History of Graphic Communication Flashcards
Oral Tradition
No formal language - verbal
First recorded message
a Petroglyph - Animals etched into wall
Found in 1940 Lascu, France
From 20-30,000 BC
Shows they were Hunter Gathers, used all of the animal, and how they survived
Pictograph
a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase
Used as the earliest known form of writing
Examples found in Egypt and Mesopotamia from before 3000 BC
Petroglyphs
image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, form of rock art
Scribal Tradition
Means of recording the verbal communication
Sumerians
- First evidence of GC being used in an organized manner - - First group to become a society
- Leader
- Rules
- Needed to share rules with everyone
- Used clay tablets (substrate)
- Would scrawl an image into with reeds
- People moved around and mingled in Egypt
Cuneiform
Language that the Sumerians came up with to record. Had an alphabet
Egypt
- Hired Scribes
- Became more powerful than Sumerians
- Recorded history
Scribes
- Formal profession
- By hand
- Expensive
- Lasted 6000 years
- Used papyrus paper instead of clay for easier transport
- Ink made from minerals
What did the Sumerians and the Egyptians both use scribes for ?
- Record trade
- Important to make society work
- facilitated economic development
- Enabling tool was GC
Phoenicians
- Came up with first phonetic alphabet
- Influences by Egypt
- Closer to spoken language
- Greek and Romans followed after
Parchment Paper
Made from animal skins in 200 AD
Cai Lun
- Invented the first “press” in 100-200 AD
- used coated wooden blocks and pressed them into paper
- Chinese
Screw Press
- Koreans invented
- More efficient
- Similar to grape press
Earliest Book Printed
The Diamond Sutra in 400-500 AD in China
Johannes Gutenberg
- Invented his press in approximately 1440
- secretive about timeline
- didn’t paten the invention
Why was Gutenberg’s Press different
Unique process -
- Oil based inks, richer more consistent colors
- Moveable type, made a matrix
- Adjustable mold, could vary type width and height
- All was integrated into a press , Faster Better Cheaper
What was the first book Gutenberg printed?
Bible - only the Church owned it before. Still had to be wealthy to buy one
Why was Gutenberg’s press the most significant invention?
- Fostered communication and learning
- by 1500 (60 years later) its estimated that there were around 20 million printed books
Evirate Rodgers
- Author of Diffusion of Innovation /Diffusion of Communication
- All the ‘things’ that happened would have been unlikely to have happened without printing
- The printing press had a ripple effect on the world
The Renaissance
- Adopted in Florence Italy in 1300’s
Lorenzo di Medici 1449-1492
De Vinci
Michelangelo
Botticelli - With the help of printing it spread north into Europe
The Reformation
- Martin Luther 1517 was a catholic priest who was troubled by the popes choices
- Wrote Disputation by the Power of Indulgences
- 95 theses printed on university press
- split from church and made his own congregation
- Church of Luther
The Scientific Revolution
- In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus wrote “Revolutions in the Heavenly Spheres”
- Earth revolved the sun
- Printed book in Nuremberg Germany
The Industrial Revolution
1760 England / 1860 America
- Hand production turned into machinery
- First industry was textiles
- Water to power first then steam
- Printing was the communication method that shared the knowledge and technical achievement
Alois Senefelder
- Due to the outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution the process of print production was impacted
- in 1796 German play writer Alois Senefelder, invented lithography
- water and oil don’t mix
