In our discussions during class about signs and symbols, I have had many revelations about how these items are interpreted. These notes found on the Class Website describe the differences between icons, indices, and symbols. These descriptions of how different types of signs got me thinking a lot about how items are represented in different cultures. A Japanese Street Sign can mean the same thing as an American sign, but they can look completely different. This idea is discussed on Infoport for the January 15th post referring to the several different imitations of signs used in Shrek 2. Even though the location of that movie is taking place in a completely different world, they use many of the signs found in American Pop Culture today, showing that signs have the ability to be universal, much more than a single language can.
The picture shown above is another parody about how signs can be universal, this is a take on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but makes it more interesting by using the modern day image of cars passing on a highway. The Binary numbers represent the M, mass, of Einstein's Theory, while C, the speed of light, represents how fast these "masses" can go. Although this is an completely unrealistic image, the use of signs in this picture allows the viewer to understand what the artist is trying to convey.
This is the theme I've picked up from these lectures so far. Signs from different cultures can look very different but still hold the same universal images. So although a group of people may not know how to speak a word of each others languages, they both are well aware of the shape of a stop sign. It shows that although there might not be a universal language, signs and symbols are. They are the best way to convey any type of information worldwide.
