Iconic

If you were paying very very close attention to the blog a couple of days ago you would have noticed a disastrous “useful posters” post titled “A YouTube VacuumTube HowTube” concerning the history of the manufacture and use of vacuum tubes.

Writing the post got me thinking about the uses of new media (Twitter, TV, The Radio) as tools for the organization and suppression of revolution and large scale political upheaval. So, I started editing the post, first changing the title to “Before the revolution was twittered, it was televised. Before that it was radioed.” I quickly realized, however, that in order to write a post about the history of technology, media and revolution, you need to know a little bit about the intertwined histories of technology media, and revolution.

I’m suffering from the same syndrome with this weeks map of the week, which features an icon designed by Gerd Arntz as part of his large collection in line with Otto Neurath’s ideas regarding the possibility of a universal symbolic language that would help to provide an educated framework for revolution for the illiterate masses of central and eastern Europe. But, while I’d like to know more about this kind of thing, I don’t have the knowledge to make any kind of informed argument at this time. The map of the week is already late, so I’ll just refer you to an Interview with Gerd Arntz by Djoeke Veeninga, VPRO, August 6th, 1976. and some of Otto Neurath’s writings and other information regarding Isotype.