Recently I participated in a webcast where we discussed the emergence of visual language and debated some ideas about what it is and what it is not.
Here's the description from the Vizthink blog:
VizThink Blog Podcast 11: What qualifies as visual language anyway?: "In the visual thinking community, we frequently use the term visual language. Some would say that it gets used pretty loosely. So, today we began that discussion with 3 experts in our field in order to begin to understand what visual language really means. Neil Cohn, Yuri Engelhardt, and Dave Gray joined us to discuss topics like:There are quite a few visual examples that support the discussion.
What is a visual language?
Does a visual language require a grammar?
What components make up a visual grammar?
Are certain forms of visualization a language and others not?"
I think the points where we disagreed are more intriguing than the points where we agreed. After you listen to the webcast I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.