Pictograms, Signs of Life, Emojis: The Society of Signs

The life of signs: a century of pictograms by artists and designers from Otto Neurath to Harun Farocki

What are the broader aims and aspirations implied by the development of icons and emojis since the modernist era? What historical issues inform them? Do they expand our possibilities of expression or do they limit them with stereotypes? The Society of Signs examines lexicons and systems of pictorial signs devised by designers and artists such as Gerd Arntz, Marie and Otto Neurath, Otl Aicher, Yukio Ota and others, examining the ideologies and cultural factors at play in their respective oeuvres. Designers and artists include: Otl Aicher, Moritz Appich, Jonas Grunwald, Bruno Jacoby, Gerd Arntz, Johannes Bergerhausen, Ilka Helmig, Karsten de Riese, Antje Ehmann, Harun Farocki, Juli Gudehus, Pati Hill, Heinrich Hoerle, Timothee Ingen-Housz, Shigetaka Kurita, Warja Lavater, Marie Neurath, Otto Neurath, Yukio Ota, Wolfgang Schmidt, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert, Lilian Stolk, Augustin Tschinkel and Edgar Walthert.