Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Graphic Design

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Accepted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts at The Savannah College of Art and Design

________________________________________________________________________/__/__ (Professor Scott Boylston) Committee Chair ________________________________________________________________________/__/__ (Professor Jenny Kuhla) Committee Member 1 ________________________________________________________________________/__/__ (Professor Sharokin Betgevargiz) Committee Member 2

Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Graphic Design

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graphic Design Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Savannah College of Art and Design By Sherry Lynne Saunders

Savannah, Georgia June, 2011

 Table of Contents

Abstract - 1Introduction -2Statement of Influence -4Literature Review -7Methodology -16Discussion -20Conclusion -28Works Cited -30Bibliography -32Figures -35Visual Thesis -40-

Saunders 1

Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Graphic Design

Sherry Lynne Saunders

June, 2011

The profession of graphic design has devalued ambiguous communication, and thus designers often do not learn the advantages it offers. Too often, the focus of design history is on clear communication and less about work that activates the mind of viewers. This paper analyzes historic examples of graphic design and how they communicate to viewers. A continuum for visual ambiguity is established by employing William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity. By acknowledging ambiguity as an effective form of communication, graphic designers can expand their language and broaden the path of communication.

Saunders 2 Introduction

This thesis examines ambiguity and indeterminacy in graphic design. The very nature of visual communication can be ambiguous and indeterminate and yet the field of graphic design does not take advantage of these concepts as communication tools. Ambiguity, by definition, means “uncertainty” or “inexactness of meaning,”1 and indeterminacy means “not exactly known, established, or defined.”2 Ambiguity and indeterminacy are not typically associated with the study of graphic design, but I argue the relationship between them is in need of further investigation.

Graphic design is a profession that has evolved quite dramatically since the beginning of the twentieth century. Like the mass culture of which it is a part, graphic design is not fixed and is always in a state of flux. Despite its own disciplinary indeterminacy, graphic design espouses clarity and even over determined meaning as ideals.

It is difficult to establish a singular definition for graphic design. When designers discuss the practice of graphic design, they often use broad overarching terms. For instance, respected graphic designer Jessica Helfand provides the following description: “Graphic design is the most ubiquitous of all the arts. It responds to needs at once personal and public, embraces concerns both economic and ergonomic, and is informed by many disciplines, including art and architecture, philosophy and ethics, literature and language, science and politics and performance.”3 Graphic design historian Philip Meggs believes graphic design is linked to the culture more closely than any other expression. He says, “The immediacy and ephemeral nature

1

Oxford Dictionaries Online, s.v. "Ambiguity," accessed April 19, 2011, http://oxforddictionaries.com.

Oxford Dictionaries Online, s.v. "Indeterminacy," accessed April 19, 2011, http://oxforddictionaries.com.

3 Jessica Helfand, "What Is Graphic Design?," AIGA | the Professional Association for Design, section goes here, accessed April 14, 2011, http://www.aiga.org/.

2

Saunders 3 of graphic design, combined with its link with the social, political and economic life of its culture, enable it to more closely express the Zeitgeist of an epoch than many other forms of human expression.”4 Another common way to define graphic design relates more to the functional aspects of the field. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Graphic designers – or graphic artists – plan, analyze, and create visual solutions to communications problems. They find the most effective way to get messages across in print and electronic media using color, type, illustration, photography, animation, and various print and layout techniques.”5 These three descriptions prove that the definition of graphic design itself is ambiguous.

It is beneficial for graphic designers to understand ambiguity and indeterminacy because of the potential they have in broadening visual communication. By analyzing historic examples of graphic design, I will show how ambiguity has always been employed as an effective communication tool.

4

Philip B. Meggs, Alston W. Purvis, and Philip B. Meggs, Meggs' History of Graphic Design (Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006), ix.

5 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Graphic Designers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos090.htm (visited April 14, 2011).

Saunders 4 Statement of Influence

As a graphic designer, I feel rules often govern my practice. I think this is a valuable way to learn and understand graphic design, but there are also ways to effectively subvert these rules.

Many people like to say that once you know the rules, you can then break them, but do so with intent. It seems this idea needs further refinement. Instead of just breaking rules with a purpose, maybe we should understand what breaking rules really means. Often times these rule breakers are creating more challenging visuals for their viewers. Ambiguous and indeterminate forms are often the result of such ‘rule breaking.’ If graphic designers can understand these methods of subverting the rules as thoroughly as they understand the rules themselves, their ability to create a breadth of solutions would be strengthened by such knowledge.

Many critics of design argue that ambiguity is self-indulgent and comes at the expense of clear communication. Design critic, Rick Poynor, on the other hand, does not feel this way. His writing often celebrates and recognizes the more marginalized forms of graphic design. His reputation helps elevate and legitimize these designs. Rick Poynor influenced this paper because he challenges the point of view that graphic design has only one purpose, to communicate for a client. Self-authored work is often the source of many ambiguous forms of graphic design; other practitioners and critics criticize it due to its lack of a client and added artistic nature. Poynor argues this criticism of self-authored graphic design can be limiting and problematic for the field of graphic design. With this critique, Poynor is showing how the challenge of visual ambiguity in graphic design needs more thought and investigation before it is dismissed. There are potentially unforeseen opportunities in this arena that designers can use to create a different type of visual communication, one that possibly allows the viewer more of a participating role. His

Saunders 5 contemporary point of view is one of only a few voices articulating a clear and reasoned defense of the marginalized forms of graphic design.

Michael Rock’s discussion of graphic authorship also influenced this thesis topic.

Graphic designers throughout history have gone back and forth as to the role of authorship in their own work. Many practitioners of design, as early as the 1920s, have used a more scientific approach to their work; taking on the role of a facilitator of the message and not the creator of the message itself.6 The role of the client relationship is problematic to authorship in design in that clients often demand a certain precision in the way in which the message is being conveyed.

Design is often very collaborative and this can blur the lines of authorship as well.7 In ambiguous design the viewer can also take on the role of author by completing the meaning of work.

Studying the history of graphic design, I have discovered many graphic designers who have broken boundaries. April Greiman is one graphic designer who has been a huge influence on me, and I look to her work for inspiration when I try to consider the impact of ambiguity on graphic design. Greiman had a large impact on the post modernist graphic design movement. She challenged the rigid guidelines of the modernist aesthetic and broke from the prescribed grid.

She experimented with layout, technology and form in order to create a unique aesthetic. Many criticized her for being self-indulgent, but this aesthetic was actually marketable and for a long time clients sought her out for her unique aesthetic. Her attempts at playing with typography and space made the design exciting and new, and despite it being ambiguous at times, viewers must have responded well to the aesthetic because clients were eager to have this look and feel. I am especially drawn to Greiman’s Design Quarterly poster titled Does it Make Sense? (Fig. 1). She

6

Michael Rock, "Graphic Authorship," ed. Steven Heller, in The Education of a Graphic Designer, 2nd ed. (New York: Allworth Press, 2006), 202.

7 Ibid.

Saunders 6 challenges viewers to consider a different point of view, and she created the poster at a time when the field of graphic design was on the cusp of a great change. The tension she created with the unknown reflected the state of the graphic design world at the time.

Graphic design needs to clearly identify these more ambiguous and indeterminate works in order to understand their communicative effects. Once a continuum for ambiguity is created, it can become part of the language of graphic design.

Saunders 7 Literature Review

Debating Ambiguity in Graphic Design Graphic design is often defined by its systems and rules of organization. Hierarchy, grids, layout, legibility, readability, and usability are part of the language that defines these systems.

Graphic design is typically a structured and ordered process. Many graphic designers build their career on creating clear visuals and have skillfully mastered strategies to reduce ambiguity in visual communication. Design critics acknowledge that ambiguity exists in the world of graphic design, but there is a debate about whether this is an effective way to communicate with viewers.

Graphic designers such as Jorge Frascara believe designers have a responsibility to the audience to produce clear visual messages. The public needs understandable communication and the task of the graphic designer is to provide this desired clarity. Frascara argues that intentionally creating ambiguous messages is abusive to viewers, and graphic designers must avoid this type of obscure visual communication.8 In his article Graphic Design: Fine Art or

Social Science, Frascara rejects personal expression in graphic design because it is not communicating an exact message that relates to the product or event it is promoting. For instance, he discusses the work of El Lissitzky, a renowned avant-garde graphic designer: His visual language was tremendously abstract, as inappropriate to mass communication as Kurt Schwitter’s graphics for Pelikan ink were inappropriate for the product. Pelikan ink, used for line drawing and calligraphy, was presented surrounded by geometric typography, black and red bars, and rectangles (fig. 2). Not only did that imagery not express the product, but it did not even relate to the logo or the label.9

8

Jorge Frascara et al., User-centred Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change (London: Taylor & Francis, 1997), 15.

9 Jorge Frascara, "Graphic Design: Fine Art or Social Science?," in Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design, ed. Audrey Bennett (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), 27.

Saunders 8 Rick Poynor, on the other hand, asserts, “graphic design and typography have rarely been about pure functionality. There has always been an expressive dimension, a possibility for the designer to say something more about the given material of the image.”10 Poynor acknowledges that the nature of the client/designer relationship makes it impossible for designers to freely express themselves, but designers need to consider the possibility of using personal expression in commercial work. If it is deemed impossible, then all visual communication becomes is a way to manipulate viewers in order to sell goods and services and design becomes a degraded area that is only about commercial persuasion.11 The International Style, also known as modernism, promotes clarity and functionality above all else. While this was revolutionary and politically charged when first employed by the Dadaists and Russian Constructivists, after 1950 the corporate world adopted these techniques and neutralized their original political undertones.12 Even today, this style used and is still primarily associated with corporate culture. In his article “Philosophy, Graphic Design and Virtue of Clarity,” author Adrian Shaughnessy, discusses a trend for graphic design students to use ambiguity in their work. He describes this as a reaction to commercial work: “What bright intelligent person would want to produce the sort of facile and simplistic work that characterizes most advertising, branding and consumer driven design? Much more exciting to dive into the murky sphere of ambiguity, mystery and gratuitous complexity.” 13 Shaughnessy believes students are incapable of producing simple and clear visual communication.14 This process might begin in college for many graphic designers because there is more acceptance and room for

10

Rick Poynor, "Syncretisms and Convergences Keynote Speaker Rick Poynor," in AC-DC Contemporary Art Contemporary Design, ed. Jean-Pierre Greff (Geneve: Hautecole D'art Et De Design, 2008), 39.

11 Ibid, 40.

12 Stephen Eskilson, Graphic Design: a New History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 300.

13 Adrian Shaughnessy, "Philosophy, Graphic Design and Virtue of Clarity," Design Observer, May 10, 2011, http://designobserver.com/.

14 Ibid.

Saunders 9 ambiguity in academic spheres. Once these students enter the workforce, they are expected to communicate for brands and other commercial applications. This current trend of ambiguity in student work is likely a reaction to the lack of ambiguity in the commercial world.

Designers have different opinions regarding the importance of clarity and ambiguity; however, most would agree that it is not acceptable to communicate with an authoritarian approach. Socially conscious designers such as Jorge Frascara acknowledge that when a designer has complete authority over a message, this may not be the most positive way to communicate with a viewer: In authority-based, unilinear, top-down communications, such as is the case in the political propaganda of totalitarian governments, communications are unethical; they are conceived to be believed without being interpreted. In these cases, not only the interpreter is transformed into an object by the producer but also the producer is in turn transformed into an object by the interpreter: an object of awe or an object of hatred. Communications that offer no space for interpretation or for the construction of individual responses foster extreme responses.15 Anne Bush would agree that authoritarian design approaches are irresponsible: she states “a more accurate understanding of visual communication invokes not only the voices of designers, but the voices of designers in concert with the voices of the audience.”16

Ambiguity Challenges Authorship One of the benefits of ambiguous graphic design is that it requires the audience to be a more active participant. When something is visually ambiguous, it becomes difficult to say who the author is because the meaning of the work can vary from viewer to viewer. Although reasons for this vary, the concept of the designer as facilitator began to shift to designer as author.

15

Jorge Frascara et al., User-centred Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change (London: Taylor & Francis, 1997), 17-18.

16 Anne Bush, "Beyond Pro Bono: Graphic Design’s Social Work," in Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility, ed. Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne (New York: Allworth Press, 2003), 26.

Saunders 10 Roland Barthes’ essay Death of the Author, first published in 1967, was written in the midst of this shift. He argues with the death of the author comes the birth of the reader and the reader is able to generate the meaning of the work.17 This is very important to visually ambiguous communication because the reader/viewer is invited to complete the meaning.

A designer can control many of the parameters of his or her own message, but the reader is always going to bring their own experience to the work. If the intended message is presented clearly to viewers, the audience will likely understand the intended message, but if the message is meant to be ambiguous and varied to each viewer, then the viewer and the creator are seen as collaborators. As design critic, Rick Poynor, points out, in many instances this type of communication “does not solve a communication problem so much as present the viewer with a communication problem to solve.”18 By presenting the viewer with more questions than answers, authority over the message is given back to the viewer.

The Viewer’s Desire for Ambiguity Studies in visual perception report that viewers actually enjoy ambiguity that requires problem solving. For instance, if you cannot solve a riddle, you may get frustrated and have difficulty with letting it go, but it is also liberating when you finally discover the answer. Author Carolyn M. Bloomer describes the experience, “when the answer provides your mind with the meaning it needs, you are relieved, and your laughter discharges the energy formed in the tension…People actually seem to enjoy this pattern of frustration followed by tension release.”19 There is a satisfying end to the process when the solution is revealed. The difficulty in pursuing

17

Roland Barthes, "Death of the Author" (1968), in Image, Music, Text: Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath., trans. Stephen Heath (New York: Hill and Wang, 1977).

18 Rick Poynor, Design without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition (London: Booth-Cleborn, 1998), 15.

19 Carolyn M. Bloomer, Principles of Visual Perception (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976), pg. 12.

Saunders 11 visual ambiguity is the fact that viewers are typically trying to eliminate ambiguity from their mind. It also shows that people will tend to engage with it because there is a desire to complete the meaning, yet they will find that in ambiguous communication there is no right or wrong answer. Some will have more tolerance for this open-endedness than others, which is why it is important to establish a continuum for visual ambiguity. It is up to the designer to decide how much ambiguity is appropriate to employ.

In today’s fast paced and image overloaded world, viewers may resist ambiguity, but it can slow viewers down and give them time to have a sensory experience. In her article Against

Interpretation, author Susan Sontag argues that interpretation is limiting work to just its content and not acknowledging form: “In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. Interpretation makes art manageable, conformable.”20 Sontag believes that interpretation focuses too much on content and devalues form. At one time, this may have been revolutionary, but she points out that today, there is too much of this going on and viewers are forgetting to enjoy the form and sensory experience that artwork provides. Sontag claims that interpretation “reinforces the principle of redundancy that is the principal affliction of modern life.”21 It is important to note Sontag is describing the concept of entropy and redundancy. In 1948, Claude Shannon developed this concept in relation to how information is obtained. Most simply put, Shannon’s argument for entropy states that the more random and unpredictable something is, the more information it can contain. To illustrate this idea, he uses streams of numbers also called ‘bits.’ This may seem like

20

Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation," in Against Interpretation and Other Essays (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966), 8.

21 Ibid, 13.

Saunders 12 a contradiction because something random would not seem to carry out a purposeful message: “But Shannon’s point is that streams look random – the ones that are the least predictable – are the ones that are likely to carry the most information per symbol. The nonrandom-looking ones, the predictable streams, are redundant and therefore probably carry less information per symbol than the random-looking ones do.”22 When entropy and redundancy are applied to graphic design, one return to the idea that people are generally interested in problem solving and ambiguity, and they tend to want to figure things out. With today’s saturation of consumer imagery, many messages are becoming overused and redundant, which means they carry limited or no information to viewers. There is so much redundancy that much of the information that is presented is not really carrying any message or at least not one that anyone is paying attention to.

If we think of entropy as a something that takes advantage of ambiguity, then it could surprise and delight a viewer, and captivate viewers with a powerful message. I argue that viewers crave this type of communication in reaction to redundancy.23

Considerations of Intent in Ambiguity Author William Empson observes the value of ambiguity at length in his book Seven

Types of Ambiguity. By using ambiguity intentionally and with thought and consideration, Empson writes that ambiguity adds much value to a poetic work: “An ambiguity, then, is not satisfying in itself, nor is it, considered a device on its own, a thing to be attempted; it must in each case arise from, and be justified by, the peculiar requirements of the situation. On the other

22

Charles Seife, Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes (New York: Viking, 2006), 74.

23 I’d like to point out here that my colleague, Joseph Achille Fioramonti, from Savannah College of Art and Design has written extensively on this topic in his MFA thesis titled The Nature of Information: Utilizing the Principles of Information Theory for Better Visual Communication, which was published in 2010 to the SCAD library digital thesis collection.

Saunders 13 hand, it is a thing which the more interesting and valuable situations are more likely to justify.”24 Empson admits that it is important to try not to be ambiguous in a work and this strategy is helpful as “a necessary safeguard against being ambiguous without proper occasion, and it leads to more serious ambiguities when such occasions arise.”25 This distinction is quite important. It is one thing to be ambiguous with an intention, and it is quite different when ambiguity results in miscommunication.

The following case study illustrates a situation in which unintended ambiguity occurred.

In Anne Bush’s article Beyond Pro Bono: Graphic Design’s Social Work, she discusses a case where a poster did not communicate the intended message to its audience. The Mexican government commissioned the design of the poster, and it was meant to be a campaign to inform the indigenous population about health and nutrition. The poster depicts a boy alone in traditional dress, and he is smiling directly at the camera (fig. 3). The designer of this poster may have had a clear message, but he or she did not predict the misinterpretation that would ensue.

The indigenous population, with its strong ties to community, believed the image of the boy alone was sad and they could not understand why he was smiling. Also, the grainy black and white image represented a documentary style photograph. This combined with the traditional clothing that is usually saved for special occasions, made viewers feel that the poster was likely another tourism poster and thus they ignored it.26 The most negative effect was that the poster “served to reinforce regional fears of governmental encroachment and the dissolution of traditional ways of life.”27 This example of miscommunication shows how ambiguity and multiple interpretations had a negative impact on visual communication. By acknowledging the

24

William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity ([New York]: New Directions, 1966), 235.

Ibid.

26 Bush, 27.

27 Ibid, 28.

25

Saunders 14 limits of ambiguity in visual communication, one can begin to understand its true benefits.

In the article, Ambiguity as a Resource for Design, authors William W. Gaver, Jake Beaver, and Steve Benford show that when it is intended and well conceived, ambiguity is a positive design tool. They argue, “The most important benefit of ambiguity is the ability it gives designers to suggest issues and perspectives for consideration without imposing solutions.”28 They discuss many various interactive design pieces that are ambiguous for various reasons, and they illustrate how these works function positively in their respective environments. For instance, the Home Health Monitor is a system that gives feedback about a home’s emotional, social, and spiritual health on a daily basis. It gathers information from sensors that measure things such as condensation on windows and the stroke rate of a hairbrush. The system uses sensing to understand the well being of a home, thus offering an alternative to the more typical taskoriented types of computing. The effect is achieved by allowing horoscopes to provide an ambiguous reflection of the state of sensors, which have an ambiguous relationship to the realities of home life. This system provides the user with “a systematic but inconclusive foundation from which to reflect on the emotional state of their home.”29 This project gives the user an ambiguous experience, which leaves them to interpret the meaning of the Home Health Monitor.

Design is not the only field that has reflected on the benefits of ambiguity. In the article

Teaching Ambiguity, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Robert M. Eisinger, suggests that teaching ambiguity in college education can have long-term positive effects for students. Eisinger argues that teaching ambiguity can make

28

William W. Gaver, Jake Beaver, and Steve Benford, "Ambiguity as a Resource for Design," AMC Digital Library, 2003, section goes here, accessed April 14, 2011, doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642653.

29 Ibid.

Saunders 15 students more employable and more engaged civically.30 He points out how in today’s world, it is necessary to teach this way: Today’s and tomorrow’s students should be prepared to engage in a world where societal problems do not necessarily have definitive solutions. Economic insecurity, wars in remote places and accelerating technological changes make us yearn for certainty.

Perhaps our best response to the fluidity that surrounds us is to teach our students what ambiguity is, and how to appreciate it.31 Although Eisinger is not discussing the use of ambiguity as a visual communication tool, with the complex nature of contemporary society, graphic designers can also benefit from valuing ambiguity as a tool to resist an over simplification of their messages.

If ambiguity can provide so many positive benefits, then the field of graphic design should take it into serious consideration. As a form of communication that is directly influenced by the culture it lives in, graphic design has the ability to influence many people. Today’s contemporary audience is more difficult to reach than ever before, and a new approach using visual ambiguity will add value to graphic designers’ visual repertoire.

30

Robert M. Eisinger, "Teaching Ambiguity," Inside Higher Ed, February 21, 2011, section goes here, accessed March 10, 2011, http://www.insidehighered.com/.

31 Ibid.

Saunders 16 Methodology

Creating a Framework to Discuss Ambiguity In order to illustrate how ambiguity functions in graphic design, I am using the types of ambiguity defined by William Empson in Seven Types of Ambiguity as a model. Although Empson uses poetry to illustrate the seven types of ambiguity, I apply these types of ambiguity to historical examples of graphic design. This framework serves as a tool for designers to utilize when evaluating their own graphic design work. It also fills the gap where ambiguity and indeterminacy have been ignored in graphic design history textbooks.

Empson created a continuum of ambiguity by describing seven types of ambiguities that arise in poetry, where each one gets progressively more ambiguous. The first type of ambiguity can be described simply as a comparison or metaphor, and it is considered the simplest form of ambiguity. The second type of ambiguity occurs when two or more alternate meanings are fully resolved into one meaning. In the third type of ambiguity, two seemingly unconnected meanings are given simultaneously, as in a pun. The fourth type of ambiguity combines alternate meanings in order to reveal conflicts within the mind of the author. The fifth type of ambiguity is described as a “fortunate confusion.� In the sixth type of ambiguity, the meaning is either contradictory or irrelevant, and the reader is forced to invent interpretations. The seventh type of ambiguity is the last and most ambiguous of the group. It is a complete contradiction and reveals a division in the author’s mind. These last two types of ambiguity are so unresolved that in order to differentiate them from the rest, they must also be described as indeterminate. This model will also work well in a discussion of graphic design work.

Saunders 17 The defined separate uses of the words ambiguity and indeterminacy are due to the fact that ambiguity exists on a continuum, and indeterminacy only encompasses the most ambiguous forms. Indeterminacy is established when viewers cannot agree upon a symbol and the viewer is forced to create the meaning of the work. When something is indeterminate, it can have an infinite amount of interpretations by the viewer. Ambiguity, however, can be narrower and can have as few as two choices of meaning. By understanding these definitions, one can understand more clearly how this thesis frames the discussion of ambiguity and indeterminacy in graphic design.32 Art historian and art critic, James Elkins, has applied some of Empson’s types of ambiguity to the visual arts. Elkins limits himself to just three of the categories, the first, fourth, and the sixth.33 In his article Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? Some Thoughts on Writing

Excessively Elkins uses these three types of ambiguity as a tool to explore why so many people have written about the puzzling nature of images.34 He attributes it to a sense of anxiety people feel and he even writes about it in order to try to understand and alleviate the tension created by the unknown and complex nature of ambiguity.

The fact that Elkins has attempted to convert Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity into a visual analysis shows it is quite possible to do the same with graphic design. However, all seven types of ambiguity are applicable to graphic design. This discussion provides a guideline for ambiguity in graphic design. The value of my analysis and discussion lies in its ability to provide

32

This way of understanding Ambiguity and Indeterminacy can also be seen Dario Gamboni’s Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art. He discusses this same contrast in his use of the two words.

33 Dario Gamboni, Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art (London: Reaktion Books, 2002), 13.

34 James Elkins, "Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? Some Thoughts on Writing Excessively," New Literary History 27, no. 2 (Spring 1996), doi:10.1353/nlh.1996.0019.

Saunders 18 a language for ambiguity in graphic design. By understanding the role and benefits of ambiguity in graphic design, designers can then consider these ideas in their own work as well.

This methodology is applied through the analysis of historical examples of graphic design. I am using two prominent and widely recognized graphic design texts in order to find images that are generally accepted among the graphic design community. Although any graphic design examples can be employed in this discussion, by finding examples of graphic design that are widely recognized and acknowledged, readers familiar with graphic design history are able to follow the discussion more easily. The first text is Meggs' History of Graphic Design, and it was the first comprehensive textbook written about graphic design. Meggs’ is still considered by many scholars to be the most comprehensive text on graphic design. Second, is Stephen Eskilson’s Graphic Design: a New History. This text was written as a reaction against existing texts about the history of graphic design, most specifically Meggs’ version. Author Stephen Eskilson believes that other histories focus too much on individuals and styles and not enough on the social context of the work, which ignores graphic design’s deeper complexity. In his preface, Eskilson states “graphic design and typography are the most communal of art forms, and I strive to show how deeply they are embedded in the fabric of society in every era.”35 Eskilson also discusses changes in culture in technology and how this affects the fluid role of the contemporary graphic designer in today’s society. These two texts informed the ideas and analysis provided in the discussion.36 These two textbooks offer a comprehensive scope of the history of graphic design and provide many widely agreed upon important graphic design movements and individual works.

35

Eskilson, 10.

There is another text titlted Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish, published in 2009. Although I do not use this text in my analysis, I want to acknowledge that it is another significant text on graphic design history.

36

Saunders 19 By using graphic examples that are widely recognized by the graphic design community, I can illustrate how ambiguity has existed throughout the entire scope of graphic design history. Many would likely agree that ambiguity is inherent in all visual communication, but what these texts lack is a clear definition and discussion of the degrees and function of ambiguity in graphic design.

Saunders 20 Discussion

Introduction Graphic design already relies on certain amounts of ambiguity. I am arguing for a fuller assessment of the use of ambiguity in graphic design. If a vocabulary is established for how ambiguity and indeterminacy work within graphic design, designers can begin to teach and utilize these methods more effectively. In today’s oversaturated visual world, graphic designers must employ alternative methods to their design, and such a framework can help provide a guide for designers to follow. I feel an entire book could be devoted to reevaluating graphic design history through the lens of ambiguity, but by focusing on the seven types of ambiguity, I provide a concise if cursory analysis that offers designers a broad spectrum of historical examples. This continuum can then be applied to other examples of graphic design from the past or it can be employed as a tool for designers to evaluate design in progress.

Neither Meggs nor Eskilson emphasize ambiguity in their history of graphic design textbooks. As a result, students do not learn how to apply ambiguity to graphic design. Meggs’

History of Graphic Design was the first comprehensive text on the history of graphic design. The original author Philip Meggs valued the deep and rich history of graphic design. By providing a large amount of visual sources that begin with cave drawings in Lascoux France, Meggs illustrates how the tradition of graphic design has spanned all generations of human kind. His breadth of graphic design examples ignores the central elements of ambiguity. Meggs textbook tends to focus on formal qualities of graphic design work and attempts to categorize and understand various design movements and influences.

Saunders 21

Graphic Design: A New History by Stephen Eskilson was written as a reaction to Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Eskilson values the social context that surrounds graphic design work. His textbook begins at the end of the 19th century when the effects of the industrial revolution begin to influence graphic design into the commercial application that we know it as today. In addition to describing the context, Eskilson’s text attempts to understand the content of individual work, in order to show how each designer’s creative processes and influences are a result of social and cultural context. Both these authors do a good job providing a deeper understanding of graphic design history. One thing they lack is a clear understanding of the value of ambiguity. In order to remedy the problem that currently exists in graphic design texts, I will illustrate how ambiguity works as an essential component of graphic design through its history.

Type One Ambiguity: Metaphor According to William Empson’s book Seven Types of Ambiguity, “First-type ambiguities arise when a detail is effective in several ways at once, e.g. by comparisons with several points of likeness, antithesis with several points of difference, ‘comparative’ adjectives, subdued metaphors, and extra meanings suggested by rhythm.”37 This type of ambiguity is considered the least ambiguous of the seven types of ambiguity.

A metaphor, which is a comparison, is a commonly used device in visual communication.

For instance, the Armando Testa’s poster for Pirelli, 1954, uses a metaphor of a bull elephant in order to highlight the strength of Pirelli tires (fig. 4). The tire takes the place of the elephant’s head, which creates a comparison between the elephant and the tire. The viewer can then make the assumption that a bull elephant is strong and thus a Pirelli tire is strong as well. Meggs’

37

Empson, v.

Saunders 22

History of Graphic Design describes the piece: “Testa was an abstract painter until after the war, when he established a graphic design studio in his native Turin. His 1950s publicity campaigns for Pirelli tires had an international impact on graphic design thinking. Testa borrowed the vocabulary of surrealism by combining the image of a tire with immediately recognizable symbols.”38 Meggs’ does not go into any additional detail about how surrealism is important to this work or how a metaphor is an effective way to create ambiguity. Instead, this chapter titled ‘The Conceptual Image’ is just hinting at how these works included more self-expression and blurred lines between fine art and public visual communications.39 In addition, Meggs’ describes the conceptual image as coming primarily from Poland, Germany, the United States, and Cuba after WWII, and it is a reaction to more illustrative advertising techniques. What Meggs’ does not acknowledge is that the term conceptual image, similar to ambiguity, can encompass almost any work of graphic design.

Such a perspective overlooks the impact of surrealism on graphic design. Surrealism not only influenced commercial graphic design, but also many graphic works are considered to be part of the surrealist movement. For instance, Man Ray’s London Underground poster was a surrealist work (fig. 5). Surrealist artists were interested in accessing the unconscious mind, which included visualizations of dreams and fantasies. The surrealists were adept at using multiple levels of ambiguity in their work and used various mediums such as photography, collage, and painting in order to depict an alternate reality. The surrealist’s work shows a great command of ambiguous techniques that span all seven types of ambiguity.

Type Two Ambiguity: Two Meanings Fully Resolved

38 39

Meggs, 424.

Ibid.

Saunders 23 The second type of ambiguity occurs when two or more alternate meanings are fully resolved into one meaning. Gene Federico’s Women’s Day advertisement, 1953, achieves this type of ambiguity (fig. 6). The woman in the advertisement is riding her bicycle to get a copy of Women’s Day. In large letters the perfectly round O’s of the Futura typeface combine with the bicycle and form its tires. This delightful combination is a simple type of ambiguity. Similar to a double entendre, it truly combines text with image and the text takes on the meaning of the words and the form of the bicycle tires.

Type Three Ambiguity: Pun In the third type of ambiguity, two seemingly unconnected meanings are given simultaneously, in other words a pun. World-renowned graphic designer, Paul Rand, was a master at using puns in his work: “The ‘visual pun’ can be as persuasive as it is informative and entertaining.”40 In this Eye Bee M poster from 1981, he uses the rebus principle to spell out the name of the company (fig. 7). He uses an eyeball instead of the ‘I’ and a bee instead of the letter ‘B’ to spell out IBM. An eye and a bee have nothing to do with the company, International Business Machines, and his playful approach would seem completely contradictory to the serious corporation. This could possibly be what the company really needed…to lighten up. There was concern when this design was first made, and IBM originally rejected it because they feared it diverted too much from the original logo and that other staff members would take liberties with it and possibly break from the brand guidelines that Rand originally established.41 Paul Rand was able to get this decision overturned because he knew when it was appropriate to deviate from the rigid standards of a brand manual.

40 41

Paul Rand, Paul Rand: a Designer's Art. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), 134.

Meggs, 405.

Saunders 24

Type Four Ambiguity: Conflict in the Mind of the Author The fourth type of ambiguity combines alternate meanings in order to reveal conflicts within the mind of the author. In Luba Lukova’s poster titled Peace, 2001, two conflicting meanings are combined (fig. 8). There is a grouping of weapons that combine together to make the shape of a dove, which is a symbol of peace. The author here is using contrasting imagery to make a point a point about war. The viewer may have to decide exactly what this message is really saying. It could be said that peace can only be achieved through war or even that war creates peace. It could also be more about false perceptions of peace. These two conflicting meanings of peace and war are used in order for the designer to show a conflict that he wants the viewer to recognize.

Type Five Ambiguity: Fortunate Confusion The fifth type of ambiguity is described as a “fortunate confusion.” Empson describes the situation of a fortunate confusion “as when the author is discovering his idea in the act of writing or not holding it all in mind at once.”42 A. M. Cassandre’s poster for Dubonnet, 1932, uses this type of ambiguity (fig. 9). The sequential narrative of the poster is unique because graphic design usually conveys one message. The character appears three times similar to a comic strip. As the figure in the poster drinks the wine, his form begins to fill up, as though this process is due to the wine. The letters in the words ‘Dubonnet’ also fills in with color. It is a fortunate confusion, not unlike how the writer discovers something in the act of writing. Here the designer has discovered

42

Empson, vi.

Saunders 25 something and developed it in the act of designing. The viewer then gets to experience this fortunate confusion as they pass by the serial poster and decipher the narrative as it progresses.

Both Megg’s and Eskilson describe the formal qualities and experience of the poster and how it is a unique, serial style developed by Cassandre. Meggs’ does do a good job describing how this work requires intensive participation on the part of the viewer in order to resolve the contradiction in the meaning, but Eskilson does a better job pointing out more of the context of the poster and analyzes it more fully than Meggs’: “The repetition of the image is itself suggestive of the modern world of standardized mass production. As a parallel to the successive images, the text first spells out “Dubo,” which sounds to a French speaker like “some beautiful,” then “Dubon,” which sounds like “some good,” and finally the name of the brand itself.” With both these descriptions, the ambiguity of this fortunate confusion is more fully understood, while each description presented on their own lack these important distinctions.

Type Six Ambiguity: Invented Interpretations In the sixth type of ambiguity, the meaning is either contradictory or irrelevant, and the reader is forced to invent interpretations. In Milton Glaser’s Art Is poster from 1996, he creates a design that leaves room for the viewer to invent interpretations (fig. 10). The poster has a hat floating above a shadowed figure, which appears to be wearing the same style hat. The text reads “Art is…WHATEVER,” but the word whatever darkens the letter h-a-t in order to highlight the word hat. There are many thoughts the viewer may consider when inventing the meaning of this work. For instance, why in 1996 does the designer choose to use a bowler hat? Does he want to hint at a different time period? And why all this emphasis on a hat anyway? Glaser could be referencing the surrealist artist Magritte and his use of a bowler hat in his paintings. By using a

Saunders 26 cultural reference of surrealism, he is appealing to those audience members that would recognize this reference, to others who are unfamiliar with Magritte this is still ambiguous. The poster could even be read art is hat. The arbitrary connection with the hat and art seem to playfully hint at the idea that art is not as serious as it sometimes appears to be. It may not be arbitrary at all and instead the hat is a metaphor to represent the mind, showing that art and the mind are truly connected together. There are so many ways that this can be read that it shows how this work, unlike the rest is indeterminate. Instead of trying to resolve an idea between a handful of meanings, the viewer can invent the meaning in an infinite number of ways.

Type Seven Ambiguity: Complete Contradiction The seventh type of ambiguity is the last and most ambiguous of the group. It is a complete contradiction and reveals a division in the author’s mind, which can also be described as an unresolved tension. Like the sixth type of ambiguity, the seventh type is also indeterminate and can yield an infinite amount of interpretations. April Greiman’s Design Quarterly poster depicts many contradictions, and it illustrates the tension that existed at that point in time (fig. 1).

The poster was one of the first digitally constructed posters created, and this magazine typically used a 32 page layout, but in this issue Greiman chose to make it into a life sized poster of herself. She creates tension by contrasting her prone body with a disconnected image her head that floats in space at her feet. It seems as though she is describing an inner tension. She addresses the viewer with text that appears random and unrelated to one another. The magazine introduces the viewer with the question ‘Does it make sense?’ and she answers it with the quote ‘It makes sense if you give it sense’ by L. Wittgenstein. This open-ended poster is challenging the viewer to make sense of it all.

Saunders 27

Utilizing the Seven Types of Visual Ambiguity These seven types of visual ambiguity provide a brief overview of how ambiguity has functioned historically in graphic design. I argue that almost any work of graphic design could fit into this continuum because all visual messages are inherently ambiguous. Works from various movements such as Dada, Futurism, Surrealism, and Postmodernism are known for their use of ambiguity, but even in modernism, which is glorified for its clarity of message, designers have utilized ambiguity. Audiences appreciate and are excited by these concepts and as design movements become historical styles, new techniques are needed to surprise viewers. Old ambiguities function differently as they become recognizable, and contemporary graphic designers can consider the concepts of the past in order to inspire new ideas for the future. By establishing this vocabulary to discuss ambiguity in graphic design, it can now function as a tool that graphic designers can utilize in their own work.

Saunders 28 Conclusion

Ambiguity and indeterminacy are important components of graphic design. There is debate about whether or not ambiguous communication is beneficial to viewers, but this paper has shown that it truly is an effective communication tool that has been employed over the course of graphic design history. Although the lines of authorship may be blurred in ambiguous communication, the viewer has the opportunity to be more activated, as they become a participant in creating the meaning of the work. Audiences often desire ambiguity because many people enjoy the problem solving qualities ambiguity provokes. Indeterminate works are so ambiguous that the viewer will have to create the meaning themselves because there is no right or wrong answer; there are an infinite amount of possible meanings. This can be alarming to some viewers, but in many cases is necessary in order to differentiate from the visual clutter that exists in the world.

Ambiguity should not be confused with miscommunication. It needs to be applied intentionally in order to be successful. If visual communication is unclear and results in unintended ambiguity, this is not a positive form of communication. Ambiguity should be employed with serious consideration for the viewer. This can provide new opportunities for communication that leave the viewer with more questions than answers.

Graphic designers acknowledge that ambiguity often exists in visual communication.

After applying the seven types of ambiguity to the history of graphic design, designers can see how ambiguity has always functioned in visual communication methods. This guideline for ambiguity provides a larger understanding of ambiguity in graphic design that history texts have overlooked in their discussions of works. Now designers can consider these as legitimate

Saunders 29 communication tools when they are designing their own work. Ambiguity has positive benefits for viewers and if used wisely, will enhance the field of graphic design and provide room for new methods of visual communications.

Saunders 30 Works Cited

Barthes, Roland. "Death of the Author." 1968. In Image, Music, Text: Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath., translated by Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

Bloomer, Carolyn M. Principles of Visual Perception. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.

Bush, Anne. "Beyond Pro Bono: Graphic Design’s Social Work." In Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility, edited by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne, 25-31. New York: Allworth Press, 2003.

Eisinger, Robert M. "Teaching Ambiguity." Inside Higher Ed. February 21, 2011. Accessed March 10, 2011. http://www.insidehighered.com/.

Elkins, James. "Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? Some Thoughts on Writing Excessively." New Literary History 27, no. 2 (Spring 1996). doi:10.1353/nlh.1996.0019.

Empson, William. Seven Types of Ambiguity. [New York]: New Directions, 1966.

Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic Design: a New History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Frascara, Jorge, Bernd Meurer, Jan Van Toorn, and Dietmar Winkler. User-centred Graphic Design: Mass Communications and Social Change. London: Taylor & Francis, 1997.

Frascara, Jorge. "Graphic Design: Fine Art or Social Science?" In Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design, edited by Audrey Bennett, 26-35. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

Gamboni, Dario. Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art. London: Reaktion Books, 2002.

Gaver, William W., Jake Beaver, and Steve Benford. "Ambiguity as a Resource for Design."

AMC Digital Library. 2003. Accessed April 14, 2011. doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642653.

"Graphic Designers." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed April 14, 2011. http://www.bls.gov.

Helfand, Jessica. "What Is Graphic Design?" AIGA | the Professional Association for Design.

Accessed April 14, 2011. http://www.aiga.org/.

Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis, and Philip B. Meggs. Meggs' History of Graphic Design.

Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006.

Saunders 31

Oxford Dictionaries Online. Accessed April 19, 2011. http://oxforddictionaries.com.

Poynor, Rick. Design without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition. London: BoothCleborn, 1998.

Poynor, Rick. "Syncretisms and Convergences Keynote Speaker Rick Poynor." In AC-DC Contemporary Art Contemporary Design, edited by Jean-Pierre Greff, 34-45. Geneve: Hautecole D'art Et De Design, 2008.

Rand, Paul. Paul Rand: a Designer's Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.

Rock, Michael. "Graphic Authorship." Edited by Steven Heller. In The Education of a Graphic Designer, 200-09. 2nd ed. New York: Allworth Press, 2006.

Seife, Charles. Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes. New York: Viking, 2006.

Shaughnessy, Adrian. "Philosophy, Graphic Design and Virtue of Clarity." Design Observer.

May 10, 2011. http://designobserver.com/.

Sontag, Susan. "Against Interpretation." In Against Interpretation and Other Essays, 3-14. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966.

Saunders 32 Bibliography Aristotle, and Malcolm Heath. Poetics. London: Penguin Books, 1996.

Barthes, Roland. "Death of the Author." 1968. In Image, Music, Text: Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath., translated by Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

Blair-Early, Adream, and Mike Zender. "User Interface Design Principles for Interaction Design." Design Issues 24, no. 3 (2008): 85-107. doi:10.1162/desi.2008.24.3.85.

Bloomer, Carolyn M. Principles of Visual Perception. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.

Buchanan, Richard. "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking." In The Idea of Design, edited by Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan, 3-20. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1995.

Bush, Anne. "Beyond Pro Bono: Graphic Design’s Social Work." In Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility, edited by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne, 25-31. New York: Allworth Press, 2003.

Butcher, S. H., Aristotle, and John Gassner. Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, with a Critical Text and Translation of the Poetics. With a Prefatory Essay, Aristotelian Literary Criticism,. New York: Dover Publications, 1951.

Douglas, Stan, and Christopher Eamon. Art of Projection. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2009.

Drucker, Johanna, and Emily McVarish. Graphic Design History: a Critical Guide. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.

Ehses, Hanno H. J. "Representing Macbeth: A Case Study in Visual Rhetoric." Design Issues 1, no. 1 (Spring 1984): 53-63. Accessed April 30, 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1511543.

Eisinger, Robert M. "Teaching Ambiguity." Inside Higher Ed. February 21, 2011. Accessed March 10, 2011. http://www.insidehighered.com/.

Elkins, James. "Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? Some Thoughts on Writing Excessively." New Literary History 27, no. 2 (Spring 1996). doi:10.1353/nlh.1996.0019.

Empson, William. Seven Types of Ambiguity. [New York]: New Directions, 1966.

Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic Design: a New History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Frascara, Jorge, Bernd Meurer, Jan Van Toorn, and Dietmar Winkler. User-centred Graphic

Saunders 33

Design: Mass Communications and Social Change. London: Taylor & Francis, 1997.

Frascara, Jorge. "Graphic Design: Fine Art or Social Science?" In Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design, edited by Audrey Bennett, 26-35. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.

Gamboni, Dario. Potential Images: Ambiguity and Indeterminacy in Modern Art. London: Reaktion Books, 2002.

Gaver, William W., Jake Beaver, and Steve Benford. "Ambiguity as a Resource for Design."

AMC Digital Library. 2003. Accessed April 14, 2011. doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/642611.642653.

"Graphic Designers." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed April 14, 2011. http://www.bls.gov.

Helfand, Jessica. "What Is Graphic Design?" AIGA | the Professional Association for Design.

Accessed April 14, 2011. http://www.aiga.org/.

Ishai, A., S. Fairhall, and R. Pepperell. "Perception, Memory and Aesthetics of Indeterminate Art." Brain Research Bulletin 73, no. 4-6 (2007): 319-24. doi:10.1016/j.brainresbull.2007.04.009.

Kalman, Tibor, J. Abbott Miller, and Karrie Jacobs. "Good History/Bad History." 1991. In Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, edited by Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller, and DK Holland, 25-33. Vol. 1. New York: Allworth Press, 1994.

Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis, and Philip B. Meggs. Meggs' History of Graphic Design.

Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006.

Oxford Dictionaries Online. Accessed April 19, 2011. http://oxforddictionaries.com.

Poynor, Rick. Design without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition. London: BoothCleborn, 1998.

Poynor, Rick. No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.

Poynor, Rick. Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World. Basel: Birkh채user, 2007.

Poynor, Rick. "Syncretisms and Convergences Keynote Speaker Rick Poynor." In AC-DC Contemporary Art Contemporary Design, edited by Jean-Pierre Greff, 34-45. Geneve: Hautecole D'art Et De Design, 2008.

Rand, Paul. Paul Rand: a Designer's Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.

Saunders 34

Ritchin, Fred. After Photography. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009.

Rock, Michael. "Graphic Authorship." Edited by Steven Heller. In The Education of a Graphic Designer, 200-09. 2nd ed. New York: Allworth Press, 2006.

Seife, Charles. Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes. New York: Viking, 2006.

Shaughnessy, Adrian. "Philosophy, Graphic Design and Virtue of Clarity." Design Observer.

May 10, 2011. http://designobserver.com/.

Sontag, Susan. "Against Interpretation." In Against Interpretation and Other Essays, 3-14. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966.

Twemlow, Alice. What Is Graphic Design For? Mies: RotoVision, 2006.

Saunders 35 Figures

Fig. 1 April Greiman, District Quarterly #133, 1986.

Fig. 2 Kurt Schwitters, pages from Merz 11, 1924. Ads for Pelikan tusche and inks.

Saunders 36

Fig. 3 Poster Campaign, developed by the Mexican government.

Fig. 4 Armando Testa, poster for Pirelli, 1954.

Saunders 37

Fig. 5 May Ray, London Underground Poster, 1932.

Fig. 6 Gene Federico, Women’s Day advertisement, 1953.

Saunders 38

Fig. 7 Paul Rand, “Eye Bee M” poster, 1981.

Fig. 8 Luba Lukova, “Peace” poster, 2001.

Fig. 9 A. M. Cassandre, poster for Dubonnet, 1932.

Saunders 39

Fig. 10 Milton Glaser, Art Is poster, 1996.

Saunders 40 Visual Thesis The visual component of this thesis was created in collaboration with fellow classmate and sound artist, John Freyermuth. My work in this exhibition creates a continuum for ambiguity. Freyermuth’s work in sound design is closely related as he is trying to achieve new sounds that are not inhibited by common associations. This is achieved by building a new electromagnetic string instrument.

This exhibition title, Against Interpretation, was inspired by Susan Sontag’s essay of the same name. In her article she describes how interpretations can limit a work to just its content, not allowing the viewer to experience the work. It was our intent to create a situation where the work could be viewed and heard without limiting the audience in their response to it. Similarly, Roland Barthes discusses this idea in his essay, Rhetoric of the Image. He describes how text can serve a repressive function and provides anchorage to a work. By not including any artist statements or labels for any of the work, this allows for more freedom of interpretation by the viewer.

This project began with images that were trying to promote indeterminate interpretations from viewers. I used a random word generator to create word lists that I then projected into various environments. I often used fog and water to create a more amorphic aesthetic. I created specific works that juxtapose text and image in order to challenge viewers. By projecting words and not incorporating them with more familiar means such as with Adobe Indesign and Photoshop software, I am subverting contemporary layout techniques. In order to change the function of the design, the processes need to change as well. The projection also allows for more integration between the text and image and creates a setting where they read as one cohesive message. The message however, is up to the viewer to determine.

Saunders 41 There is an interesting effect with the words and images because some of the image/text relationships are more obvious than others. I hypothesize that certain images will harbor similar associations for viewers, whereas other images are less predictable. In order to incorporate some other voices and interpretations to my work, I asked several writers to each take a different image and write a companion piece for it. I left the assignment broad in hopes to promote a range of responses. This was effective because I received all sorts of interesting writings such as poems, narratives, and descriptive interpretations. I put these writings into an accordion-style book where one side has a traditional layout, and the reverse side is a mash up of the images and text. I used a Dada inspired technique to create the reverse layout by throwing the pictures and text on the floor and basing my layout scheme on that configuration. Viewers will have to navigate through both the determined and indeterminate layout and they will come up with their own interpretation for how these images and texts relate to one another. By providing this type of layout, the interpretation does not end with the written piece, but can continue on with the reader/viewer’s own interpretation.

The video in this exhibition was created as a collaboration with Freyermuth. By using a programming software, images, text and video are juxtaposed against each other using a random algorithm. In addition, when the level of noise in the room crosses a certain threshold, it sends a message to change the video. This video installation is intended to use the same concept of the images, but give the creators less control over the final outcome of the work. The work is indeterminate and the interpretation will also be indeterminate.

The last installation uses a device that reads brain waves in order to project images and words into a space. By providing an opportunity for viewers to interact with the work, it gives them some control over the outcome. The brain waves dictate which images will appear and then

Saunders 42 the images are programmed in a way that their colors will also have an impact on what is actually projected.