Way back in the day, very few people could read, and even
fewer could make books. People
relied on speech and a few drawings to handle their storytelling needs, turning
to the professional writers and book makers rarely, and only for very special things like Holy
Scripture.
Fast forward to today, where reading and writing are as
common, if not more common, than speech.
Think about how it would be possible for someone to carry on conversations
with other people all around the globe for days on end without ever uttering a
sound. The written word has become
as ubiquitous as the spoken word.
Along the way, if somewhat in the background, visual
communication has evolved though, too. Way
back in the day, a painter had to apprentice for years, mixing up paint for a
master, carrying firewood for the stove in winter, and doing bits and pieces
under strict supervision. It was a
slow process that only had time and resources for special stories.
Today, it’s one push of a button to both take a
picture and to show it to others. In
theory, a person could carry on a visual conversation for days on end with
people around the globe, never uttering a word—or writing one. Such a conversation would be more
limited—I’m making coffee, I’m walking in the woods—but with some creativity, a
lot could be communicated.
We might now only reside at the dawn of a mass visual language,
and as we move into the future and get more and more fluent in visual
communication, a lot more will become possible.
