History of Visual Communications

1. 30,000 Years Ago CAVE PAINTINGS

1.1. Lascaux Cave

1.1.1. It is the most famous cave painting site, and is located in Lascaux, France. It was originally welcome to visitors, but had to shut down due to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the tourists.

1.2. 3 Reasons Why It Was Created:

1.2.1. Instructional For Hunting

1.2.2. Religious/Superstitions

1.2.3. Story Telling

1.3. Cave Paintings are beautiful, detailed, and colorful representations found on the inside of cave walls and ceilings.

1.3.1. The brushes were made by putting sticks, small stones, leaves, and animal hair.

1.3.2. The paint was made from mixing water, plant juice, animal blood, soil, charcoal, hematite (Form of iron oxide.)

1.4. The Altamira Cave

1.4.1. The Altamira Cave is located in Spain and was discovered by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter Maria. Most of the paintings in this cave have a red hue because of the red clay in the soil.

1.4.2. Many believed that Marcelino was a fake and had hired painters to come and paint the ceiling. He was proven to be truthful nine years after his death.

1.5. The Chauvet Pont d’Arc

1.5.1. It is the oldest cave painting site and was discovered by three speleologists, Eliette Brunell Deschamps, Christian Hillare, and Jean Marie Chauvet.

1.5.2. What was different about this cave was that the walls were scraped clear of debris, a 3D effect was created by etching around the edges; they also found fossilized remains and items such as sticks and small stones which appear to have been fashioned into paint brushes.

2. Cuneiform and the Sumerians

2.1. Cuneiform

2.1.1. Cuneiform began as a series of pictographs and was developed to keep track of business transactions. Over time, the pictographs became more abstract.

2.1.2. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets and the Sumerians used a wedge shaped stylus made from weeds to make an impression in the clay.

2.1.3. Cuneiform was the first written language, which is why the Sumerians were considered the cradle of civilization.

2.2. The Sumerians

2.2.1. The Sumerians were a theocratic culture ruled by a priest king, skilled artisans who created vases, bowls, and other types of pottery. Music seemed to be an important part of their life as well.

2.2.2. The Sumerians were envied of by neighboring tribes because of the region which they lived in.

2.2.3. The Akkadians invaded Sumer because of their fertile region.

3. SIXTH CENTURY B.C Hieroglyphics

3.1. Hieroglyphics

3.1.1. Hieroglyphics are a formal writing system that was used by Ancient Egyptians and contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements.

3.1.2. The Ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to communicate and record information about religion and government.

3.2. Scribes

3.2.1. Scribes were people who could read and write the hieroglyphics.

3.2.1.1. Military leaders were trained as scribes so they could communicate while in battle.

3.2.1.2. Priests also became scribes because they worked in the temples and they could read and write instructions on the walls and on papyrus for rituals.

3.3. The Rosetta Stone

3.3.1. The Rosetta Stone was first discovered when the French began building a fort in Rosetta.

3.3.2. It was a slab with inscriptions on it in 3 different languages: Hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek.

3.3.3. It now resides in the British Museum, where it has been since 1802.

3.3.4. Jean Francois Champillion deciphered the inscriptions.

3.3.4.1. He was able to match up the Hieroglyphic symbols with the Greek name of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses.

4. The Phonetic Alphabet

4.1. The Phonetic Alphabet was based on one sign representing one spoken sound, and they started with consonants.

4.1.1. The simplicity of it attributed to the success of the alphabet and allowed it to be used in multiple languages.

4.1.2. Various theories for the origin of the Phoenician Alphabet are that it could have been variation of hieroglyphics, while others hypothesized ties with Cuneiform or an independent creation.

4.2. The Greek Alphabet

4.2.1. The most notable change in the Greek alphabet was the adaptation of the Phoenicians letter form.

4.2.2. It is considered to be the world's first true alphabet because it has given rise to many first alphabets in the Middle East.

4.3. Serif

4.3.1. A serif is a finishing offstroke that originated with the carving of words in wood, and contribute to type design because they added little hooks on the ends of words.

4.4. The Baseline

4.4.1. The baseline is the line the letters sit on, and how it is typed in a row.

4.4.1.1. The institution of the baseline contribute to type design by type aesthetics.

5. The Gutenburg Press

5.1. Johannes Gutenburg

5.1.1. His father was a merchant and a goldsmith

5.1.2. He was motivated to find a better way to produce books because he worked with his father and watched the jewelers and goldsmiths work.

5.1.2.1. Invested his inventions in John Fust.

5.1.2.1.1. That if Gutenburg could not repay the loan with interest after 5 years, Fust would get the press, tools and materials.

5.2. The Gutenburg Press

5.2.1. A hard metal punch is hammered into a softer copper bar, creating a matrix. It it then put into a mold and a peice of type is cast by filling the mold with molten metal.

5.2.2. He developed oil-base ink

5.2.3. How It Impacted Communication:

5.2.3.1. 1. Perfected script and made it easier to read.

5.2.3.2. 2. Books were made more rapidly.

5.2.3.3. 3. Current information could be shared locally and around the world.

5.2.3.4. 4. The cost of books decreased allowing more people to buy them.

5.2.3.5. 5. Demand grew. Population became more literate.

5.2.3.6. 6. Readers wanted books written in their own languages and a greater variety.

5.2.3.7. 7. Book trade began to flourish, as well as industries such as papermaking.

5.2.3.8. 8. Economies became stronger.

5.3. Caxton

5.3.1. He was credited for producing the first book in English.

5.4. Four Major Printing Processes

5.4.1. 1.Relief printing.

5.4.2. 2. Intaligo.

5.4.3. 3. Porous.

5.4.4. 4. Lithography.

6. History of Linotype

6.1. James Clephane

6.1.1. He tested Christopher Sholes' typewriter.

6.1.2. He and his assistant approached Ottmar Mergenthaler to help with their typesetting machine.

6.2. The Linotype Machine

6.2.1. It made it possible for a small number of operators to set type for more pages on a daily basis.

6.2.2. The names comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once.

6.2.3. It was a 90-character keyboard with no shift key. Therefore, uppercase letters had separate keys from lowercase letters. The arrangement of keys was based on letter frequency. The keyboard had the same alphabet arrangement twice.

6.2.3.1. The black keys were for the lowercase letters, the white keys were for the uppercase, and the blue keys were for punctuation, digits, small capital letters, and fixed width spaces.

6.2.4. It dropped matracies down and when the operator approved it, it would be sent down to be allowed onto the page.

7. History of Photography

7.1. Camera Obscura

7.1.1. It is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings onto a screen.

7.1.2. It was a way to observe light.

7.2. Photography

7.2.1. It originated from Sir John Hershel. It was derived from the Greek words for light and writing.

7.3. Joseph Niepce

7.3.1. He created the first successful photograph in 1827

7.4. Louis Daquirre

7.4.1. He invented the first practical photographic process called Daguerrotype.

7.4.1.1. Daguerrotype is when the image is exposed to a light-sensitive metal sheet, which created a direct positive image.

7.5. William Fox Talbot

7.5.1. He invented the Calotype process

7.5.1.1. The image was exposed under the light sensitive paper producing a paper negative.

7.5.1.1.1. You could make any other copies using this method.

7.6. Archer

7.6.1. He was credited with the invention of the Wet Collodion Process.

7.6.1.1. Glass plates were used as the negative and captured the images.

7.7. Richard Maddox

7.7.1. He invented the Dry Plate Process.

7.7.1.1. He used gelatin instead of a liquid.

7.7.1.1.1. Gelatin is a colorless water-soluble glutinous protein obtained from animal tissue.

7.8. Eastman

7.8.1. He invented roll film, a photographic medium that replaced fragile glass plates with a photo-emlusion created on paper rolls.

7.8.1.1. Eastman manufactured a camera that was marketed with the phrase “You press the button, we do the rest.”

7.8.1.1.1. The camera owner could send in the camera with a minimal processing fee, print it out, and return it to the user.

7.8.2. He established the Eastman Kodak Company

7.8.2.1. He marketed cameras under the name Kodak.

7.9. James Clerk Maxwell

7.9.1. He took the first color photograph.

7.10. Edwin Land

7.10.1. He invented instant photography.

7.11. Muybridge

7.11.1. He paved the way to motion picture photography by inventing the zoopraxiscope.

7.11.1.1. It is a device used to project a series of images in a successive phases of motion.

7.11.2. He was hired to settle a debate on whether he could take a picture of a moving horse or not.

7.11.2.1. He began inventing. He used a series of large cameras in a line, each being triggered by a thread as the horse passed by.

8. The History of Computer

8.1. Konrad Zuse

8.1.1. He was credited with inventing the first freely programmable computer.

8.2. Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper

8.2.1. They designed the Mark computers.

8.2.1.1. They were for the Navy gunnary and ballistic calculations.

8.3. John Presper Eckert and John Maukly.

8.3.1. They invented the first commercial computer, Univac.

8.3.1.1. It stands for Universal Automatic Computer.

8.4. IBM

8.4.1. It stands for International Business Machines.

8.4.2. It developed the first successful high level programming language.

8.4.2.1. Fortran.

8.4.2.1.1. It stands for The IBM Mathematical formula translating system.

8.4.3. They also introduced the floppy disk.

8.4.3.1. It was a device you stuck into your computer to save something.

8.5. Douglas Engelbart

8.5.1. He invented the computer mouse.

8.5.1.1. He seeked the tool because he got bored with the way they were dealing with graphic designs.

8.5.1.2. It was nicknamed, "the mouse" because it looked like a mouse with the tail that attached to the computer.

8.6. Apple

8.6.1. It introduced the Apple Lisa in 1983.

8.6.1.1. This was the first computer with a gui.

8.6.1.1.1. Stands for Graphical User Interface.

8.6.2. It introduced the Apple MacIntosh Computer in 1984.

8.6.3. They introduced the Apple 1 and the Apple 2 during the mid 1970s.

8.7. Microsoft

8.7.1. They introduced the MS-DOS

8.7.1.1. It is an operating system which was packaged with the IBM PC.

8.7.1.1.1. PC stands for Personal Computer.

8.7.2. They introduced the Windows Operating system in response to Apple's operating system

8.8. Xerox

8.8.1. Developed the first Graphical User Interface.

8.8.2. Developed the first ethernet.