Las Vagas

Naom Chmsky | Purpose of Education foot notes

Description Analysis Interpretation Judgment

Description-
Make a list of the visual qualities of the work that are obvious and immediately perceived. “What do you see in the artwork”? and “What else”? Includes content and subject matter in representational works, includes abstract elements in nonrepresentational pieces.

Analysis-
Focus on the formal aspects of elements of art, principles of design, and other formal considerations: exaggeration, composition etc.
“How does the artist create a center of interest?” How does the use of color impact the painting?”

Interpretation-
Propose ideas for possible meaning based on evidence. Viewers project their emotions/feelings/intentions onto the work. “What do you think it means”? “What was the artist trying to communicate”? “What clues do you see that support your ideas”?

Judgment-
Discuss the overall strengths/success/merit of the work.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

Roland Barthes:

deconstructing an image-

Sign: it addresses someone/ message. what makes the meaning through interpretation. the result of looking at an advert or photo.

Signifier: What gives it that message in the image?, the person, their age, sex, looks, cultural representation, 

signifies: what concept in the mind, the notion of what the image gives the viewer

connotation: what are the personal, emotional and ideological associations  and interpretations.

denotation: What is the literal definition of the obvious, a description of what you are seeing.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS a methodological tool or mode of analysis. To Decode art work through: Signs, Signifiers, Signified.Symbols, Icons, Indexical,  Modes, Denotation, Connotation.

In the context of semiotics, 'decoding' involves not simply basic recognition and comprehension of what an image or a text 'says' but also the interpretation and evaluation of its meaning with reference to relevant codes.

By David Chandler.  His free online book: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

semiology (from the Greek semeîon, 'sign')

Umberto Eco, who states that 'semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign' (Eco 1976, 7).  Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects.

We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings: above all, we are surely Homo significans - meaning-makers.  Distinctively, we make meanings through our creation and interpretation of 'signs'.

Semiotics began to become a major approach to cultural studies in the late 1960s, partly as a result of the work of Roland Barthes. The translation into English of his popular essays in a collection entitled Mythologies (Barthes 1957), followed in the 1970s and 1980s by many of his other writings, greatly increased scholarly awareness of this approach. Writing in 1964, Barthes declared that 'semiology aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all of these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification' (Barthes 1967, 9). The adoption of semiotics in Britain was influenced by its prominence in the work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham whilst the centre was under the direction of the neo-Marxist sociologist Stuart Hall (director 1969-79). Although semiotics may be less central now within cultural and media studies (at least in its earlier, more structuralist form), it remains essential for anyone in the field to understand it. What individual scholars have to assess, of course, is whether and how semiotics may be useful in shedding light on any aspect of their concerns. Note that Saussure's term, 'semiology' is sometimes used to refer to the Saussurean tradition, whilst 'semiotics' sometimes refers to the Peircean tradition, but that nowadays the term 'semiotics' is more likely to be used as an umbrella term to embrace the whole field (Nöth 1990, 14).

SIGNS:

Ferdinand de Saussure defined a sign as being composed of:

• a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and
• the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents.
•  

The sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified (Saussure 1983, 67; Saussure 1974, 67). The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as 'signification', and this is represented in the Saussurean diagram by the arrows. The horizontal line marking the two elements of the sign is referred to as 'the bar'.

A sign must have both a signifier and a signified. You cannot have a totally meaningless signifier or a completely formless signified (Saussure 1983, 101; Saussure 1974, 102-103). A sign is a recognizable combination of a signifier with a particular signified. The same signifier (the word 'open') could stand for a different signified (and thus be a different sign) if it were on a push-button inside a lift ('push to open door'). Similarly, many signifiers could stand for the concept 'open' (for instance, on top of a packing carton, a small outline of a box with an open flap for 'open this end') - again, with each unique pairing constituting a different sign.

THE SIGNIFIED:

Most commentators who adopt Saussure's model still treat this as a mental construct.

Louis Hjelmslev used the terms 'expression' and 'content' to refer to the signifier and signified respectively (Hjelmslev 1961, 47ff). The distinction between signifier and signified has sometimes been equated to the familiar dualism of 'form and content'. Within such a framework the signifier is seen as the form of the sign and the signified as the content. However, the metaphor of form as a 'container' is problematic, tending to support the equation of content with meaning, implying that meaning can be 'extracted' without an active process of interpretation and that form is not in itself meaningful (Chandler 1995 104-6).

Charles Sanders Peirce formulated his own model of the sign, of 'semiotic' and of the taxonomies of signs. In contrast to Saussure's model of the sign in the form of a 'self-contained dyad', Peirce offered a triadic model:

• The Representamen: the form which the sign takes (not necessarily material);
• An Interpretant: not an interpreter but rather the sense made of the sign;

• An Object: to which the sign refers.
• Sign vehicle: the form of the sign;
• Sense: the sense made of the sign;
• Referent: what the sign 'stands for'.

Symbol/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.

Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures.

In dex/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary (random choice, unrestrained and autocratic, unspecified, dependent on ones own will or pleasure) but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level), 'signals' (a knock on a door, a phone ringing), pointers (a pointing 'index' finger, a directional signpost), recordings (a photograph, a film, video or television shot, an audio-recorded voice), personal 'trademarks' (handwriting, catchphrase) and indexical words ('that', 'this', 'here', 'there').

iconic signs always involve some degree of conventionality; indexical signs 'direct the attention to their objects by blind compulsion' (Peirce 1931-58, 2.306). Indexical and iconic signifiers can be seen as more constrained by referential signifieds whereas in the more conventional symbolic signs the signified can be seen as being defined to a greater extent by the signifier. Within each form signs also vary in their degree of conventionality. Other criteria might be applied to rank the three forms differently. For instance, Hodge and Kress suggest that indexicality is based on an act of judgement or inference whereas iconicity is closer to 'direct perception' making the highest 'modality' that of iconic signs. Note that the terms 'motivation' (from Saussure) and 'constraint' are sometimes used to describe the extent to which the signified determines the signifier. The more a signifier is constrained by the signified, the more 'motivated' the sign is: iconic signs are highly motivated; symbolic signs are unmotivated. The less motivated the sign, the more learning of an agreed convention is required. Nevertheless, most semioticians emphasize the role of convention in relation to signs. As we shall see, even photographs and films are built on conventions which we must learn to 'read'. Such conventions are an important social dimension of semiotics….. For a sign to be truly iconic, it would have to be transparent to someone who had never seen it before…… We see the resemblance when we already know the meaning' (Cook 1992, 70). Thus, even a 'realistic' picture is symbolic as well as iconic….. Indexicality is perhaps the most unfamiliar concept. Peirce offers various criteria for what constitutes an index. An index 'indicates' something: for example, 'a sundial or clock indicates the time of day'

MODES:

·      close-ups signifying intimate or personal modes.

·      medium shots a social mode and long shots an impersonal mode.

·      High angles (looking down on a depicted person from above) are widely interpreted as making that person look small and insignificant.

·      Low angles (looking up at them from below) are said to make them look powerful and superior.

·      close-up from below seems to me to emphasize the power of the figure.

·      Power is signified most strongly by a low angle which is also a close-up - as if, as we get closer, we become more vulnerable.

In visual media, the represented physical distance between the observed and the observer often reflects attempts to encourage feelings of emotional involvement or critical detachment in the viewer.

Denotation:  'literal' meaning or a 'natural' meaning.

'Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious' or 'commonsense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide.  What we recognize the image as depicting from any culture or history.  An important dimension of meaning.

Connotations are not purely 'personal' meanings - they are determined by the codes to which the interpreter has access. Cultural codes provide a connotational framework since they are 'organized around key oppositions and equations', each term being 'aligned with a cluster of symbolic attributes' (Silverman 1983, 36). Certain connotations would be widely recognized within a culture. Most adults in Western cultures would know that a car can connote virility or freedom.

Co-Production Co-Creativity

Notes from:
Searching for Art's New Publics. 2010 Jeni Walwin
Chapter 16 - Co Productive Exhibition-making by Paul O'Neill.

A Collective Curatorial Methodology
Curating : Structures the exhibition experience for viewers. It orders the spatial relations between the work.
The audience perform their own experience of culture (p203). Which is relational.

Paul O'Neill uses an experimental curatorial approach. He represents new discursive space around art practice. Where curator, artists and critics contributed to the formation of the production and dissrmination of the show.  Revealing the hidden curatorial components of an exhibition.

Paul’s methodology of Co-production of an exhibition:

Going beyond curatorial planning. A collective curatorial methodology. (My understanding of what he is saying)

1.    Showing how the actions of the curator mediated the viewer.

2.    The implementation of thematic displays (traditional curating strategy) are resisted.

3.    The works are not arranged to demonstrate a coherent intertextual relationship (where each artist’s work relates to particular texts. And therefor relate to each object through these texts).

4.    Divergent artistic practices are exhibited together as one set of artworks. One category or rubric.

5.    So the artworks relate to the space they are in and between each piece, rather than the theme the curator is suggesting the viewer to see the work through what they have written about their chosen works.

6.    The evolving process of positioning and arranging and placing works (reconfigurations of setting up the show) is revealed and part of the exhibition. So the exhibition may likely change throughout the duration of the show being open to public.

7.    The curator is working directly with the atists in the process of positioning.

Step 1: Work directly with artists on every aspect of the exhibition.

Step 2: Gather forms across a series of distinct exhibition moments.

Step 3: Each exhibition moment takes the form of a mutating environment or overlapping artworks.

Step 4: Consider this as a tool for an on-going collaborative process.

Step 5: Artists work collectively in a semi-autonomous way on the installation.

Step 6: Each artist becomes a participant within the exhibition,  the dialogue between the participants becomes a piece of the work, an object.

Outcome Goal:

1.    There is no unified way of reading the artworks or exhibition.

2.    The viewer/visitors perform their own experience of culture in an unprescribed way. This unfixed framework tests the traditional organisational structures of curating.

3.    To accommodate and cross fertilize different artistic and curatorial positions in one space.

This represents a new discursive space around artistic practice.

It is an ‘expanding exhibition-form.

Collaborative and collective exhibition making structures

PROUST'S WAY

What am i searching for to refine what my life is about?

What does my work emphasise?

In what ways do i have reverie in ritual?

How do i reveal the multitudeness of the cared for?

How  could a past and present  ritual in care look like in vivid fragments how would i  illuminate it?

 

Prousts way, a field guide to in search of lost time: roger shattuck

"Proust continuously searched with imagination, intelligence, reason and sentiment to refine what inner life was about".

Rememberence of things past, In search of lost time.

Prousts writing emphasis  out of sight and insignificant scenes and sensations of immediacy or experience. This work resenites with my work in the sense of illuminating the overlooked and undervalued. Roger Shattuck states that Prousts plot is ra everie in ritual and a self indulgent prouse.  

This opens up a way of aproaching day to day rituals  of care with the elderly. If a trip to the loo with the assistance of mobility aids was an indulgent prouse, what would that trip to the loo be like if it takes 20 minutes?

Would it reveal the multitudeness of the cared for?

Would a past and present in vivid fragments be illuminated?

P5 states " We live by synecdoche by cycles of being". 

synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets (meaning ‘ the English cricket team’).

This suggests to me that he is saying , we live in cycles with different people, and we have different experiences with each person, environment, creating different meaings and emotional memories, we create a language of jokes and sayings with different groups of peopleat different times that may have no or different meanings to other people outside that group. We all have esoteric lives within our social spheres.

"Proust works as an economist of the personality".  Meaning he describes and discusses  the personality in a hyperthetical romantic way . 

So, to me.. Proust's way could help me to romanticise and illuminate the cycle of ageing in as an esoteric experience. within intimate ritual of care , has the capacity to yield a deeper sense of wholehearted experience and meaning. Assisting a way to understand and reveal the endless shifting process that moves us towards to the future of ageing . Proust values what  a person does in fragments of time, not by what they own. 

The work i am interested in with ageing is just this, capturing the day to day rituals in fragments to bring greater value to them, to reinforce the value in the present moment and perhaps now, thanks to Proust reinforce an inner value in making these moments more like conscious intentions for joy and the experience of now in a playful way .

useless appendages

Life as an infant Nerveux ( a nervous infant).

Only a lifetime provides an adequate unit of significance and value.

Wabi Sabi V Modernism

MODERNISM Ostentatious | Materialistic | Perfection | Mass Production | Luxury | superiority | Progress	WABI SABI AESTHETICS (a cognitive mode that is sensitive to thought, emotive qualities of phenomena and things. Where something can be experienced and appreciated as art through the lens of beauty and taste)	WABI SABI applied to Environment| emotional states | moral and ethical states | spiritual orientation. Grounded in Zen Budism
Primarily expressed in the public domain Steel and glass buildings Production and globalisation Department stores commercialism	Primarily expressed in the private domain Stone and wood buildings Art and literature Boutiques independent shops	METAPHYSICAL BASIS: things are either devolving toward or evolving from nothingness. Idealizing moments in life
Implies a logical rational worldview That is absolute and looks for universal, prototypical solutions Success wealth status power luxury Ostentatious . one-upmanship Prestige Vanity	Implies an intuitive worldview Relative Looks for personal idiosyncratic solutions Spiritual richness, balance between pleasure and freedom Temporal events	SPIRITUAL VALUES: Truth comes from observation of nature, Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked detail. Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness. Spontaneity. Humanitarian philosophy. Modest
Mass-Produced/Modular Expresses faith in progress Future oriented	One-of-a-Kind and variable There is no progress Present oriented	STATE OF MIND: Acceptance of the inevitable and appreciation of the cosmic order. Inward and subjective Inherent incompleteness.
Romanticizes technology People adapting to machines Geometric, defined shapes and edges The box as metaphor, precise and contained.	Romanticizes Nature. People adapting to nature Organic, soft, vague shapes and edges. The bowl as metaphor, free and open at the top.  Ritualistic	MORAL PRECEPTS: Get rid of all that is unnecessary, Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy. Non-attachment. Not holding on to fixed ideas.
Man made materials Ostensibly slick Needs to be well maintained Purity makes its expression richer	Natural materials Ostensibly crude Accommodates to degradation, wearing down, corrosion, contamination and attrition makes it’s expression richer	BEAUTY: is defined where awareness of the feeling of pleasurable sensations emanates from something that makes us feel alive and connected to the world. That is compelling a sense of truth goodness and love.

Solicits the reduction of sensory information Is intolerant of ambiguity and contradiction Sameness. Standardisation Dominant convention Distinct Expansive	Solicits the expansion of sensory information Is comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction Undistinguished	Intuitive, non-verbal understanding of appreciation of beauty and simplicity. Non-verbal poetry.  One of the best reasons for living is to experience this.
Cool Generally light and bright Function and utility are primary values	Warm Generally dim and dark Function and utility are not so important Trivial and tentative Fascination and charm of physical things	Unpredictable, gracefulness in uncertainty, embracing poverty and simplicity, Highly Idiosyncratic
Perfect materiality is an ideal Shallow Surface deep High priced objects	Perfect immateriality is an ideal Deeper inner beauty	Eschewing slick aesthetic discourse. Where perfection might be lost, something else might be gained.
Ever lasting. fixed	To every thing there is a season. Unfixed unstable wonky	Perceiving something extraordinary in something ordinary insignificant and trivial. Changeable. Making the invisible visible.
Clinical, minimalist, gadgets, Sterile, spotless, smooth, Symmetrical perfection Accuracy, immaculate Designers names important	The suggestion of natural process Appreciation of the imperfect, irregular, intimate, unpretentious, earthly, murky and simple, flawed Rough textured, faint, tentative, delicate, subtle and Anonymous. Selfless agency.	IMPERFECTION: appreciation of entropy and degradation process. Thus Idealising the emphatic bond between objects and their beholder. (Could be between lovers, walking sticks, objects, photos etc..)

Technical and conceptual intervention	Appreciation of the stages of decomposition and spontaneous intervention	Entropy of love – awareness of the degradation and decomposition of love. Kindness to breaking down of relationships. The Demise of life and friendships.
Un touched, clean, preserved perfectly,		Objects have passed through the hand, culture, where the past connects to the eternal present.
DIGITAL progress Desensitization Loss of sensory information The BarCode	Requires effort encoding, Power failure External power source Virtual Binary structures. Pixels Digital displays, programming, software. Mandatory truncation	DIGITAL:. Effortless, uninterrupted interactions with real things. Actual form actual-ness Full bandwidth of actual reality Represents the archetypal,  analogue sensibility
REASON is superior to all other forms of cognition. SCIENCE: offers the ultimate solutions to mankind’s problems. The world is broken but in the future things will be better It is necessary for humans to master nature. Look for universal solutions to fit all instances and circumstances.		REASON is the only one of many equally important modes of cognition. SCIENCE: can only solve a limited range of mankind’s problems. The world simply ‘is’ and will always be so. Humans and nature are one, there is no master, there is no slave. Look for specific solutions for particular instances and circumstances.