Tuesday, November 25, 2008

contemporary Isotype descendant



by way of a post in the GOOD Magazine blog, http://www.good.is/?p=13752

The post indicates that this is a public service video released in order for the Japanese to deal with the emerging food cost/import/use of oil crisis. The execution and intent I notice are very similar to that of Neurath's ISOTYPES, simplified images and primary colors are used to create symbols which represent quantities and relationships between sets of data which might otherwise be complex, but whose comprehension by the majority of society is nessecary in order to resolve a current issue. Obviously the major difference is the dimension of time, which I think was used beautifully, showing how time affects the data as well as using time to narrow which data the audience learns in which order. The clip of two people sitting at a table and the food presented in front of them, is in itself a representation of a certain piece of data, and this is cemented in the viewer's mind each time the clip is repeated (even though the food changes). The two people sitting at the table with food in front of them is a universal communication that these people are going to consume this food.

The blog post also directs one to the US government's public service database, which at minimal investigation is filled with mostly live-action tapings about things the majority of society neither has any interest in, or even knows what is. Interesting.

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