Information architecture - the invisible infrastucture of communication

Communication travels from one thinking system to another on an infrastructure, which is invisible, because it consists of relationships =differences, which make a difference to someone in one of the thinking systems involved. I call the infrastructure of communication 'Information Architecture'.

Information Architecture - constantly an object of design - is difficult to talk about.Strangely enough, since humans have a long history of communicating about invisible things: in ancient times we talked with the spirits of nature - using our imagination. We handled problems of molecules and microorganisms before we could trace them in a microscope - using theory.

To talk about the invisible infrastructure of communication itself, however, we need both imagination, a theory - and a mirror, because of the inherent reflexivity of communication: talking with the environment is always also talking with ourselves.

This week I am preparing a crash-course in Information Architecture for 9th semester Information Architecture students - where I invoke imagination, theory, and hopefully also introduce a mirror, in order for the coming information architects to get to grips with form elements and functional elements and make them able to create (new) information architectures.