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Signs, Symbols, Ciphers: Decoding Communication

This exhibition explores our world as a place filled with codes.

Brailler machine

Ancient brick inscribed with Babylonian cuneiform and a modern computer console

Signs, Symbols, Ciphers: Decoding Communication explores our world as a place filled with codes. Signs that clearly direct our actions, symbols that represent concepts or affiliations, ciphers that encrypt private information.

Language, dress, learning, even advertising, are all heavily encoded. Information is presented and interpreted using codes that may be obvious, such as a written message, or subtle, like the subliminal cues of colour psychology.

Touch-based communication tools like braille, are a practical code that provides vital access to information. Indigenous art encodes complex cultural knowledges through visual symbols.

In the online world, all activity is powered by digital code, which evolved from mathematic logic and programming.

We invite you to decode your World.

The Gale History Museum at Macquarie University
25C Wally’s Walk
Macquarie University NSW 2109
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