When a drawn curve is said to mean hip it is simply a casual way to say the drawn line evokes an association to hip at that time in that context. Many other associations may be pertinent or even crucial, again, depending on the overall context. Why is this an issue? (And why, O why does Cheerskep repeat the point ad-nauseum?). It's very simple and obvious that daily language simplifies and blends associations according to more or less assumed contexts. When I'm driving on a hilly road and see a road sign with a wavy line on it I'm expected to understand that that wavy line means a curved road. I am not urged to think of a woman's hip, but among the many associations I could easily indulge, that may be one. If I indulge it too much I may crash on the next curve. Words or images do not have any -- NONE-- inherent meanings or are they particular stable signs when isolated from a context/s. But habit and custom and mental agility do constrain our awareness of contexts.
I used to teach some drawing by asking students to imagine themselves driving a tiny car over the contour of the model's body and to recognize the need to speed up or slow down (with varied pressure on the crayon) as the pathways altered. By this means of bi-association they were able to become more sensitive to the role of expressive line in portraying the figure. wc ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, January 19, 2013 10:18:42 AM Subject: Re: wake up In a message dated 1/19/13 9:43:37 AM, [email protected] writes: > On Jan 19, 2013, at 9:28 AM, saulostrow <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Though I would suggest that depiction is a semiotic system (one of > visual > > signs and symbols) and therefore linguistic. > Michael Brady responded: > > Thank you. Much more succinct than my reply. > I myself tend to think of it almost the other way around. A visual artist's one-line curve of a woman's hip reminds me directly of a real woman's hip. The memory of a real woman's hip is, for me, a visual memory. My brain, on seeing or hearing something, "retrieves" from memory quite directly: This one ink-line curve on paper "reminds me" of that real curve because of visual resemblance, association of like images. I reject systems of "signs", "signifying", "symbolizing" in attempts to explain why the one curve retrieves for me the memory of the other. A photograph of Lincoln brings to mind memories of the man; it does not do so because it "signifies" or "symbolizes" or "means" him. The image in the photo visually resembles images in my memory. The non-artist who, confronted by a "schematized, abstract" painting, says to himself "This means shoulder, this means hip, this means foot. (Means = signifies)," is flatly wrong. The imputation of "meaning" to a visual mark is a basic error. Philosophers are particularly prone to this peculiar form of self-delusion. Unwilling simply to accept the simpler truth that, after repeated juxtaposition of the sound "milk" with the white stuff, a child's brain connects/associates the sound with the white stuff, many philosophers have devised elaborate imaginary schemes called "denoting", "signifying", "designating", "meaning". The philosophers do this despite their readily accepting that a child, once painfully burned by a candle, immediately "associates" flame with pain. That smart puppy, Pavlov's dog, tried to teach philosophers that association is all that goes on when we recall. The philosophers are not consciously being dishonest. Craving a more profound analysis (and a more intricate vocabulary suggestive of profundity) they have sincerely deluded themselves into thinking that in some sense they "explain" the brain's ability to associate (and to recall by retrieving associated notions) better by saying that word-sounds "denote", "signify", "designate", etc. In fact the words DO nothing whatever; all the action is by the brain. In any case, all of this about hip-curves etc remains visual for me, not "linguistic". In fact, I associate "linguistic" much more with aural sensation than visual -- but that's another matter.
