ITAP2: Ragunath Krishna Joshi

In our last lecture, Bal gave a lecture on the importance of Ragunath Krishna Joshi (1936/2008), his importance to the typographic field and interpretation of type being more than just a form of literal communication but a visual language too. 

In quoting Fernand Baudin, 1988 from the presentation; "The ability to write is the initial step towards any further development of the individual as a fully fledged citizen in a modern democracy". In synopsis, verbal language (as well as body language) is the first form of communication, followed by the written language. Baudin then expressed this to be the initial stage in creating a fully formed democracy. Joshi then introduced another layer by developing a visual language into written; equivalent to importance of body language in correlation of spoken. 

Here are some examples of work by Joshi from the itap lecture. Coming from a typographic family background I find this extremely interesting, especially considering that it allows me to look at these designs at a whole new perspective. As I can't understand this language I am able to see it for its visual form and balance over its actual content. From this new perspective, each character appears to me like an piece of delicate art, backing the prior theory I made of typography's visual language being a simile for body language as well as relating to Erik Speikermann's views that typography is a musical instrument in which the melody of language is played (paraphrased)

Despite both the interesting quote of Fernand Baudin and fascinating work/message of Joshi, I feel I found the latter segment talk on calligraphy as the origin of typography by far the most interesting. While I enjoyed the message from this lecture but felt a lack of enthusiasm from execution, I did take from it further inspiration on typography; something I already highly appreciate.
Looking into calligraphy (my fathers profession) I can see a truly beautifully elegant style. While it looks fluid and serves primary purposes now for weddings and family trees/art, I can see the semantic shift/origins of the visual language implications. Originally at the birth of ink written text of predominantly western cultures, the majority could not learn or use this skill; reserved for the rich and powerful. Since it was such a high status skill, the connotations of it were made to be clear through its bold and elegant aesthetic.