01/09
Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting. Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting. Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting. Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting. Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting. Hier is ruimte voor extra toelichting.
I am The Thinker, a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin. Usually I sit on a stone pedestal, with my chin resting on one hand, as though deep in thought. There are more than thirty big copies of my statue. You can find me all over the world.
I think...
People use me to indicate “thought”.
... who am I ?
I sit in museums, in squares, in gardens and graveyards. And now the teachers of this MOOC are even using me as a kind of cartoon character, thinking about visualizing the unimaginable.
02/09
09/09
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker Photo on 06/09: By Bruno Girin - originally posted to Flickr as Dangerous Klingon, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7215959, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat%27leth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/trees.shtml https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_ornament http://www.tudelft.nl/en/about-tu-delft/history/ Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics Design: Graphic design by Mark van Huystee Story and graphic composition by Martijn Stellingwerff 'The Thinker, thinking about Semiotics and Cultural Bias', by Martijn Stellingwerff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
sources :
* Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture.
I ask myself: …  Should I keep my original French name ‘Le Poète’,  or is ‘The Thinker’ a better name ? Do you know me ?  Am I a globally known hero, an icon ? Do you think I am culturally biased* ?  Am I known in all continents of the world ?
03/09
Therefore, when you make choices,  you should always think about who you are talking to. What age, what background, what level of education and what culture does someone have ?
Do they understand your words and illustrations? How could you express yourself more clearly?
04/09
Every linguistic expression, whether verbal, written or visual, is culturally biased.
Merry Christmas!!!  From TU-Delft Online Education
we will analyse the meanings of signs and symbols in this Christmas card
so...
...let’s do some se-mi-o-tics *
* semiotics is the science that studies the meaning of signs and symbols, as how they operate in (visual) language.
05/09
* semiotics is the science that studies the meaning of signs and symbols, as how they operate in (visual) language.
06/09
How would, for example, an alien look at this card ? I think... ...the alien would immediately recognize the Klingon type of weapon, a Bat'leth. A hostile sign on a blue sphere, a water-rich planet, with some strange green foliage around it...
07/09
No, wrong… it is a Christmas tree with a decorative Christmas ball with part of the Delft Technical University logo on it the flame above the letter T refers to the Greek mythical fire stolen from Mount Olympus by the Titan Prometheus 
Ball / Bauble
hover over the buttons
Flame Logo TU Delft
08/09
Christmas card
Annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, a religious figure that brings forgiveness for confession and belief.
The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant (Government worker) who had helped set-up the new 'Public Record Office' (now called the Post Office), where he was an Assistant Keeper, and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people. 
Saying 'Merry Christmas' rather than 'Happy Christmas' seems to go back several hundred years. It's first recorded in 1534 when John Fisher (an English Catholic Bishop in the 1500s) wrote it in a Christmas letter to Thomas Cromwell in 1534 "And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire."
The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years.
Well, as you can see, there are already quite a few references to different cultures in such a simple card. 
Christmas
Merry Christmas
A bauble is a spherical decoration commonly used to adorn Christmas trees. The bauble is one of the most popular Christmas ornament designs, and they have been in production since 1847.
The essence of the TU Delft logo is Prometheus' flame. Prometheus brought the flame from the Olympus to the people, against the will of Zeus. People’s knowledge then had not yet developed. They did not know of the course of the stars and the cause of the seasons, nor did they know about construction. They could not wield the power of fire either. Prometheus (he, who looks ahead) was an innovative Greek god and became their first professor of engineering. He taught them to manage fire, to observe the stars, to sail the seas, to bake bricks and to build houses. Prometheus also taught the people to esteem the beauty of nature. TU Delft can follow in Prometheus' footsteps by developing innovative, durable and environment-friendly technology. Prometheus' flame thereby makes a worthy symbol for TU Delft.
Christmas tree