What is code? We think of computers and confusing combinations of words, letters and number that make up a website, or a GIF, right? I substitute teach and in one 7th grade math class, I taught code. It is so relevant nowadays that adolescents are learning it.
Well in Chapter 3 of Visual Communication, Analogical Code is talking about images. Codes are signs that create a picture’s narrative, their story.
For example, take this chair. It just looks like a really freaking uncomfortable place to sit. It looks like what fancy people would have at their kitchen tables. It looks like what I would sling jackets over and books on.
So if you take a little bit longer of a look at it, what do you see?
I see a wine glass where the back is.
I see two noses almost touching.
I see a sort of grasshopper platypus mutation, ready to pounce.
There could be an infinite amount of images and narratives you could give this one simple item; a chair.
I was struck in one of Longwood’s buildings, their chair cushions seemed to all have faces on them. Since then, I’ve kind of looked for narratives in chairs that I might never have thought about before.
Except scary ones, those are just scary.
References:
Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual communication: Images with messages (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
