The memory of one of our previous blogs, concerning the different ways in which people see, was refreshed the other day by a difference in interpretation of a pictograph. The pictograph, whose overuse has some humor in and of itself, has been intended to convey, without the problem of language translation , a message. And the meaning should be universal. This is one of the core goals of any art, from literature to the largest physical scupltures; to touch people in some core way that is part of the human nature.
Not all art can cut it, however, as our hero pictured above was interpreted as being blown out a window by some and crushed by a gate by others. To save the suspense, our harried fellow is being crushed by the very gate that protects the space leading to some of Susan's paintings.
I can only wonder about the more complex pictographs that convey an improbable action. To wit, some years back, I saw in those pages of a VCR manual that are only frequented by the legal eagles, the admonishment to not sit on the VCR that the manual was about. The pictograph showed the VCR stuffed in a man's back pocket as he started to sit, never minding that the VCR was about 10 lbs., a foot wide and about 4 inches deep.
In this spirit I bring you a pictograph that only the inveterate pictograph hunter would ever notice. Visible only at the edge of an elevator, peering through that mercifully small space between elevator and floor was this gem:
Interpret away
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