icontact communication design research in virtual spaces by A Genrich from germany

Examples attached: are a series of greeting cards, I designed for a competition 'Japan Earthquake Relief by Design 21' putting to use my current research on communication design thesis, expressing the sentiment of “I’m with you!” to help people in the disaster areas in Japan during the 2011 Fukushima earthquake.

My ongoing research - iContact - Communication Design in Virtual Spaces
The purpose of my research is to analyze the feasibility and benefits of establishing of what I call as 'a new univirtual language' - a single free universal virtual language.The subject matter is not a conlang, a constructed language, but a naturally evolved and evolving combination of all of the globally accepted virtual communication elements in use today.

With the increase in virtual socialization, today’s generation are breaking down traditional communication methods and are finding ways to cut short the components of vocabulary and thus contribute to a simplification of the language. Why?

There are many reasons, such as youth culture seeking new ways of creative expressions, the rising cost of verbal communications encourages more text messaging, and character and time limitations force shortened spelling.

An assortment of vocabulary that has emerged from virtual communication are:
Emoticons (:-o), Ethnographical Emoticon dialects (^.^), icons (<3),
SMS textees, initialisms (lol), short abbreviations (gr8),
New vocabulary (googling); changing the meaning of already existing words(tweet),
Mathematical & punctuation signs, keyboard shortcut keys as words (F1)

And a mixture, creating A LANGUAGE FORMULA, the author proposes to call “iContact”.
An example:

“2 b / nt 2 b, i.e. ?:”
“To be, or not to be, that is the question:”

( :-{>)
Shakespeare

Without the need to install a software or plugin, or to acquire new skills, with iContact the common keys of our keyboard unite us all, thus familiarizing us with users from other countries and providing the foundation for a universal communication tool that is compatible even on MSWord!

RESEARCH
*The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker
*www.inthelandofinventedlanguages.com

'iContact' was presented at the Mobile Plus International Conference 2010, Chennai, India, hosted by The International Institute for Information Design (IIID) Austria, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) Chennai. Sponsoring Partners UNESCO and IL&FS
The powerpoint presentation of 15minutes was completely in icons & emoticons.
www.mobileplus-india.net/index.php/speakers/ (credited as Anuradha Viswanathan)