The most interesting aspect of the documentary for me: the design and how it can be misinterpreted. The most intriguing line of the documentary for me was “hopefully people will know that this is dangerous, but I am worried in the far future, they will believe it to be a spiritual or religious institution. We still don’t know the entire scope of exactly why the Egyptian pyramids were created.” I would like to investigate the history of design being misinterpreted and how we could potentially learn from such.
In large-scale Hollywood movies that oftentimes display the most interesting of the misconceptions lead to questions: booby-trapped tombs, covered in hieroglyphics representing a great amount of respect, yet also a great amount of danger. But what really lies in these tombs is something that as most believe to be great treasures; is in fact a spiritual place of great respect and importance. The line is thin: something can be protected out of mere insight of interest and evaluability, or, in a much darker twist, something could be expressively dangerous and be protected to be protected from others. As I was discussing yesterday with Joanna, there has been proof of some tombs holding those that were biological hazards due to viruses and diseases.
The Fine Line: Human Interpretation
Oftentimes, when a friend asks what I think of a certain situation, or an interaction they had with another individual, oftentimes my first ask will be more detail about the other person in the equation. If I do not know them I’ll gauge them by asking varying questions. How old are they? Where did they grow up? Do they have any siblings? Do they struggle with any health issues? Gaining context allows me to explore my own idea of human interpretation and reaction based off of my own experiences. Oftentimes, if the other individual is a man born in the 90s, i’ll be able to gauge my reaction of what they say based off of my previous interactions of men born in that time. I can estimate and come to a more educated conclusion. But, the most important part of this story, is that even passively, my brain recognizes that people from different backgrounds will most likely have different interpretations and translations of varying situations. THIS is what is so important in design. What may be a hoop earring for one, could be assumed as a bracelet for another. What could be an ancient barriel ground for one, could be assumed as a dangeous protection site for another. And, of course, vice-versa. So how do we use design to ensure that these misinterpretations are not made? It’s quite obvious that this is a close to impossible task, and even the past egyptian tombs have shown us such. Although, it’s possible to explore.
Context is everything
Language and communication may change over time, although one sense that will hopefully be decently constant is our perception of human physicality. Yes, that’s right. Not languages but in fact visual queues of negativity.