Panel summary icons and words
metaphors and symbolisms
pp. 263-276
in: Virginio Cantoni (ed), Human and machine vision, Berlin, Springer, 1994Abstract
This panel discussed the role of icons as "meaning containers' in a number of different contexts: as graphical solutions of scientific problems (J. Becker), as gestures in training actors or written communication in poetical style (S. Sciacca) and, finally, as visual tools for computation. No conclusion can be drawn - and this reflects the dialectic nature of the topic -but we can certainly ponder on the concept of a "correct use" of icons as visual metaphors and on the multiplicity of their semantics.