University of Oslo Information Design

1. Language Out of the iron cage University of Oslo Information Design

2. “I cannot understand how anyone can make use of the frameworks of reference developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in order to understand the transformation into the post-traditional cosmopolitan world we live in today.” (Ulrich Beck: The Risk Society and Beyond) Ulrich Beck University of Oslo Information Design University of Oslo Information Design

3. “In this way, finally, the nineteenth century developed an extremely rigid frame for natural science which formed not only science but also the general outlook of great masses of people” (Heisenberg: Physics and Philosophy) Werner Heisenberg

4. [Modern]crisis is essentially a crisis of perception. Like the crisis in physics in the 1920s, it derives from the fact that we are trying to apply the concepts of an outdated world view- the mechanistic world view of Cartesian-Newtonian science - to a reality that can no longer be understood in terms of these concepts. (Fritjoff Capra: The Turning Point) University of Oslo Information Design Fritjoff Capra

5. On the other side of the Mirror we can design new frameworks of reference for communication University of Oslo Information Design

6. By claiming that X really isY. • By postulation or convention making: “When I say X I mean Y”. There are two ways to define a concept: University of Oslo Information Design

7. Convention making is the more advanced alternative to ‘realism’ or ‘correspondence theory’ “ [W]hat was once regarded as a theory about the world becomes reconstrued as a convention of language. “ (Willard Van Orman Quine: Truth by Convention) Willard Van Orman Quine University of Oslo Information Design

8. Examples of designed concepts • Culture • Design • Visual Literacy • Addiction • Power Structure University of Oslo Information Design

9. University of Oslo Information Design Postulation is the sword which can cut through the Gordian knot of age-old obscure concepts and questions.