Call for papers

Typographic scrupulosity is commonly associated with the effectiveness of the written message delivery.

My conference theme proposal came from the nagging suspicion which seems to be lurking within me since almost always, that communication has nil relation to typography and that fiddling with ogoneks and tiny distances are typographer's fads, who – notwithstanding – find through it a common communication platform.

Script arose – grossly simplifying – from bookkeeping needs (counting herds, grain reserves and such), and evolved to praise the greatness of the rulers. It is suitable for recording some ideas (of course bookkeeping and history but also scientific discoveries, laws, or experiences and similar).

It turned out to be an astoundingly effective tool – when someone sends me a material (conversation, statement) in an audio form, I almost never listen to it. If possible, I turn to the recording's transcript, because instead of wasting 5 minutes to listening to it, I am able to read it and grasp what's all about in a dozen of seconds or so. (Of course, there are exceptions to that rule.)

Is refined typography sensible (except as a piece of art in itself)? In the case of poetry, fairy tales, albums, etc., – perhaps. In the case of prose – as the success of audio books and often poorly typeset e-books shows – typography and typographic quality do not seem to be significant.

I'd like various forms of communication to be discussed (e.g., with children, handicapped people, between cultures, art as a form of communication, even pondering such seemingly wacky topic as animal communication) in some (far?) relation to typography.

Andrzej Tomaszewski promised to bring to us Martin Tinker's and Bror Zachrisson's research on readability of print. It would be nice to have a presentation on Frutiger's “Der Mensch und seine Zeichen” (“Signs and symbols: their design and meaning”). Further readings worthy of recommendation (and presentation) are David Diringer's “The Alphabet” and “Wer sprach das erste Wort?” by Martin Kuckenburg.

I look forward to the promised presentation of infographics (this was proposed during the previous BachoTeX meeting), which deals with visual representation of information, data, knowledge etc. The topic neatly fits the conference theme.