ENGL 680M: New Media

Check your local listings for replays of The Writing Code. It's a really interesting documentary about the invention of written language. What really caught me about it was its connection to Gitelman's Alway Already New.

The makers of the film argue that language as we know it was originally invented as signs and symbols on tokens to keep track of goods. Eventually, it was appropriated as a primitive and efficient recording device. All of the parallels are there. Just like Gitelman argues about sound recordings. It was originally invented or intended to record dictation but eventually ballooned into the music recording industry that we have today.

The film also makes some very interesting assertions about the differences between pictographs and written language. Namely that images or pictures are not writing. They can symbolize something and convey a message in that way, but they do not have the flexibility or potential for explication that text-based writing does. In other words, they seem to be making the claim that pictures simply aren't as efficient at recording knowledge.

What do you all think? I feel like a lot of recent discussion in New Media suggests that "writing with pictures" can be just as rigorous as "writing with text." Do you agree? Would you propose any revisions to Janet Emig's "Writing as a Mode of Learning"? (Did I get her title right?)