Abstract
With the rise of the system approach in World War II, US-engineers developed new design techniques to manage complex socio-technical systems, especially military ones. One of these new methods was the use of block diagrams which should guarantee a rational design process without eliminating the traditional visual habitus of the engineering community.
This text argues that the block diagram, as a new visual design method, was embedded in the process of establishing a new engineering science, called system engineering. Furthermore, the block diagram symbolized the changed role of technical experts in the Cold War era, who were regarded as competent problem solvers and as a community that could protect the national security by developing complex military technology. Two images, that were parts of advertisments in theScientific American, shall be used to demonstrate the block diagram’s function in the public sphere as a symbol that represents a new technocratic interpretation of modernity.
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Bluma, L. Das Blockdiagramm und die “Systemingenieure”. Eine Visualisierungspraxis zwischen Wissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit in der US-amerikanischen Nachkriegszeit. NTM N.S. 10, 247–260 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02908785
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02908785