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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Cleaning Up After The Information Explosion
Solutions to Communicating about Complexity Highlighted in Pioneering Book

Author articulates the emerging language of the 21st Century

Seattle--The complexity that ignited the information revolution has overwhelmed our conventional tools of communication and deeply affected the decision making capacities of most organizations. But help is already on the way through the emergence of a new "visual language," says Robert E. Horn in a new book to be published this Spring (1999) by Macro VU, Inc.

New cars now have more computer chips than most desktops. The National Library of Medicine catalogs upwards of 400,000 new research documents annually. The complexity of public policy issues in such areas as telecommunications and the environment is almost beyond comprehension. Even at the supermarket, we have to choose among 800 brands of cookies and beer and at least 90 brands of dog food. The result is that we are living in what David Shenk calls "data smog" and suffering a chronic condition of "information anxiety," according to Richard Saul Wurman. At the same time, complexity has produced a wealth of human creativity in the realm of communications, according to Horn's new book, Visual Language: The Global Communication of the 21st Century. But because our attention to date has been on hardware and software, rather than on language, Horn says, visual language has grown up unidentified and understudied.

Visual Language presents the author's decade-long research and analysis of visual language, defining it as "the tight integration of words and images to form new units of communication," and creating what Horn calls, "literally a new language and unquestionably one of the major global languages of the 21st century." Horn presents an in-depth survey of visual language and the first-ever exploration of the new syntax and semantics that have emerged-"a new grammar for a new language." The fundamental focus on the combination of words and visual elements has been overlooked, adds Horn, because of the way English and Art are traditionally taught. Linguists have usually treated diagrams and other illustrations only as adjuncts to natural or spoken language. The shift in Horn's book is the merging of what for centuries have been separate domains-words have long belonged to language studies and visual elements have been the property of fine arts.

Editors note: The emergence of visual language is quite unlike that of international auxiliary languages like Esperanto, which was invented by one person. Visual language is being created all over the world by merging vocabularies as diverse as engineering diagrams and cartooning. It has been increasingly used by scientists, engineers, and business people who have complex messages to get across quickly and effectively. Several chapters are devoted to identifying and developing the grammar of this new language, beginning with syntax-an investigation Horn extends to include spatial placement of shapes and images, as well as words. In the book, Horn also identifies and names a group of new communication units "capable of 'saying' what we've never been able to say before. They allow complex, even multi-layered, concepts to be organized and presented with clarity and impact." The new communication units demand what Horn calls"multi-modal" reading- a different kind of exploration of the page-because visual language is not usually read paragraph after paragraph. Rather text is located where it is relevant to the visual elements.

"Very quickly," Horn says, "we realize that a new semantics is evolving. The tight integration of words and images creates new ways of producing meaning." The elements of visual language communication all have specific 'semantic functions.' In Visual Language, Horn sorts out some of the most important, so that we can begin to see what words do best and what visual elements do best, when they are working together. "This becomes the central question of the decade for people interested in communication." says Horn.

Paul Saffo, Director of the Institute For The Future, notes that the book "is an insightful and eminently practical guide to the emergent visual language field. And better yet, because Horn practices what he preaches, it is as useful to newcomers as to visual language professionals." Harlan Cleveland, President of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences writes, "Bob Horn is a new kind of writer. He writes about Visual Language in visual language-by using words and pictures to reinforce each other. The result is charming, fascinating, and readily accessible. "

According to Horn, the visual language phenomena happening all around us-in multimedia and on the World Wide Web, as well as in books, newspapers, and magazines-places words and images in a symbiotic and synergistic relationship. This synergy occurs, Horn says, "because in the work of communicating, although each remains distinct and free to do what it does best, the overall communicative effect of the elements is greater than the effect of simply having both elements present." David Sibbet, organization consultant and information designer, says, "Bob Horn's creation of a uniquely accessible, comprehensive orientation to the visual language explosion is transforming contemporary communications around the world."Visual Language is available from, MacroVU, Inc. a publisher becoming known for its visual language maps of Great Philosophical Arguments.