I have begun to think that it is impossible to convey intentional meaning from static abstract shape/images without the parietal lobe imprinting a representational overlay on it – this relies on cultural and historical knowledge, and thus is a poor communicator for interfacing consistent meaning if people from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds are the intended users.

But, perhaps it is posssible to communicate a standard, consistently understandable message by addressing the movement of abstract forms? ie: we believe we can “read” the intention and state of animals by looking at the positioning and movements that they make – despite us not being able to truly understand what they are “thinking”. While this comes from an historical background – this is a unified understanding in that it derives from our collective past of running away from lions and catching food by observation.

While this is a stretch, perhaps there is some merit to the idea? In any case, this twee video on the subject of visual grammar triggered this line of thought.

Visual Grammar – Lines, circles & squares from claudio graciolli on Vimeo.