Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi. My name is Robert Lamb, and
Speaker 1: this is the artifact a short form series from Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas,
Speaker 1: and moments in time. For many of you, the flow
Speaker 1: of written text goes left to right, top to bottom.
Speaker 1: When your eyes reached the end of a line of
Speaker 1: text by the far right margins, your eyes jump back
Speaker 1: to the beginning of the line below it over by
Speaker 1: the left hand margin. While this is true of various
Speaker 1: modern European languages, other scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian,
Speaker 1: and Urdu, run right to left, top to bottom. Still
Speaker 1: other writing systems, however, are bi directional. Traditionally, Chinese script
Speaker 1: was read right to left and top to them, but
Speaker 1: European influences subsequently introduced a left to right, top to
Speaker 1: bottom styling. Chinese signs may be encountered written in either direction. Likewise,
Speaker 1: Egyptian hieroglyphics can be read in almost any direction. This
Speaker 1: enabled the production of Egyptian steelers that could encode multiple readings,
Speaker 1: as discussed in our core episodes on document duplication. But
Speaker 1: this leads me to the main topic of discussion today.
Speaker 1: Booster feed on style. This was an ancient Greek style
Speaker 1: of writing that moved in a kind of snaking pattern,
Speaker 1: alternating direction by line. When a line of text moving
Speaker 1: left to right reached the end of the line, it
Speaker 1: continued on the next line sure enough, But it didn't
Speaker 1: jump to the far left again. No, it began at
Speaker 1: the far right, directly underneath where the last line ended,
Speaker 1: and then it moved right to left in reversed script.
Speaker 1: You might think of it as a textual snake, unable
Speaker 1: to teleport or type brighter its body to the beginning
Speaker 1: of the next line. You can look up examples of
Speaker 1: the booster feed on style using modern English language, and
Speaker 1: you might be surprised that you can certainly read it
Speaker 1: even with the reversed letters of the right to left
Speaker 1: traveling lines. The name booster feed on literally means as
Speaker 1: the ox plows, which makes perfect sense. The directional details
Speaker 1: of reading and writing concern more than just the written word, however,
Speaker 1: is E. W. J. Swan noted in ninety left and
Speaker 1: right in visual perception as a function of the direction
Speaker 1: of writing. The direction one writes in is tied to
Speaker 1: one's visual perception of the passage of time. For individuals
Speaker 1: whose language travels left to right, the left side of
Speaker 1: the page is associated with proximity past and self, and
Speaker 1: the right side of the page is associated with distance,
Speaker 1: others and the future. In short, such left to right
Speaker 1: writing styles result and a visual concept of time is
Speaker 1: a straight line traveling from the left to the right.
Speaker 1: The reverse is true of right to left scripted cultures. Thus,
Speaker 1: the readers and writers of the Booster feed On would
Speaker 1: have likely viewed time differently, at least when visualizing its flow,
Speaker 1: has pointed out by Marilyn Mitchell in two thousand four's
Speaker 1: The Visual Representation of Time in Timelines, Graphs, and Charts.
Speaker 1: None of this means that we're restricted, of course, to
Speaker 1: a given visual depiction of times flow. We can draw
Speaker 1: on multiple different visual depictions of time, but it's interesting
Speaker 1: how different models give us different ideas. Booster feed On,
Speaker 1: for instance, is still used in timeline designs due to
Speaker 1: its emphasis on snaking continuity from one event or item
Speaker 1: to the next. The author writes quote in a booster
Speaker 1: feed on design, neither the hand nor the eye has
Speaker 1: to be raised back to one side of the pay
Speaker 1: to continue writing or reading, Unlike a horizontal timeline. Booster
Speaker 1: feed on timelines always show an arrow or arrows showing
Speaker 1: how to read the line. Now, I can't help be
Speaker 1: reminded in all of this of the classic board game
Speaker 1: Snakes and Ladders, which entails alternating directions of travel, but
Speaker 1: with the added element of special roots connecting different portions
Speaker 1: of the procession of tiles. Game boards, after all, are
Speaker 1: also a visual depiction of time and space. A different
Speaker 1: board game, just like a different writing system, can provide
Speaker 1: us with an alternative means of visualizing the flow of time.
Speaker 1: Tune in for additional editions of the Artifact or the
Speaker 1: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us
Speaker 1: at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.