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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE LANGUAGE OF GLOBAL POLIS - Otto Neurath

A SMALL DESCRIPTION

The Language of Global Polis explains the life of Otto Neurath, and the challenges that he overcome on order to be able to develop a global visual language and make it public into several museums and exhibitions. Otto Neurath has important social concerns about how to invent modern metropolis after the war. This motivates him to community’s interests in order to make this metropolis work as a social machine ( wisdom of crowds) . He was part of the museum of war economy and the museum of society and economy where he created the Vienna Method Pictorial Statistic which will trigger later in the well-known isotype. Neurath worked very hard in the popularisation of information in order to make it legible and readable for non specialised audiences. He also applied this method to urban design, defining this communicative tool a key element for urban and social designers.

NOTES

COMMUNITY ( modern metropolis/ community and modernity)

• Participatory approaches to urban reform
• New attitude towards urbanism
• ‘Ordered disorder’ —> recipe for future development
• Neurath was of the opinion that Vienna had to improve its ability to communicate with its citizenry
• Tönnies —> Gemeinschaft —> translate as ‘community’ or ‘collectivity’

• War and community
  
• Reprogram and reorganise the modern city
• See the state as a kind of giant factory whose mission is to “manufacture happiness”
• Industry
• In the article ‘The converse Taylor system’ 1917: Neurath argued that issuing questionnaires and conducting interviews that recorded information about the specific needs, habits and aspirations of workers could help factory managers and social planners better integrate individuals into society

DEMOCRACY

- Challenge the social and economic hierarchies produced by the modern metropolis - Working class in the museum - WISDOM OF CROWDS - and power of mass collectives - promote inclusivity in the city

The museum of War Economy

- Furnish the public with a comprehensive understanding of Germany’s Economic conditions - Offering a visual vocabulary and a system of metaphors through which to understand the social sphere - He made more institutes in order to disseminate knowledge about the was economy through words and pictures - Be interactive/ engage the spectator

The museum of Society and Economy - Housing issues in more global and interdisciplinary terms ‘highlighting social relationships’ - Expand the public concept of community - Give masses a les through which to better understand the world - ‘Modern man receives a large part of his knowledge through pictorial impressions’ - Neurath problem that he has to face —> HOW TO VISUALIZE INVISIBLE PHENOMENA *GERD ARNTZ - Organise the information so that it was presented as effectively as possible - Neurath developed a system of graphic representation that made statistical data legible and accessible to non-specialised audiences —> Icons for multiethnic urban citizenry - Simplified representations rather than to make scientific facts accessible to the masses —> Vienna method of pictorial statistic —> international system of typographic picture education —> ISOTYPE - JAN TSCHICHOLD —> “AS A RULE, WE NO LONGER READ QUIETLY LINE BY LINE, BUT GLANCE QUICKLY OVER THE WHOLE, AND ONLY IF OUR INTERESTS IS AWAKENED DO THE STUDY IN DETAIL”

PRINCIPLES OF VIENNA METHOD - More objects, more symbols —> every sign should represent a definite quantity and that as a given quantity increases, so also should the number of signs —> comparison - Graphic diagrams are two dimensional —> cubes and spheres are very difficult to compare - Every schema should be fully developed in order to create speaking signs that say no more than necessary - Color should be used as a fundamental tool for differentiation - The background of a diagram notates place

- First glance obvious differences must be distinguishable - POPULARIZE INFORMATION - Repacking designers with design methods ??????????? ****** - GOAL: promoting community and understanding across all socioeconomic divides

GLOBALISM

- Gerd Arntz —> toolbox of standardised pictorial sign - Radical globalisation and standardisation - Modern man in the making - How to apply this globalism to urban design

WHY IS THIS BOOK INTERESTING FOR ME?

- Introduction of new participatory approaches as useful tools for urbanism - Use people needs as a crucial factor to consider for social planners - Introduce working class in the museum public so the element that are exposed there must be legible and understandable for a wide range of social profiles. —> Non specialised audiences. —> POPULARIZED INFORMATION - In order to promote inclusivity, Neurath look for the solution in people defending the concept Wisdom of crowds - He explore different mediums in order to engage the spectator - his role is transform (coding) the information in order to make it understandable and expressive - He design a technique and a language in order to visualise invisible phenomena - Jan Tschichold —> different approaches to reading