[Membroj] Esperanto as metaphor for unintelligibility

[Ralph Dumain]

The variations are endless:

Gunnar Swanson
03.20.05

Thankfully, isotypes do not depict racial or 
ethnic characteristics, so we don't have to get 
into thorny questions of representation

Perhaps not in "our versions of Neurath's 
isotypes" but Neurath's versions of Neurath's 
isotypes included a range of racial and social 
stereotypes, pointing out a secondary irony of 
isotyping: A little man can be the nongendered, 
universal "he" until nurses are depicted as women 
or Negroes are shown; then, as usual, we lose 
control of our synecdoches as they expand and 
contract in a manner that is beyond our wills as designers and communicators.

The primary irony is that as our work becomes 
more refined and more universal it becomes more 
like Esperanto­-equally unintelligible to everyone of all cultures.

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=3157
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