The biohazard symbol (fig.11) that we use today was developed in 1966. Although designed to be memorable, Charles Baldwin, who helped develop the symbol, said that “We wanted something that was memorable but meaningless, so we could educate people as to what it means.” (Baldwin. C, 1967). The biohazard symbol needs to be understood thousands of years from now to protect future humans from danger. If Baldwin knew when working on the symbol that it needed to be learned by the reader from the author, then if society changed and the record of the symbol was lost, would we understand it? The biohazard symbol is unique in it’s design compared to other cautionary symbols, (fig.16) but with no prior learning it would not be understood or communicate enough information effectively.

fig.11 Biohazard Symbol (Baldwin.C, 1967). fig.12 GHS (Global Harmonised Symbols)

Interpretation is a radical strategy for conserving an old text, which is thought too precious to repudiate, by revamping it. The interpreter, without actually erasing or rewriting the text, is altering it. But he can’t admit to doing this. He claims to be only making it intelligible, by disclosing its true meaning. (Sontag.S, 1966. pg.3)

If a pictorial language demands it’s reader to understand only the true meaning of something, then it does not behave like a language and it’s reader. A reader only perceives through their own interpretation and relating their human experience and associations to that material. (Barthes.R). In the instance of water represented as a wavy line, communication by the author may be clear but not the understanding of the reader. However, by association the reader can apply the wavy line to what they interpret it as, either ideographically or pictographically. In this way the information will sometimes be perceived differently. In comparison, the biohazard symbol wouldn’t be understood without learning from the author, the true meaning would be hidden.

We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a single “theological” meaning (the “message” of the Author-God), but is a space of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kinds of writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture. (Barthes.R)

The reader knows a sentence does not have one meaning, tha