Lecture: The History Of Type (OUAN401)

This lecture took us through the development of typography from the Egyptian hieroglyphics of 7,000 BC through to as recently as the early 1900s. While it was interesting to see how ancient Mesopotamian writing had influenced our own alphabet via a convoluted series of links from the Pheonicians down to the Ancient Greeks down to us, what I found most interesting was the way that typed language became less of a luxury for the elite and more accessible to everybody, thanks in part to a couple of things.

Firstly, William Foster's elementary education act in 1870 made the teaching of reading compulsory for all, not only the wealthy.The biggest revolution for type and literature in my perspective was when Martin Luther brought out his "95 Theses" in 1517 which criticised the way the Catholic Church controlled the media by publishing it in a language only recognised by the elite and having a monopoly over what information was represented. It opened the world's eyes.

Social control by the elite through the media hasn't gone away, which is why this portion of the lecture interested me most. Every news organisation has a bias, so the facts always get distorted to manipulate. On the other side of the coin, everyone can read now, and everybody has access to any perspective on an issue, so people aren't being manipulated by written language in the same way that they were in the 1400's when they didn't know better. The new problem is that a lot of people use the internet to only seek out the news sources and other people that affirm their views, and block out the evidence from the other side of the argument.

Is it worse if the news is fed to us by the elite, to never be questioned or fact checked? Or is it worse if you have every single Joe Dumb-scum finding his own news sources? I honestly don't know.

Of all the lectures, I think that this one has the least impact on my area of study but it did make me realise why type is so important if you're going to create a world changing message. It can embody the spirit of what you are trying to convey.