Ideograms in Polyscopic Modeling
Dino Karabeg
Department of Informatics
University of Oslo
dino@ifi.uio.no
Der Denker gleicht sehr dem Zeichner, der alle
Zusammenhänge nachzeichnen will.
(A thinker is very much like a draughtsman whose
aim it is to represent all the interrelationships between things.)
— Ludwig Wittgenstein
Abstract
We argue that the task of representing interrelationships between things requires the use of visual techniques. Our common verbal factual approaches to information tend to miss
something essential – the "perspective". In the article the perspective is defined and explained with the help of a visual technique, the ideograms. It is shown that ideograms can be used
for expressing and correcting the perspective. Methodologically, the article is an introduction to ideograms as an information design technique. Eight applications of ideograms are
discussed.
Introduction
Information is not only a collection of verbal facts, or in any
case it should not be that. We show that verbal factual informing lacks something essential – the "perspective", as we call
it. By using a visual technique – the ideograms – we are able
to define the perspective, explain why it is lacking in verbal
factual information and express it a variety of situations.
We also discuss a closely related theme, the role of art in
informing. At present, science and art are two strictly divided
realms of culture, while informing is restricted to describing
daily events and separated from both. Polyscopic modeling [2]
is a non-traditional approach to informing in which the orientations and methods of science and art are combined, adapted
and made applicable to any issue. We point to several essential functions that ideograms – an artistic technique – fulfill in
polyscopic modeling. We show that ideograms complement
verbal factual information.
From the technical point of view, this article is an introduction to ideograms and their use in information design. The
article is a continuation of [3] where the scientific usage of
ideograms in polyscopic modeling is explained. Here we focus
on ideograms as an artistic technique and discuss the artistic
approach and criteria in informing.
The article is structured as two parallel narratives. Each
of the eight sections of the article presents an example of an
ideogram. Those examples demonstrate various functions that
ideograms can perform in information design. At the same
time, each of the ideograms conveys a message. Taken together, those messages compose a coherent narrative about
the polyscopic modeling approach to information design [1],
showing why ideograms are needed in that approach, explaining how art and science are combined and why such combination is natural and necessary.
Each ideogram is explained in terms of three notes. The Explanation is a discussion of the graphic form of the ideogram
from which the message of the ideogram follows. The Usage
highlights the specific function of ideograms that the ideogram
represents. The Message is an approximate verbal interpretation of the meaning of the ideogram. When an ideogram has
more than one possible interpretation we use the interpretation
that suits our narrative.
1. Depicting abstract ideas
Figure 1. Yin-Yang ideogram.
1.1. Explanation
2.2. Usage
The circle is a universal symbol of the whole. "Yin" and
"yang" are generic names for two polar opposites. In a narrower sense, they denote light and darkness. The Yin-Yang
ideogram (see Figure 1) suggests that every whole has a visible and an obscure aspect.
Ideograms are a useful tool for defining abstract concept.
Analogies with physical objects and situations, which can easily be expressed by pictures, allow us to apply insights from
a familiar context in an unfamiliar one. In this example the
concept "perspective" is defined with the help of an ideogram
by alluding to the etymological meaning of the word "perspective" which is "seeing through". The relationship between information and perspective is explained. It is suggested that the
perspective is a natural purpose of informing, as illuminating
what is hidden is the natural purpose of a flashlight.
1.2. Usage
Ideograms depict and symbolize abstract ideas, giving them
body and shape so that we can see them, grasp them, talk about
them and relate to them emotionally. The Yin-Yang ideogram
symbolizes the idea of a whole as consisting of a bright and a
shadow side.
2.3. Message
The "perspective" means making a subject or an issue transparent, depicting its correct shape and proportions, allowing
nothing that is essential to remain obscure or hidden and making the function, size and relative importance of each of its
constituent elements obvious.
1.3. Message
The message of the yin-yang ideogram is that every whole
has a visible and a hidden aspect. Human judgment is deceived
by seeing only what is apparent, considering that as the whole
and making conclusions based on such limited vision. Wisdom
means conscious striving to uncover what is subtle and hidden
in order to complete, balance and correct the understanding of
the whole.
3. Comparing abstract concepts
2. Ideographic concept definitions
Figure 3. Factual truth and perspective.
3.1. Explanation
The ideogram in Figure 3 further explains the meaning of
the perspective by comparing it to another concept which has a
similar function. The perspective is represented by the circle.
The point represents an isolated fact and the corresponding orientation in informing. The symbol that connects them signifies
distinction or contrast. It is suggested that while perspective
and factual truth both serve as criteria for evaluating information, they are in many respects different or complementary to
one another.
Figure 2. Perspective ideogram.
2.1. Explanation
3.2. Usage
In the Perspective ideogram (see Figure 2) light is used as
a metaphor for information. When the light of information is
carefully pointed and shined upon some whole (represented by
the Yin-Yang symbol) then whatever was hidden or obscure
becomes visible and transparent. The whole appears before
our eyes in correct shape and proportions.
Contrast can be naturally expressed by ideograms. The
ideogram in this example expresses a contrasting relationships
between two abstract concepts. The relationship between the
perspective and the factual truth - two epistemological orientations - is contrasted by depicting the one as a circle and the
other one as a point. The difference between the perspective
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as a wholistic notion of truth and the reduced and disembodied
factual truth is visually suggested by the contrast between the
corresponding geometrical figures.
3.3. Message
As the orientation shared by both science and media informing, factual truth is the dominant criterion used in informing.
In polyscopic modeling, the perspective is one of the four criteria which together refine, complement and replace factual truth
as the exclusive criterion.
Figure 4. Perspective lost.
4. Ideographic proofs
The Factual Truth and Perspective ideogram depicts the differences between perspective and factual truth. Factual truth is
the truth reduced to a point – i.e. to a fact which must be either
true or false. Perspective, on the other hand, is the wholistic
notion of truth which requires representing the correct outlook
of the whole. Factual truth allows us to isolate a detail from the
whole. The perspective requires that we see the whole in correct shape and proportions and that we understand each detail
in terms of the whole it belongs to. Factual truth demands precision. Perspective allows us to round off, generalize and approximate when that serves clarity and insight. When we judge
according to factual truth, every piece of information seems
useful. According to the perspective criterion, massive factual
information may even be considered harmful, if its volume obscures the perspective.
4.1. Explanation
The Perspective Lost ideogram (see Figure 4) is a distorted
human figure whose organs (eyes, nose, ears etc.) represent
facts and whose over-all shape represents the perspective. By
making some pieces larger and others smaller and by shifting their relative positions, one can distort the human figure
as much as desired – turn a beauty into a monster or vice versa.
By leaving out some details it is possible to do even more –
change a human figure into something which does not even remotely resemble a human. It is suggested that the perspective
can be arbitrarily distorted without violating the factual truth.
Factual truth does not at all guarantee that we will be told what
something is really like. The perspective, a complementary and
independent criterion, must also be used.
Factual truth and perspective as criteria give rise to two very
different, complementary approaches to informing. Factual informing requires that we remain in the light of existing reliedupon specializations and methods and deal with only those issues that can be understood with relative or supposed certainty.
The perspective as criterion encourages us to use all available
means in order to penetrate through what is hidden and obscure
as well as we can.
4.2. Usage
Ideograms can be helpful in proving a point or justifying a
statement. In the present example the need for the perspective
criterion is justified by an ideogram. The added touch of humor
is appropriate: The incongruity of a seemingly sound practice
(exclusive use of factual truth) is made obvious by depicting it
in terms of an incongruous image.
Factual truth as criterion naturally leads to separation of art
and science. When science is guided by factual truth alone it
tends to extract the part from the whole and study it in isolation
in order to produce a fact. Art, having no purpose in so conceived informing, turns to producing "fiction" and completely
separates from science and from informing. When, on the other
hand, the perspective criterion is used, then the demand to express the true image of the whole makes art indispensable.
4.3. Message
Even when all the facts (nose, eyes, ears etc.) are in place,
something essential may still be missing: The whole thing (its
outlook, condition and meaning). Furthermore, factual truth
does not subsume a complete knowledge of facts. Without violating the factual truth the outlook of the whole – the perspective – may be distorted to an arbitrarily large degree.
We rely upon factual truth as criterion because of the impression of rigor, precision and certainty it affords. But without the perspective to give them the correct meaning and shape,
Factual truth leads to specialization. Oriented towards factual truth, the sciences tend to specialize and produce factual
knowledge in restricted areas. Perspective leads to unification. It demands that we put the facts together and produce
integrated, wholistic knowledge.
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interior are more important than the obvious and immediate effect felt by the tongue. Metaphorically, however, the ideogram
reflects upon a much larger issue than nutrition – our cultural
orientation.
Guided by the naive criteria (such as whether something
feels attractive) we tend to ignore the hidden and long-term effects of our choices. Naive choice is not only natural; it is also
promoted by advertising. But as even a well-tasting meal can
be poisonous, so can seemingly pleasant things in general have
a variety of unwanted consequences. By bringing the importance of the hidden aspect to our attention, the ideogram helps
us correct the naive perspective.
Our sensory perception has been tuned by evolution to serve
us under natural conditions. The more civilized our living conditions are, the less we can rely on sensory guidance. It is now
possible to produce "junk food" which satisfies the taste but
fails to provide the nutrition. It does not seem too far fetched to
generalize and talk also about the possibility of junk entertainment, junk information etc. Obviously, our sensory perception
can be deceived by technological means. We now depend on
explicit information to orient our choices.
facts can be arbitrarily deceptive. Based on factual truth alone,
our ideas of anything, even of ourselves, may be as disfigured
as the creature in the ideogram.
5. Correcting the perspective
Figure 5. Perspective of well-being.
6. Depicting a gestalt
5.1. Explanation
The ideogram in Figure 5 is a contour of a human whose
tongue and stomach are depicted respectively as yin and yang
or the visible and the hidden. The yin and the yang in the
ideogram are conspicuously out of balance: The tongue is a lot
smaller than the stomach. It is suggested that although wellbeing (understood loosely as pleasure, happiness or whatever
else the reader may attribute to the term) appears to be a result of direct sensory stimulation (represented by the tongue),
it is in fact far more dependent on nourishment and cultivation
(represented by the stomach).
5.2. Usage
Figure 6. Information design challenge.
As visual images, ideograms can easily express what verbal
facts cannot – the outlook of the whole. This example shows
how an ideogram can be used for correcting a distorted perspective. The perspective shown by the ideogram is naturally
distorted by a limitation of our senses: We feel the taste of food
and we tend to judge the foods accordingly. But such "naive"
judgment de-emphasizes nutrition, which is the true purpose of
eating.
6.1. Explanation
The Information Design Challenge ideogram (see Figure
6) depicts the modern culture as a bus and its informing as
the headlights of the bus which are traditional candles. The
ideogram evokes a number of rather obvious associations: Our
present informing is suited to preindustrial information technology and preindustrial role of information. Information now
has a new role: Steering the technology. That new role requires
a very different perspective from the one which is provided by
the existing narrowly focused informing. A technologically advanced culture with traditional informing is dysfunctional and
5.3. Message
The direct message of the ideogram is about physical nourishment. The ideogram suggests that the subtle but lasting effects of food that materialize gradually in the darkness of our
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7.1. Explanation
dangerous. But the situation can be remedied by designing an
informing methodology which suit the culture.
The ideogram in Figure 7 symbolizes polyscopic information. The triangle in the ideogram represents a hierarchy of
viewpoints or "scopes". In order to understand the idea of a
hierarchy of scopes it is useful to imagine that the triangle is
a mountain and that its points are viewpoints. From the top of
the mountain one sees the broad features of the terrain (a village, a forest, a lake) but not the details. From the foot of the
mountain one sees the details (people, houses, trees) but not the
whole terrain. Likewise, in polyscopic modeling the broad and
general "high-level views" are distinguished from the precise
and detailed "low-level views".
The circle represents the wholistic and rounded off highlevel views and also art as the producer of such views. The
square represents the analytic and precise low-level views and
science as their producer. The circle and the square together
compose an "i", the initial of "information". The square is
the foundation of the circle. The ideogram suggests that
polyscopic modeling produces information which consists of
wholistic high-level views that are founded in analytic lowlevel ones.
6.2. Usage
The main message of the Information Design Challenge
ideogram is an "appropriate gestalt". An appropriate gestalt
is a way of perceiving a situation which is appropriate to the
situation. An appropriate gestalt points to appropriate action.
In the present case, the suggested action is to develop an informing which suits the needs of the culture.
In the modern world, the gestalt information is essential:
The dangers which our preindustrial ancestors needed to respond to were usually obvious; the appropriate responses were
either instinctive or learned. But now our typical dangers and
opportunities are new and invisible, hidden in the complex
structure of the global economy and culture. We are facing
the challenge of designing an informing which can make those
dangers and opportunities seem as real to us as wolves and forest fires were to our ancestors, and which can make the right
course of action equally obvious. Ideograms with metaphorical
images are a natural means to that end.
7.2. Usage
6.3. Message
The ideogram represents the polyscopic modeling methodology in a nutshell. By contemplating the ideogram with the
help of the accompanying text some of the main characteristics
of the polyscopic modeling approach to information design can
be grasped.
Our culture has changed radically, but our approach to informing has remained in essence the same as it was before the
Industrial Revolution. To our traditional ancestors, the norms
and customs of the tradition provided the recipies for handling
most situations. But the traditional recipes no longer work in
the modern world. Informing now has a new role – steering
the technologically advanced culture by orienting our choices.
Traditional informing did not need to fulfill that role. It is therefore not suited to that role.
7.3. Message
Polyscopic information – information given in terms of
multiple simple, coherent views – is the natural way to provide both the perspective and the facts, both a clear and simple
view of the whole and the voluminous details.
The information "i" suggests that combining the expressiveness of art with the rigor of science is the way to produce polyscopically structured information. It is also suggested
how art and science are combined: Art expresses the high-level
views, science justifies them. Art gives information a perspective, science gives it credibility and precision. Art (the circle)
and science (the square) are not considered as separate kinds
of activities, but as inseparable sides or aspects of all informing (the "i").
The described combination of art and science is necessary
if we should produce information which is both expressive and
reliable, which both shows us what is hidden to our senses and
gives us confidence in such enlarged vision. Such information
and only such information can be so highly credible that it can
even be used for correcting direct sensory perception. We need
such information in order to develop informed choice as a cultural alternative to naive choice.
7. Imaging a methodology
Figure 7. Polyscopic information.
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8. Imaging patterns
relationships of any kind, even emotional. Mathematical formulas serve for naming and representing mathematical functions; ideograms naturally serve for representing patterns. Our
present example is the ideogram of Goethe’s pattern.
A typical result in physics is a statement that some given
physical entities are related in the way that is specified by a
given mathematical formula. In the statement of polyscopic
modeling results ideograms assume the role of mathematical
formulas. In the present case, the result is that art and science
evolve according to the Goethe’s pattern. This result is a qualitative law of change which allows us to explain and anticipate
the behavior of the considered entities.
Patterns, and ideograms that represent them, are also used
for defining concepts. In this example the concepts "differentiation" and "sublimation" are defined.
Figure 8. Goethe’s pattern.
8.1. Explanation
8.3. Message
The darkness and the light in the Goethe’s Pattern ideogram
(see Figure 8) represent two "contraries" (complementary
things or qualities). The ideogram represents a particular pattern of evolution where the contraries first "differentiate" and
then "sublimate". The detailed explanation of this ideogram
is given in [4]. Here we provide only a cryptic interpretation
where the contraries are reason and perception, or science and
art, their cultural counterparts.
The natural function of reason and perception is to complement and correct one another and in that way guide us to truth
(represented by the yin-yang symbol in the ideogram). But
reason and perception can fulfill that role only if they are well
developed and autonomous. In the original, naive state, reason
and perception are mixed together. They first need to differentiate. When differentiation is complete, reason and perception
are independent of each other. Differentiated science stands
wholly on rational grounds; differentiated art is pure, independent of reason or utility. It might then seem that the evolution has been completed. What has been completed, however,
is only a preliminary phase, in which reason and perception
(or science and art) have been prepared to assume their natural roles in the evolution of culture. A whole new course of
development – "sublimation" – is about to begin during which
reason and perception (or science and art) draw closer to one
another by fulfilling their natural roles.
The result that science and art evolve according to Goethe’s
pattern is carefully justified in [4]. It is shown that we are now
close to completing the differentiation phase and about to begin
the sublimation phase which will naturally bring science and
art closer together.
Sublimation may elevate both science and art to new
heights. As an approach to informing, combined art and science may be able to give our culture the faculty of vision.
Conclusion
The traditional view according to which information is a
collection of verbal facts prevents us from taking proper advantage of visual techniques. That view reflects the limited
role of explicit information in the preindustrial culture and the
limitations of the preindustrial information technology. In the
modern culture, information has a new and essential role – to
guide the development and use of technology. In order to fulfill its new role, informing needs a new orientation, which we
have described by introducing the notions “perspective” and
“gestalt”. Ideograms and visual techniques in general find their
natural purpose in so oriented informing.
References
[1] D. Karabeg. Information design. Technical Report 280, Institute
of Informatics, University of Oslo, January 2000. Preliminary
version in IVLA Symposium Proceedings, Eskilstuna 1999.
[2] D. Karabeg. Polyscopic modeling. Technical Report 281, Institute of Informatics, University of Oslo, June 2000.
[3] D. Karabeg. Role of ideograms in polyscopic modeling. IVSA
annual conference, 1999. Journal article in preparation.
[4] D. Karabeg. What’s going on? Book manuscript in preparation.
8.2. Usage
In polyscopic modeling the word "pattern" is a technical
term which denotes an abstract relationship. Patterns can be
understood by considering a familiar special case: mathematical functions. As the mathematical function y = ax2 is a specific relationship between generic variables x and y, so is every
pattern a specific kind of relationship between some generic
entities. But unlike mathematical functions, patterns can be
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