Wendy Angel: Comments

The relationship between medium and message is far more than meets the eye. It has a brain on one side and culture on the other.

When we scrutinize and dissect, sense begins to look a lot like nonsense. And as it does this it informs our ability to begin to decipher how nonsense is constructed, arranged and formulated to appear reasonable. In a world propelled by media this is an important place to begin any discussion.

The purpose of this digression is to mess with assumptions about what written information is. When we recognize that words are invented and constantly redefined it reveals the ambiguity of verbal communication. Concurrently, when we see the visual basis of written language we realize how it is all actually, not metaphorically a visual art form.

Paintings are one kind of picture. Writing is another form of picture making.

Pictures: intentional markings made by humans on apparently two-dimensional surfaces.

A game I like to play with definitions is to right click for synonyms and watch  suggested words reflect, entwine and spin off in disassociated trajectories. The game transforms words into pictures.

• PICTURE
  • Image
    • Picture
    • Representation
    • icon
      • • Image
        • Picture
        • symbol
        • sign
        • Representation
        • emblem
        • logo
        • idol
          • icon
          • statue
          • god
          • deity
          • hero
          • star
            • celebrity
            • luminary
            • idol
            • VIP
            • famous person
            • leading light
            • superstar
            • pin-up
            • personality
            • brilliant
          • pin-up
    • figure
    • likeness
    • illustration
    • reflection
    • copy
    • impression
    • Picture
  • Depiction
    • Representation
    • Portrayal
    • description
    • picture
    • illustration
    • interpretation
      • understanding
      • explanation
        • clarification
        • elucidation
        • enlightenment
        • details
        • account
        • reason
        • justification
        • rationalization
        • description
        • vindication
      • reading
      • elucidation
      • analysis
        • examination
        • study
        • investigation
        • scrutiny
        • breakdown
      • version
    • delineation
    • drawing
  • Portrait
    • Representation
    • description
    • visual rendering
    • likeness
    • Depiction
    • sketch
    • study
  • Representation
    • symbol
      • sign
      • Representation
      • character
      • figure
      • mark
        • blot
        • spot
        • blotch
        • scratch
        • smudge
        • smear
        • stain
      • icon
      • pictogram
      • emblem
      • Image
    • Image
    • Depiction
    • illustration
    • sign
    • account
    • version
    • Portrayal
    • description

Oil, 36" x 36" after graphic by Moses Cordovero, Pardes Rimmonim, 1592

The letters that make up a word are little pictures. We arrange them to form words that are composite pictures. Words themselves form pictures. Not only in the art of micrography and other ways text is made into image, but in the intentional and accidental layout of each page. We arrange the word to form sentences, paragraphs and pages. Sometimes we combine the word arrangements with illustrations or what we more commonly call pictures. We bundle the pages into objects that are books and collect these in the architectural environments of libraries.

Letters, pages and books are generally arranged in a sequence. But reading of text often skips around. We scan pages, read the last page first or flip between chapters.

Luminescent and scrollable electronic pages change how we bundle words and images. Pages are no longer bound in static physical dimensions. The page may appear differently relating to screen size and resolution as well as what browser is used to present the page. The pages are restricted by protocols and software. And Hypertext extends our option to flip around in a vast amount of pages.

New media simply enables new ways to formulate pictures. Text was a new media once. Some work in text, when it was a relatively new medium, considers the problems related to idolizing images. A story says, “Don’t worship statues.” This may be expanded to indicate don’t worship pictures or media in general, including text. It doesn’t say don’t indulge in using media as a human venture. It says don’t forget that media is a human construction. And, since media fixes ideas in the physical world we need reminding that we put it there so we don’t mistake it for something inherent, permanent or supreme.

Understanding pictures, the way they are constructed and consumed contributes to understanding metaphorical pictures. For example, we have devised a culture that rewards lying cheating and stealing while treasuring ideologies of truth, honor and giving. Clearly there is something wrong with this picture. If we can see how this picture is constructed we may be able to rearranging the elements into a different cultural image.

The first post on this blog has a similar word sketch.