Evidence » course: letters, signs and symbols

“Exterminate all rational thought --
That is the conclusion I have come to.”

“You don't have to have words to have ideas, but you have to have words to have books. Now animals clearly have ideas, concepts and dreams, but they don't have words. They talk, but they don't write. They don't have a concept of symbolization is what it amounts to. The essence of language, what distinguishes man from the chimp. They can't see that. An animal can't read a map. Chimpanzees have some concept of symbols. The just don't have the mechanisms to produce words.”

“A writer doesn't own words any more than a painter owns his colors.”

“My purpose in writing has always been to express human potentials and purposes relevant to the space age.”

W.S. Burroughs

- alina

Edmund Evans, The Illuminated Scripture Text Book for Every Day, with Interleaved Diary for Every Day and a Colored Illustration for Every Day.

absolut AD1. Justin Choi

absolut AD. Justin Choi

alex grey

-Scott Mason

-Scott Mason

-Scott Mason

posted by Crystal A.

by Crystal A.

posted by Crystal

posted by Adrian Pegg

Sebastio Salgado.

Justin Choi

Sebastio Salgado.

Justin Choi

Amy Pierce

Alina Matson

This is a 19th-century English drawing of a New Zealand man. His tattoos are specifically tribal -- not just in the modern tatoo sense of being based on particular imagery, but literally tribal. HIs tattoos identify his position in society.

These are current euros. Each bill has a different size.
Nadine

Peace Symbol
Gerald Holtom designed the peace symbol in 1958 for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The "N" and "D" are represented by the corresponding flag signals, according to the discipline of the "Semaphore" hand-held flag signaling system.

Shamrock
In the fifth century, St. Patrick used this clover with three leaves to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity in converting people to Christianity. It has been associated with Ireland ever since.

Playing Cards.......
The four suits in playing cards, clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades, collectively represent the four elements (wind, fire, water, and earth), the seasons, and cardinal directions. They represent the struggle of opposing forces for victory in life. The thirteen cards in each suit represent the thirteen lunar months. Playing cards originated in Central Asia, and they were introduced into European culture in the 14th century.

Evangeline Vinson

'More tea equals greater productivity'
-wall graphic @ Moshi Moshi Sushi restaurant -Japan-

Neo Hittitian script in northern Syria

Vedic building-energy diagram

David Bullard

Early minoan symbols

Believed to be the mother symbol language to those used in sumer

David bullard

Notice the similarities/differences between the different languages. Normal letters that are "written" don't "move," the way that the hand does in sign language. Letters, on paper, having to move in order to be that letter, otherwise it would mean something else...

Hmmm....

-Scott Mason

-Scott Mason

-Scott Mason

-Scott Mason

This 1847 map of the North Pole is from Bowen's "A Complete System of Geography," published in London. Many areas are listed as "Parts Undiscovered." Artist: Emanuel Brown

Diane Pittman

1860 - Diagram exhibiting the difference of time between the places shown and Washington. Artist: A.J. Johnson

Diane Pittman

Nadine

Nadine

another kind of map.

Main Street, U.S.A.

World music

Two maps of Manhattan by Al Lorenz, emphasizing different aspects of the territory.

A map of the ocean around the Marshall Islands, showing currents and islands.

Varying the shapes of the states to convey information; the flexibility of the sign. This image, and most of those following, is from Pictorial Maps by Nigel Holmes.

Another medieval world map. This one locates the apostles in the parts of the world they supposedly evangelized.

A 13th-century map of the world. East is at the top; Jerusalem is in the middle; the Garden of Eden is visible in the Far East. This is a narrative map of the world, with places and events laid out according to symbolic importance.

The first is an Ojibwe letter from a man to his son, asking him to bring money; the second is a Cheyenne letter from a girl to her lover, telling him where to meet her. They're both from Gelb's A Study of Writing.

The first image is about 10,000 years old, from a cave in Argentina; the second is from a printers' catalogue.