“Red-man Walking,” describes the fluidity of language within a given context/medium. Language, especially in the modern age, uses various mediums of delivery and it is important to recognise the affect that these mediums have on the intended meaning and the acquired understanding message. When we communicate face to face there are various channels of communication that take place simultaneously. This ensures maximum efficiency in our delivering a message and understanding a message that is being sent. However in this age most communication is reliant on the use of modern technology. Whilst these mediums have been beneficiary in their efficiency they are often not the most effective. Anyone will agree on the frequent ambiguity when communicating through email, sms or instant messaging and the problem is that we do not all have the ability to tactfully utilize the medium in which our language is placed to ensure optimum understanding. As a result there is miscommunication which in most instances is harmless but does has the potential to be disastrous. Therefore it is important that we recognize and understand how our language is moulded by the medium through which it is sent in order to avoid total miscommunication or ambiguity.

To illustrate this concept I have used the design of the iconic figure of a traffic light signal that is placed on a green shirt. The shirt represents the context/medium in which our language is placed and the traffic signal is the intended message. We recognise that the traffic signal of the red man denoting, “stop”. However in this instance, since the red man is placed in a “green” context (which is a definitive colour for go), the red man is walking. Hypothetically this could have a disastrous result but more importantly it expresses how we should constantly be aware of the potential manipulation that context has on the effectiveness of our language in communicating.