GPEM

Graphically and Phonetically Expressive Message (GPEM) is an esthetic message with controlled entropy. Its semantic aspect comprises a series of standardized universal symbols arranged according to the probability of their occurrence. The symbols are recognizable by the vast population of people with different cultural backgrounds. Standardized universal symbols in this case are letters and words found in dictionaries, phonetic expressiveness of sounds and quality of voice, typical facial expressions and basic geometrical shapes graphics were derived from. These symbols are at the same time those redundant elements of a message that ensure overlapping of a frame of experience of an encoder and a decoder, and thus ensure decoding of a certain number of symbols for a certain time. According to Franco's research cited by Abraham Moles*1, human mind is incapable of receiving more than 16 to 20 bits of originality per second.
On the other hand, esthetic aspect of GPEM is not standardized and its entropy and variability ensure maximum unpredictability of a message and freedom of artistic expression. Abraham Moles' theory of information and experimental esthetics states that the esthetic pleasure is determined by the balance of entropy and redundancy, i.e. the offered originality of the message and the ability of a recipient to get such a message.

GPEM results from a combination of verbal and non-verbal codes: Phonetically Expressive Word (PEW), Graphically Expressive Symbol (GES) and Facial Expression (FE).

[table1: GPEM ow]


[table2: GPEM yuck]


[table3: GPEM yoo-hoo]

/ Graphically Expressive Symbol

The iconic quality of language is a manifestation of human ability to establish "meaning" relations between perceiving the reality and perceiving a language. In this specific system of visual communication, Dictionary of Primal Behaviour [], a Graphically Expressive Symbol is treated like a psychological "print" of both outer and inner world. Between the "print" and an object there is a natural connection since the shape of a GES is determined by the semantic frame of an object, i.e. FEW. That ensures a large degree of overlapping of frames of experience of a decoder and an encoder, even in the case of different communicative abilities (e.g. a deaf person). GES is inherently symbolic and its decoding is conditioned by the variations and mutual composite relations of its redundant elements - such as a circle, a square, a line, a dot...
In spite of its tendency to acquire universal meaning, social convention connected to some redundant elements makes the GES readable on the one hand, but on the other can affect variations in interpretation.

FE / Facial Expression

Facial expressions are the facial movements used by humans and animals. They are neurologically based and conditioned by such primal emotions as fear, joy, sorrow and anger. Facial expressions are biological expressive gestures with a few major functions: to manifest emotions, to encourage a conversation and keep it going, and to connotes something, that is not its actual meaning (irony: ). They are common for all people irrespective of some individual or cultural differences that are conditioned by social conventions.


*1 Jasna Janicijevic, Communication and Culture, Izdavacka knjizarnica Zorana Stojanovica Sremski Karlovci, Novi Sad, 2000