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Unfortunately it looks like this hasn't taken off. An international pictographic language is a great idea tho. This is a better approach imo: https://artrevie

by tdk 2y ago

Unfortunately it looks like this hasn't taken off. An international pictographic language is a great idea tho. This is a better approach imo: https://artreview.com/ara-springsummer-2014-book-review-xu-bing-book-from-the-ground/ https://artreview.com/ara-springsummer-2014-book-review-xu-b... This pictographic book is readable without any training.

kazinator 2y ago
It is not text written in a language; it's a cartoon/manga drawn in the style of pictograms, depicting events literally, not symbolically.
- tdk 2y ago
  It's using pictograms and ideograms to tell a story, implicitly using a language. This can and should be extended to a general purpose language.
  - kazinator 2y ago
    Stories inferred from pictures or videos are not implicitly using language. Language comes into the picture only when a human viewer interprets what is happening and describes it in words. E.g. if we watch an unnarrated nature video of a squirrel gathering nuts into its burrow, we can describe it with words and sentences. But those sentences don't actually occur in the video, implicitly or otherwise, and can say misleading things, like that the squirrel is thinking forward to next winter, and planning for having enough to eat when foraging becomes difficult. The pictures in Xu Bing's book would have to be logograms rather than pictograms in order for the book to contain language. A sequence of pictograms could be used to record a story (say of events shared by a group of people). Those pictograms could be used to stir their accurate recollection of the events, which they could talk about in language. But that's not the same thing as actually recording that language.
willwade 2y ago
It took off then stagnated a bit. Used a lot in Canada and Iceland, Norway, Sweden and various parts of the globe eg Eastern Europe. There is various projects further developing it still That book you referenced is cool. But it’s not depicting a true language. Language has rules which allows you to generate new novel words and sentences. This is what bliss does and why it’s called a language - rather than all other symbol systems
- tdk 2y ago
  There is definitely potential for something like this but the symbols seemtoo simplistic - with software they don't need to be easy to draw.
  - willwade 2y ago
    Simplistic was the aim. Have a watch of the film in the comments above. It was designed as a universal language.

by tdk 2y ago

kazinator 2y ago

It is not text written in a language; it's a cartoon/manga drawn in the style of pictograms, depicting events literally, not symbolically.

tdk 2y ago
It's using pictograms and ideograms to tell a story, implicitly using a language. This can and should be extended to a general purpose language.
- kazinator 2y ago
  Stories inferred from pictures or videos are not implicitly using language. Language comes into the picture only when a human viewer interprets what is happening and describes it in words. E.g. if we watch an unnarrated nature video of a squirrel gathering nuts into its burrow, we can describe it with words and sentences. But those sentences don't actually occur in the video, implicitly or otherwise, and can say misleading things, like that the squirrel is thinking forward to next winter, and planning for having enough to eat when foraging becomes difficult. The pictures in Xu Bing's book would have to be logograms rather than pictograms in order for the book to contain language. A sequence of pictograms could be used to record a story (say of events shared by a group of people). Those pictograms could be used to stir their accurate recollection of the events, which they could talk about in language. But that's not the same thing as actually recording that language.

willwade 2y ago

It took off then stagnated a bit. Used a lot in Canada and Iceland, Norway, Sweden and various parts of the globe eg Eastern Europe. There is various projects further developing it still That book you referenced is cool. But it’s not depicting a true language. Language has rules which allows you to generate new novel words and sentences. This is what bliss does and why it’s called a language - rather than all other symbol systems

tdk 2y ago
There is definitely potential for something like this but the symbols seemtoo simplistic - with software they don't need to be easy to draw.
- willwade 2y ago
  Simplistic was the aim. Have a watch of the film in the comments above. It was designed as a universal language.