[syndicate] Re: Re: 10 good reasons for net.art

[Eryk Salvaggio]

Right all; hardly inspiring! But then there is this:

One reference implies that Phoenician originally used slashes and dots to
mark word boundaries. It continues to say that Hebrew and Aramaic scribes
borrowed the slash and dot advance, and in Aramaic used a space. Ethiopic
inscriptions used a vertical line, but on paper was written as two dots,
resembling a colon. This double-dot symbol also appears in ancient Turkic.
The Romans used the interpunct -- a small dot -- to separate words for a
while before abandoning it. Because Hebrew script and Arabic script don't
have vowels, it is particularly important to recognize word boundaries.



----- Original Message -----
From: "human being" <human at electronetwork.org>
To: "Anna Balint" <epistolaris at freemail.hu>
Cc: <syndicate at anart.no>
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 9:52 PM
Subject: [syndicate] Re: Re: 10 good reasons for net.art


>
>   in response to Anna Balint's thoughts:
>
> > - whenever the tools and materials of writing have been changed, the
> > writing
> > changed as well. Starting from the Roman letters that we still use:
> > the different Roman capitals, the capitalis quadrata and capitalis
> > rustica
> > apperead together with the inscriptions written with small peels, the
> > Serif version of capitals was engraved in predrawed forms, the
> > different roman cursives changed aspect according to the writing tool,
> > stylus or calamus, the uncial and half-uncial writing appered on the
> > payrus or pergamen of the codices, the first printed books used the
> > gothic antique letters of the manuscripts...
>
>   this was very interesting to read about, it is wondered how much of the
>   stylistic or design changes were influenced by technology and-or other
>   means (the alphabets themselves changing form), was there a moment
>   when the roman alphabet 'stabilized' for several hundred years and now
>   only changes in typography show the changes, and additions of special
>   characters like @ become part of the new alphabet, and underscore _,
>   and other signs, in relation to internet technologies, where dot
> grammar
>   becomes part of the elements of styles of writing, correct
> pronunciation...
> ...
> > But i hardly discover computer fonts, computer letters, also the
> > graphicians use use post-script design programs.
>
>   once was told about these fonts made for dot-matrix printers and
>   the early computer screen, and it took me years later to realize the
>   significant myself, their accomplishment, like screen fonts where an
>   alphabet can fit into a regular (small) format of pixels... after
> attempts
>   to construct original alphabets at this small scale pixel-by-pixel, it
> was
>   evident how much design skill is needed for a design like Emigre...
>
> Lo-Res font family by Zuzana Licko… (2)
> http://www.electronetwork.org/assemblage/zone2/emigre.htm
>
> never having had or used a laser printer, post-script fonts have been
> associated with these, but also i thought with vector fonts that can be
> sized to any scale without a change in their resolution or quality, it
> is
> unknown whether or not this is an accurate assumption of their use.
> ...
>
> > The switch of the paper based production print to the appearence on
> > the screen did not result so far in anything new.
>
>   at first i thought i agreed, in the most literal sense of typography
> if that is
>   what was being described. then, i began to consider what value the
> actual
>   type-press and blocks-of-type may have had as objects in relation to
> today's
>   technologies, where their impression is left but they generate the
> signals
>   by taking a form and imprinting it via ink (or today's
> electri/magnetic charges)
>   yet there is another 'ideal' form which is an original or a piece of
> type, or
>   a structural link, a tangible thing in this alphabet that flows as
> information.
>
>   if there are blocks of type, in the past, and these were aligned to
> create
>   a page of type or whatnot, and then printed, well, this oddly
> parallels what
>   happens with today's display technologies and in this way, as hardware
>   there are several new 'alphabets' or typefaces, in the form of LED
> displays.
>   in a sense, it is pondered if the LED display may be equivalent to a
> (lead?)
>   block of type for an earlier day printer's press, and they look like
> blocks of
>   type, themselves, too. yet, in these 'new' types, every letter and
> figure can
>   be created from one meta-character or matrix of light segments.
>
>   an overall view of this LED display technology can be seen at:
>   http://www.mitt-eget.com/displays/
>
>   and specific instances of different (hardware based) alphabets, at:
> http://www.mitt-eget.com/displays/classic.shtml
>   http://www.mitt-eget.com/displays/fivebyseven.shtml
>   http://www.mitt-eget.com/displays/fourteen.shtml
>
>   this latter 14-segment display seems to be synonymous with the 16-
>   segment display which has been explored for its alphanumeric qualities
>   as a piece of hardware with this ability to contain the entire
> alphabet and
>   numbering system in one (universal) character which is immortalized in
>   LED light segments and sold around the world embedded in technology,
>   while also being found in cultural objects predating electronics, and
> in
>   questions relating numbers and letters, and structures and language.*
>
> (for example: HIOX at http://www.electronetwork.org/exhibits/hiox/
> shows a 16-segment display and all numbers/letters in one symbol. )
>
>   that is, there are different very different (smallest) 'typefaces' for
> english,
>   for chinese, and other languages, all having different LED display
> sizes,
>   heights, widths, with this 16 segment being the smallest universal one
>   that contains all letters and numbers, unless it is morse code or maybe
>   sign language, it is guessed that a 7-segment display might do this.
>
>   for examples of the variety of LED displays, and their alphabet/
>   typographic qualities, see DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM:
>   http://www.datamath.org/Display/Display.htm though this is
>   only 7 segment displays (all numbers, only, and the links above
>   show how some letters can be also generated by this setup)...
>
> see especially: http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/1970.htm
>
> from: THE LED MUSEUM    http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/
>
> ... (snipped about Gutenberg & Microsoft)
>
>
> > But now, if I replace the scriptor's work with the printed letters, if
> > i print xx exemplaries, with xx pages, i will earn xx money.' he knew
> > perfectly that he need many exemplaries of books with many pages. Now
> > is there a book that could be sold in many exemplaries? The Bible! And
> > something that is even more promising, the Missale- the ceremony book
> > of the Roman Catholic Church that all priest have to buy. Gutenberg
> > counted that with the money he was going to
> > earn with a thousand copies of the Bible, he could buy the whole city
> > of
> > Mainz.
>
>   the parallel to this is that there is only one hardware interface
>   for all the typefaces to be available. on LCD (liquid crystal displays)
> and probably OLEDs (organic LED) displays they will have differing
> sets of how to 'display' individual characters through a circuit of
> electrical current or charges, even electronic paper may shuffle
> a certain pattern into passive rendering of new letters and numbers
> in a given, custom display, resolution, whatnot. this hardware aspect
> is like the typographers physical type and the printing press, and it
> may bring a tangibility back to the immaterial aspects of software
> rendering images in flickering light, like cinema, an illusion eyed.
>
> to give a sense of this 'new alphabet' and its difference from software
> is that it has physical properties, it can be made up of a screen or of
> components (LCDs/LEDs), and if going into the land of miniature
> electronics displays, the two line displays or four line displays that
> are sold for pagers and even PDA-type organizers, have displays
> related to the size of the screen, and likely universal characters built
> into the display that are driven by pre-designed and built circuits, to
> make an alphabet appear on the screen instead of having to invent
> one. this is speculated it is how it works, have only seen the outside
> and taken apart one thing that would seem to indicate an LCD acts
> like an LED 7-segment display in that it has several inputs which
> can be turned on at the same time to make certain characters show
> up in certain positions on the screen or display, pre-wired this way.
>
> other ways that these electronic (all-in-one) displays are of interest,
> particularly the LED displays is that they can come in colors, like
> red, green, and blue, and also infrared and even, ultraviolet it would
> seem. this would mean, for instance, one could have a big display
> the size of a car, a few miles away from the observer, say, and it
> would be invisible yet if someone had infrared (IR) binoculars
> they would be able to see and read whatever is being displayed,
> whether in code or in plain text.
>
> LED (light emitting diode) displays are light-sources, while LCDs
> seem to be reflective, needing light to see or needing backlighting
> at night to be able to read them. now, large billboards in stadium-
> like setups, for outdoor advertising can use LEDs to make animated
> and illuminated signs, driven by computers, like gigantic 'screenage'
> (versus 'signage' it is pondered if it might be considered this way).
>
> > Nowadays i see new font and screen design only trough visual poetry -
>
>   and, with LEDs maybe concrete poetry.
>
>
> > [While the ways content-editing of the texts owe a lot to the
> > hypertext, the typographic mirror is also a domain where i hardly
> > notice any change.
>
>   with the LED displays for numbers (7-segment) and alphabets (16-
>   segments+) the entirety of the world's languages are rendered in
>   hardware driven typographies, using electrons to illuminate the
>   pages, as Jenny Holzers work has demonstrated with stock-market
>   scrolling displays, and others. the page is imprinted within electronic
>   hardware, the software captured in computing interfaces oftentimes,
>   while signage and displays of various types preceding or leading up
>   to the computer, and integrating with it, share common traits. not sure
>   if there is a formal story of such a subject, though, so this is
> guesswork.
> brian
>
>   bc microsite http://www.electronetwork.org/bc/
>   ~e-list http://www.electronetwork.org/list/
>


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