One artist addressed this issue at the Second Lives exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in Manhattan, which runs through April 19, 2009. In a commentary on what language means today, the artist uses icons to depict a conversation between two people who meet on board an airplane, an icon-rich environment.

After reading the story in icons, which features a running narrative below it, museum goers are invited to engage in their own dialog using only symbols. A computer features a dictionary-style listing of icons from which to select and construct sentences.

Does it work? Well, you could form a limited range of sentences using the icons, but I wasn’t able to decipher the icon sentences that other museum goers had left. I believe that two reasons account for this.

The first is that icons derive their meaning, in large part, only after repeated exposures. That’s why in many cases, icons are still accompanied by text below them. Another factor influencing the readability of icons is context — the environment in which the symbols appear provides clues to what they mean.

In all, this is an interesting commentary on how the nature of language is changing in a time when IM texting has given rise to widely understood abbreviations, emoticons are commonly used to convey base emotions, and corporate logos have become a shorthand for a range of values and stories.

WAKE UP CALL: So what ramifications does this have for us as a culture? On the upside, symbols provide a shorthand for allowing people to communicate with each other quicker and easier than ever before. On the other hand, in a world that increasingly communicates through visual rather than written methods, we need to be aware of the ways in which nuanced and complex thought is being compromised.