signa.L is a laboratory for research of the visual language to the benefit of visual instructions and directions.

"I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth".
Gen; nine, 13

Visual language that is used to communicate an understandable content can not evade a dialogue with the conventions of imagery. Commonplace and conventional images are established patterns that allow a quick scan of the image to verify its usefulness. Depending on the context and the intention of the observer, images are sampled without considering ambiguities or alternative readings that become apparent only after several reviews.

In the process of understanding the image it is not easy to distinguish hard from soft information. Yet the difference between the image as a sign or as an index can be instrumental to determine the validity of various interpretations. A sign implies the agreement between a sender and a receiver, for instance that a red light indicates that you are expected to stop. An index is an indication for a connection that is possible or even plausible. Here the causal relation between smoke and fire is a familiar example. But fire without smoke or smoke without fire do appear.

In the signa.L workshop the image is extracted from its context and put under the microscope to patiently analyse its potential. It is a potential that in fact coincides with the flexibility of the observer.

On the signa.L site a selection of tests in which the evolvement of interpretations becomes visible, will be published regularly. The test-images will be executed in a simple printing-technique. The PRINT program is made up of prints in a limited edition on paper. A selection of the images gathered in the FIELD will be shown in a separate section.

Notes, and remarks, and additional information on the images will be stored in the CATALOGUE.

The NEWS section will inform of changes in data, responses on correspondence and announcements of publications and shows.

Dutch Version