the constant skeptic

Science Daily —
A new paper by researchers from Oxford University and the University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign argues that images in contemporary consumer
culture are an emergent form of writing. Appearing in the October issue
of the Journal of Consumer Research, their premise is that mass
communications technology has created a “cultural classroom” in which
the world’s first democratic pictography has developed.

They support this argument with a series of experiments that
demonstrate contemporary consumers’ ability to read pictures — even
abstract images — as statements of product features.

read the original article here

what is most interesting to me is this little tidbit, which hearkens back to Carl Jung and the collective archetypes:

Even in the case of the study with abstract paintings, in which
participants were asked to read information from lines, shapes, and
colors–but no discernible objects–clear messages were conveyed. The
authors suggest that these findings have significant implications for
studies of cognition, culture, and branding, particularly in a global
environment where indigenous writing systems vary widely and the
“postindustrial pictography” of the worldwide economy is spreading
rapidly.