Monday, November 07, 2005
Proposal
As I betrayed, his body’s snatched away
And taken by a demon, who controls it
Until the time arrives for it to die.
The soul then falls headlong into this tank.
Perhaps his body still appears above,
The shade who chirps his winter song behind me,
Dante’s Inferno
To examine and analyse the photographic image as a text. As a text whether the image may transcend its time period through understanding (relating to its readers) universal concepts of society.
Explore the relationship between images and the ‘unspoken’ (or silent) word that Derrida concludes is the breaking out of the Heideggerian model of linguistics (dialogue).
To highlight the contextual importance of understanding. The place that photographic images inhibit within social understanding; contributing to society’s construction of truth. The political consequences associated with ‘spinning’ photographic context.
In practice I aim to produce a set of images that represent, examine and interrogate the three modern stages of political linguistic control that have passed in the previous century. As of yet no physical representation of this discourse has taken shape. The visual ramifications and final manifestation will be shaped heavily by a resolved conceptual outline. This is of the utmost importance because the work rests largely on the examination of the photographic image as a means of textual communication. The concept is not everything, but it is first and foremost.
The image will be a signifier for the concept. The use of visual juxtaposition, textual provocation and layout designs will all be shaped and representative of the political and journalistic styles and conventions in current use. The justification for such art practice is purely subjective motivation. As an artist my driving influences are journalistic in nature – I desire my images not so much to speak, but to communicate persuasively.
An outline of the historical events in relationship to contemporary deconstructionalist and linguistic philosophy is in order to explain, elaborate and detail the conceptual work in progress. This is vital due to the nature of the work and the lack of a physical representation of the ideas that the work is based upon.
Since the Vietnam War contemporary media has been advertantly aware of the power of images, moving and still photographic images. The journalistic story that was so powerfully supported by the complimentary images flowing from war torn Indo-china influenced the society that was the target for such images. Two opposing truths were aimed at the populus (namely the American populus); an official government position supported by data, and the media news story that was supported by photographic truths. In retrospect, the reactions of the populus lead to the conclusion that while the official truth was soundly justified by social standards the seeing for oneself, and the immediacy of photographic images over figures changed the social truth. From an overwhelming support of the war based on facts of communist aggression and ‘domino theory’ were overridden by photographic facts and the horrific realism presented by media images.
The Heideggarian sense that truth is bound to social dialogue is highlighted by the contrasting of the propaganda wars that were being played out in American society during the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and again in recent times while under the threat of terrorism. Under a slow but sure learning strategy adopted by the White House, information being fed to the population is undergoing a linguistic revolution. Working in three stages the American Governments have been able to control the flow of information, its validity and its longevity by the manipulation of the systems of language that on a social level formulate meanings of truth.
Via the replacement and reinvention of signifiers the official truth adequately removed the relevant concept from its context while leaving the element of truth virtually intact. Ferdinand De Saussure examined language in terms of the signifier and the signified. The signifier being the term that would signify the object, which would be the signified, and the meaning sprung out from the relationship between the signifier and signified to the concept. To illustrate the point in context for example: the public relations (media) office of the White House during the Vietnam war recontextualized the term frag to signify the act of killing one’s superior officer. Since the concept had not been created via the social linguistic system the truth-value of the term was lost. Thus the White House public release carried less truth-value than plain english news text accompanied by a photographic image.
Inevitably the embedded journalist posed a method by which the official truth could be reported by independent in-field journalists accompanied with photographic evidence. In this sense a true linguistic revelation took place. No longer were the conflicts of linguistic truth a major public concern; the confusion within the means of communication was replaced by conflict of messages. In simultaneous instances the same image could appear in different sources with a different spin on each article. The public was pushed into the world of graphic context, image analysis and the differánce in language. A social consciousness of skepticism developed in a period of image doubt. The necessity of interpretation involved with a news image forced the target public to examine the context of the photographic image, not accepting a truth-value as face value. The digital revolution threw into question the entire relevance of the photographic image as a truth-bringer.
Language is not natural for man, but the act of creating a language is, and by its nature the systems of language have an inherent internal dialogue. In these systems of language the formation of concepts have also produced the counter-points for concepts so that within the dialogue of language there is also a dichotomy. This dichotomy allows the distinction of the other, things alien, to be recognised, and this being recognised is assigned a truth-value by the use of differánce.
Thus it follows if differánce does work in the social constructs of the systems of language than the emancipation of the public from the embedded truth (embedded journalist) is inevitable. Examining the photographic image in a textual analysis the result is the same. Current marketing trends suggest that the public is growing fervently to tend away from assigning truth at face value and that a certain deconstruction takes place. In this sense it can be understood that the audience will attempt to understand an image by examining its context and the reliability of its sources.
The current political climate in the face of terrorism allows for the power relationship structures to be feigned in such a way that the public is no longer a body, in its units [family, community, association, state], but rather a collective of individuals with each as equally alien to each other. In this way the institution places itself at the epitome for social truth because it is the only remaining power structure that is not foreign to the individual. On a linguistic level the institution places all positive language in reference to itself while disregarding any negative language and re-inventing the foreign as in opposition with the institution – in opposition to the only remaining factor that is non-foreign. In this sense the coining of terms such as un-American are invented and used to describe the alien, and therefore an inherent threat is implied. In the same way on a textual level a similar process is being manufactured to photographic images. The truth of the image is within relation to the institution, and any alien image must by default be untrue (perhaps untruth = un-American).
However Gadamer suggests that it is the nature of language to ultimately incorporate the other into itself in the same Heideggerian model that a thesis must be opposed by an anti-thesis and eventually via cognitive thought and dialogue a synthesis is reached. This is apparently brought about by the inherent resolving nature of language and the ‘horizon of understanding’. Because people are social creatures they must interact and to do so communication via language is necessary; a synthesis therefore must be reached in order for understanding to take place, because understanding (or learning) is reached over common ground where concessions are made and the foreign is re-interpreted.
It is then my conceptual mission to understand what it is to reach a graphic synthesis of the ‘horizon of understanding’.
References
Benveniste Emile – The Nature of Pronouns
Chomsky, Noam – Manufacturing Consent.
Derrida, Jacques – Margins of Philosophy
Derrida, Jacques – From Restricted to General Economy
Derrida, Jacques – Semiology and Grammatology: Interview with Julia Kristeva
Foucault, Michel – The Discourse On Language
Heidegger, Martin – Being-there as Understanding
Klein, Noami – No Logo
Ricketson, Mathew – Writing Feature Stories
Saussure, Ferdinand De – Course In General Linguistics
Being In Time. Martin Heidegger
Course In General Linguistics. Ferdinand De Saussure
This term was coined by Jacques Derrida, and has been officially introduced to the standard French and standard English vocabulary. Differnce highlights the subtle variations and power sturcutures within language. The argument is whether more information can be discerned from written text or speech. Derrida argues against Saussure pointing out that speech carries certain elements of interpretation that written text cannot have. In my work I am attempting to ascertain whether this same differnce applies within visual texts.
Margins Of Philosophy. Jacques Derrida
New Media. ??
From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelanism without reserve. Jacques Derrida
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Manufacturing Consent. Noam Chomsky
No Logo. Noami Klein
Truth and Method. Hans Gadamer
Ibid.,
Ibid., ¶ 5:05 pm
And taken by a demon, who controls it
Until the time arrives for it to die.
The soul then falls headlong into this tank.
Perhaps his body still appears above,
The shade who chirps his winter song behind me,
Dante’s Inferno
To examine and analyse the photographic image as a text. As a text whether the image may transcend its time period through understanding (relating to its readers) universal concepts of society.
Explore the relationship between images and the ‘unspoken’ (or silent) word that Derrida concludes is the breaking out of the Heideggerian model of linguistics (dialogue).
To highlight the contextual importance of understanding. The place that photographic images inhibit within social understanding; contributing to society’s construction of truth. The political consequences associated with ‘spinning’ photographic context.
In practice I aim to produce a set of images that represent, examine and interrogate the three modern stages of political linguistic control that have passed in the previous century. As of yet no physical representation of this discourse has taken shape. The visual ramifications and final manifestation will be shaped heavily by a resolved conceptual outline. This is of the utmost importance because the work rests largely on the examination of the photographic image as a means of textual communication. The concept is not everything, but it is first and foremost.
The image will be a signifier for the concept. The use of visual juxtaposition, textual provocation and layout designs will all be shaped and representative of the political and journalistic styles and conventions in current use. The justification for such art practice is purely subjective motivation. As an artist my driving influences are journalistic in nature – I desire my images not so much to speak, but to communicate persuasively.
An outline of the historical events in relationship to contemporary deconstructionalist and linguistic philosophy is in order to explain, elaborate and detail the conceptual work in progress. This is vital due to the nature of the work and the lack of a physical representation of the ideas that the work is based upon.
Since the Vietnam War contemporary media has been advertantly aware of the power of images, moving and still photographic images. The journalistic story that was so powerfully supported by the complimentary images flowing from war torn Indo-china influenced the society that was the target for such images. Two opposing truths were aimed at the populus (namely the American populus); an official government position supported by data, and the media news story that was supported by photographic truths. In retrospect, the reactions of the populus lead to the conclusion that while the official truth was soundly justified by social standards the seeing for oneself, and the immediacy of photographic images over figures changed the social truth. From an overwhelming support of the war based on facts of communist aggression and ‘domino theory’ were overridden by photographic facts and the horrific realism presented by media images.
The Heideggarian sense that truth is bound to social dialogue is highlighted by the contrasting of the propaganda wars that were being played out in American society during the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and again in recent times while under the threat of terrorism. Under a slow but sure learning strategy adopted by the White House, information being fed to the population is undergoing a linguistic revolution. Working in three stages the American Governments have been able to control the flow of information, its validity and its longevity by the manipulation of the systems of language that on a social level formulate meanings of truth.
Via the replacement and reinvention of signifiers the official truth adequately removed the relevant concept from its context while leaving the element of truth virtually intact. Ferdinand De Saussure examined language in terms of the signifier and the signified. The signifier being the term that would signify the object, which would be the signified, and the meaning sprung out from the relationship between the signifier and signified to the concept. To illustrate the point in context for example: the public relations (media) office of the White House during the Vietnam war recontextualized the term frag to signify the act of killing one’s superior officer. Since the concept had not been created via the social linguistic system the truth-value of the term was lost. Thus the White House public release carried less truth-value than plain english news text accompanied by a photographic image.
Inevitably the embedded journalist posed a method by which the official truth could be reported by independent in-field journalists accompanied with photographic evidence. In this sense a true linguistic revelation took place. No longer were the conflicts of linguistic truth a major public concern; the confusion within the means of communication was replaced by conflict of messages. In simultaneous instances the same image could appear in different sources with a different spin on each article. The public was pushed into the world of graphic context, image analysis and the differánce in language. A social consciousness of skepticism developed in a period of image doubt. The necessity of interpretation involved with a news image forced the target public to examine the context of the photographic image, not accepting a truth-value as face value. The digital revolution threw into question the entire relevance of the photographic image as a truth-bringer.
Language is not natural for man, but the act of creating a language is, and by its nature the systems of language have an inherent internal dialogue. In these systems of language the formation of concepts have also produced the counter-points for concepts so that within the dialogue of language there is also a dichotomy. This dichotomy allows the distinction of the other, things alien, to be recognised, and this being recognised is assigned a truth-value by the use of differánce.
Thus it follows if differánce does work in the social constructs of the systems of language than the emancipation of the public from the embedded truth (embedded journalist) is inevitable. Examining the photographic image in a textual analysis the result is the same. Current marketing trends suggest that the public is growing fervently to tend away from assigning truth at face value and that a certain deconstruction takes place. In this sense it can be understood that the audience will attempt to understand an image by examining its context and the reliability of its sources.
The current political climate in the face of terrorism allows for the power relationship structures to be feigned in such a way that the public is no longer a body, in its units [family, community, association, state], but rather a collective of individuals with each as equally alien to each other. In this way the institution places itself at the epitome for social truth because it is the only remaining power structure that is not foreign to the individual. On a linguistic level the institution places all positive language in reference to itself while disregarding any negative language and re-inventing the foreign as in opposition with the institution – in opposition to the only remaining factor that is non-foreign. In this sense the coining of terms such as un-American are invented and used to describe the alien, and therefore an inherent threat is implied. In the same way on a textual level a similar process is being manufactured to photographic images. The truth of the image is within relation to the institution, and any alien image must by default be untrue (perhaps untruth = un-American).
However Gadamer suggests that it is the nature of language to ultimately incorporate the other into itself in the same Heideggerian model that a thesis must be opposed by an anti-thesis and eventually via cognitive thought and dialogue a synthesis is reached. This is apparently brought about by the inherent resolving nature of language and the ‘horizon of understanding’. Because people are social creatures they must interact and to do so communication via language is necessary; a synthesis therefore must be reached in order for understanding to take place, because understanding (or learning) is reached over common ground where concessions are made and the foreign is re-interpreted.
It is then my conceptual mission to understand what it is to reach a graphic synthesis of the ‘horizon of understanding’.
References
Benveniste Emile – The Nature of Pronouns
Chomsky, Noam – Manufacturing Consent.
Derrida, Jacques – Margins of Philosophy
Derrida, Jacques – From Restricted to General Economy
Derrida, Jacques – Semiology and Grammatology: Interview with Julia Kristeva
Foucault, Michel – The Discourse On Language
Heidegger, Martin – Being-there as Understanding
Klein, Noami – No Logo
Ricketson, Mathew – Writing Feature Stories
Saussure, Ferdinand De – Course In General Linguistics
Being In Time. Martin Heidegger
Course In General Linguistics. Ferdinand De Saussure
This term was coined by Jacques Derrida, and has been officially introduced to the standard French and standard English vocabulary. Differnce highlights the subtle variations and power sturcutures within language. The argument is whether more information can be discerned from written text or speech. Derrida argues against Saussure pointing out that speech carries certain elements of interpretation that written text cannot have. In my work I am attempting to ascertain whether this same differnce applies within visual texts.
Margins Of Philosophy. Jacques Derrida
New Media. ??
From Restricted to General Economy: A Hegelanism without reserve. Jacques Derrida
Ibid.,
Ibid.,
Manufacturing Consent. Noam Chomsky
No Logo. Noami Klein
Truth and Method. Hans Gadamer
Ibid.,
Ibid., ¶ 5:05 pm