Fra Piktogram til sensogram - en sanselig transformation via fænomenologi og pervasive computing

Assuming that design of pictograms neglects the body, the senses and the motor
functions as sources for realization and also ignores new technology, it is this thesis’ issue to reveal a communicative, aesthetically and experience-potential by the pictogram in its use as wayfinding in closed built environments. This is based on the assumption that more senses and more body and an aesthetic grounded in everyday life will turn out to be stimulating and conducive for the field. The potential is tried revealed and developed though spatial, bodily and sensuous dimensions display by means of phenomenological theory, the concept of atmosphere and pervasive computing.
The thesis wants to shift the focus from objective to subjective, from
universal to particular, from information to experience, from mental to bodily, from visual to multi-sensuous, from static to dynamic, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional and from prosaic to aesthetic.
In the first part of the thesis a descriptive approach to the pictogram, wayfinding
and pervasive computing is based on literature surveys, theory-reflections
and clarification of concepts. The fields is clarified through a broad spectrum
of different references, historical sources on the topics, theoretical-reflective
processing’s of the fields and broader communication-oriented texts, that serve as empirical input to how the subjects are reveal in different contexts. The last part of the thesis makes use of a praxis-based forward-looking approach based on the two design-experiments, where theory and methods are transformed to concrete and practical tests, observations and reflexions, with basis in knowledge-in-praxis perspective. In that connection the static and analogue pictogram is transformed to at multi-sensuous and interactive sensogram. Tests, sequential developmentsand observations of the sensogram are seen through two design-experiments. The first experiment focuses attention on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theory of perception, and its productive influence on user-interaction with the sensogram from the body and the senses. Due to observations and following reflexions in the first experiment Gernot Böhmes notion of atmosphere is introduced, which results in a reprogramming of the sensogram and further tests of three atmospheres: the private atmosphere, the beautiful atmosphere and the amplified atmosphere. This experiment will centre around the space/the place and its changes and transformations through the notion of atmosphere. It’s suggested that design-focus changes from primarily dealing with style, form and function to including the users body, senses and experiences and also
the spatially atmospheres regarding pictograms in wayfinding. Observations
of the design-experiments reveal that including phenomenology by means of
technology contributes to a multi-sensuous and bodily design-potential. By
including the notion of atmosphere an aesthetic and communicative potential in
the gab between the subject and the sensogram seems to be possible to harness
and benefit from if the gab is filled with sensuous contributions and aesthetic
experiences. Besides the notion seems to transfer the anonymous non-place to an emotional and evocative place. Thus seem notions, concerned with aesthetics of use and everyday life, user-experiences and design-relevance to constitute fruitful notions to involve in design of pictograms in wayfinding. By applying a model, where human being is considered bodily and sensuously embedded in the world, phenomenology and the notion of atmosphere seem to contribute to a theoretical framework, in which the pictogram in wayfinding unfolds in another way than positivism and semiotics pave the way for. Thus a communicative, aesthetic and experiential potential, which this thesis presumes can be the subject of further future research and development of wayfinding-environments.