CompSci//Media Arts - Writing History, p2

Writing History, part 2

Today's Goal

Learn the basic idea behind information theory.
Think about how you would communicate information without an alphabet.

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What is information?
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Info Theory & Claude Shannon

Last classed, you learned a little about Info Theory, and the day before that, a touch about Claude Shannon.

Let's learn a bit more about Claude Shannon today. A while back, there was a film made about Claude Shannon, he doesn't actually star in it because he passed away, but they do have an actor who did a pretty good job playing the role. Anyway, here's the trailer for the film.

claude-shannon-2.mp4

Forms of Writing

When we think about writing, we think about communicating ideas and information.

What about when we think about alphabets, or individual letters...?
Do you ever think about them?

In a form of writing based on pictograms, an individual symbol may represent an actual thing or concept. You could think of modern days smilies and emojis as a contemporary version of pictograms.

Would you want to read a book written in only emojis?

From medium.com

In writing methods that use alphabets... does it work the same way?

Have you thought about it?

Does the letter m have a specific meaning?
Or is it just a symbol that we have to attach to other symbols to create a pattern that we recognize to convey some meaning?

Not all languages work this way. Some languages, like Japanese have symbols that represent more than one letter. Japanese isn't the only language that does this. Let's look a bit more at languages and their development.

writing-mayan.mp4

Want to see someone writing in Mayan?
Say yes, because here's a video:

maya-example.mp4

TASK: CHOICE

Choose one of the following:

Writing in Emoji

Can you write out a short story in only emoji? Maybe related to your "Craft a Tale" task from last week?

Writing your name in Mayan

Try writing your name in Mayan.

Simple resource:
https://geo6hms.weebly.com/uploa...

More complex:
http://www.famsi.org/resear...

Not all languages have all the same sounds.

The table on the left has suggested substitutions.
This table is from a document provided by the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine.

When finished, upload a picture of your work into today's Canvas task.