(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
production and reflection. If we accept the argument that today’s journal covers are no
longer designed as they were one or two generations ago, then we must also recognise
the argument that it is unlikely that we would be able to analyse them using the same
methods as in the previous one or two generations, which were primarily or even
exclusively text-oriented. This phenomena is described by design theorist Gui
Bonsieppe in four words: “from discourses to viscourses”. 9
At this point I would like to present two such viscourses with two visual explorative
analysis procedures. Both are based on the open-source programming language called
Processing, which was initially developed at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology to carry out design tasks. 10
The first method, which I would describe as “static / dynamic line analysis” is
inspired by the sketches of Paul Klee from his Bauhaus lectures in 1924. During the
course of the lecture series Klee developed a visual construction method in which he
outlines “horizontale Näherungswerte” and “wandernde Senkrechte und
Abweichungen vom Lot bei einem links-rechts beweglichen Augenpunkt” as his
description of the process. 11
This method is transferred to the study using an algorithm that traces the change of
direction in the vectors of the depicted forms. The most significant changes within the
examined surface emphasize the areas with particularly dynamic object outlines, and
9 “Viscourses” as Visual Discourses see - Bonsiepe, Gui (2004): Von der Praxisorientierung zur
Erkenntnisorientierung: Die Dialektik von Entwerfen und Entwurfsforschung. In: Erstes Design
Forschungssysmposium. Swissdesignnetwork. Bassel; and Knorr Cetina, Karin (1999): ’Viskurse’ der
Physik. Wie visuelle Darstellungen ein Wissenschaftsgebiet ordnen. In: Huber, Jörg/ Heller, Martin
(1999): Konstruktionen Sichtbarkeiten: Interventionen 8. Zürich; p 245-263
10 http://www.processing.org (2010/08/30)
11 Klee, Paul (1956): Das bildnerische Denken. Basel; p 190
490