional typography triggers expectations

within the viewer. Depending on the continuing

transition of the pattern, these expectations are fulfi lled

or contradicted. The pointers here are not ‘semantic’

(meaningful) but ‘semiotic’ (signifi cative). Virtual

typography plays with the viewer’s imagination as new

expectations arise and what was previously seen is

reinterpreted by the viewer. By applying Iser’s concept

of ‘the wandering viewpoint’ to visual communication,

we can argue that the aesthetic defi nition of transitional

graphic patterns can be employed to produce visual-

aesthetic tension that keeps the viewer’s mind in

suspense. The viewer constantly needs to evaluate what

has happened by comparing it to his or her expectations

(retention), triggering new expectations of what will

happen next (protension). The transitions seen modify

the viewer’s expectations of what is to come and the

evolving shapes make the viewer reinterpret the previous

events.

The constant fl uctuation between future and past

events occupies the viewer’s mind so that he or

she becomes unaware of the progression of time.

Perceptual creativity, or imagination, is not triggered

through the precise defi nition of contents, but through

hints that point towards them. The recipient’s mind

needs to be aesthetically stimulated, through literal

contents or via their visual representation, so that

interplay of protensions and retentions can occur. Only

through providing perceptual challenges can designers

manipulate people’s sense of a temporal progression

and make their target audience oblivious to the amount

of time passing.

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