Problem solving as a form of clarity is not limited to creating visual metaphors designed to profit a capitalist based campaign. In the 1920’s Otto Neurath established ‘the Department of Transformation’ (Vossoughian p59). “The Transformer” would create visual representations of unseen scientific and social processes ‘not accessible to the naked eye’ (Vossoughian p59). These unseen representations of process were designed to ‘educate the working class about the broader systems of order at work in the contemporary city (Vossoughian p60). In addition Vossoughian notes that Neurath wanted to use the graphic representations created in this project as for the socio-political aim to “further the workers movement itself” with the aim to hand ownership of this knowledge to retain knowledge from the “hands of the adversary”
The work by Neurath in the Department of transformation can be positioned as an attempt to place intellectual “power” of knowledge in a place, in this case a city, from ruling society and back to the workers via the use of hard descriptive graphic visual devices. The work created by Neurath was developed in the 1930s. In modern environments, communication of knowledge in a place is a more complex process. Metahaven observe state branding as a form of ‘soft power’ (Vishmit, p457). Soft Power is described as “allegedly, non coercive’ (Vishmit, p453), with the ability to reach outcomes without “force, threat or payment”
