User:Δεριζαματζορπρομπλεμιναυστραλια/Graduatreadings/ottopaulle

The Language of the World Museum:Otto Neurath, Paul Otlet, Le Corbusier by Nader Vossoughian

1933 Neurath statement in Survey graphik: the serial reproduction of modern museums could promote the democra-tization of culture in economic and culturalterms;economically Neurath reasoned, becauseFordist, assembly-line production methodscould help reduce costs incurred through thepurchasing and displaying of exhibits; and cul-turally, he contended, because standardizing museums could foster a common sense of histo-ry and tradition world-wide "[t]ospeak of the museum of the future is like speak-ing of the automobile of the future. Automobiles are manufactured in series and notproduced one by one in a smithy"

he began to view the modern museum as a form of communication whose boundaries were nolonger constrained by physical matter uni-fied, planned, central control of all museumsand educational institutions

In order to realize his dream of a mechanically reproducible museum, Neurath began to work out,conceptually, “universal spaces,” that is, exhibitionhalls that could be adapted to any geographical orcultural circumstance,in conjunction with the artistGerd Arntz Arntz, like Neurath, wanted to mergewhat objects say , semiotically speaking, with how they appear , in ontological terms. Arntz was a socialist concerned with making social reality acces-sible to the masses.and he sought accordingly todevelop a visual idiom that could cast the plight of the working class in a dialectical light, that is to say,in relation to the larger economic “superstructure”of modern society.

His and Neurath’s was thus a search for the primalbeginnings of language (where “groups of peopleare truly represented by groups of people,”as Arntzonce put it), much as rationalist philosopherLeibniz had sought to achieve in his own work onthe scientific origins of language Arntz andNeurath sought to create “meta-Isotypes,” that is,three-dimensional axonometric and two-dimen-sional elevation drawings that illustrated how, ideal-ly, the graphic displays of the Museum of Society and Economy could to be standardized in space and time

Neurath’s 1936 International Picture Language - were important because they reflectNeurath’s long-standing preoccupation withuncovering the grammar of three-dimensionalreality

Through mass standardization, Neurath believed he could help forge this new ideal language, if not for science then for society at large.He felt that the standardization of culture couldhelp bring reason and rationality to the masseswhile also promoting global understanding