The
New School -- Fall 2001
Visual and Cultural Studies
Representation is the use of "language" to show or say something meaningful about the world. (15)
How are meaning and language linked to culture? How do they show or say anything at all about the world?
Three Theories of Representation
• Reflectionist–meaning is in the object and reflected in language. [mimesis] (24) But given the arbitrary nature of language and the fact that we can represent things that don’t exist, it follows that language cannot, in any straightforward sense, be a reflection of reality.
• Intentionalist–meaning is determined by the intention of the "speaker". (25) But since the essence of language is communication which depends on shared linguistic conventions, one’s intention is not sufficient to give a word or utterance meaning (in the broad social sense of the word).
• Constructionist (functional)–meaning is determined contextually within representational systems. (25)
• semiotic approach
• discursive Approach
Hall claims the process takes place in two stages:
• A visual percept is registered in the brain.
• A pre-existing concept is applied to the percept. (This amounts to a "decoding" of the visual percept.) (16)
The "proof" that decoding by means of a concept takes place is that if I look away from the object, I can still imagine it and think about it. [What does this prove?]
Hall goes on to observe that
• concepts are categorized in the mind, and
• a given concept may belong to many categories. (17-18)
Hall distinguishes two systems of representation:
• a shared set of mental representations (concepts) which are elements within elaborate categories -- maps of our experiential world which provide a common ground for communication and understanding.
• public language which allows us to correlate concepts with the signs (words, images, sounds) of a socially shared symbolic system. (18)
Thus, the first system of representation is a set of correlations between (mental) objects and concepts. The second system is a set of correlations between concepts and signs. Thus, representation is the linking together of objects, concepts, and signs.
Definition: "Language": "Any sound, word, image or object which functions as a sign, and is organized with other signs into a system which is capable of carrying and expressing meaning..." (19)
How does meaning arise?
"The meaning is constructed by the system of representation. It is constructed and fixed by the code, which sets up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system..." (21)
Thus, to belong to a culture is to share ways of understanding, expressing, and communicating with others. (22)
Barthes -- Poetics of Representation: A method for analyzing visual material.
[signifier====code===signified]===code===connotation
[cut of cotton===code===jeans]===code===casualness
The important thing to keep in mind is that meaning
All this works in a broader social and nonlinguistic sense as well.
Clothing as signifier -- "fashion statement"
Examples:
signifier = a cut of fabric (form)
signified = jeans
connotations = casualness, work, "the American frontier", rugged
signified = red 6" stiletto high-heeled shoes
connotations = femininity, sexuality, wildness
signified = work boots
signified = Doc Martens
All takes place within a discourse of fashion.
Laclau & Mouffe Excerpt: Discourse
Suppose that I'm building a wall and I say to my assistant, "Brick". Then he hands me a brick and I add it to the wall. Two things have taken place:
Now, notice that there's more going on than just our two sets of actions. There's the linguistic and the nonlinguistic acts and, in addition there's the larger totality that we might refer to as the building of a brick wall. Seen in this light, the request for a brick and adding it to the wall are components of the total process. And, in an important sense, the process is logically prior to the component actions. It is within the process that the actions take on meaning.
The total process is what we call a discourse (or a discursive formation). The key point here is that the discourse is not reducible to the linguistic or nonlinguistic components, but provides the context or structure within which the actions are intelligible and constitute an identifiable and meaningful activity.
Also keep in mind that discursive relations are social. A diamond in the ground prior to its being mined is just a stone. But after it's removed and enters into the economic market discourse, it becomes a commodity. It is the same physical object in both contexts, but functions differently and has a very different meaning and function.
When is a brick not a brick?
When it's a weapon thrown through a window. Or when it's a work of art. Cf. brick used as part of an installation in a museum (Andre). In this case, the appearance and perhaps even the handling of the brick may appear to be similar, but the meaning is radically different. It is now within the discourse of art (and minimalist sculpture in particular) that the employment of the brick makes sense. [Cf. Duchamp's urinal; Richard Long's installations and photographs, etc.]
Again, it is within a set of social relations (discursive formations) that things take on their identities and meanings. It is also in social formations (in discourse) that individuals find their roles ("subject positions") and create meaning out of their lives.
Finally, we must bear in mind that there may to be no escape from discourse. Attempts to get around it by positing a realm of nature within which things just are what they are outside of any discursive formations or categories is misleading. Nature is itself a category. Classifying something as a natural object in terms of its "natural" properties (chemical, geological, atomic structure, etc.) is to place it within a historical and contingent classificatory system. Thus, to make this point in somewhat dramatic terms, if there were no human beings in existence, there would be no such thing as "nature". (Note that this does not imply that there is no truth or fact relative to a specific context or convention.)
Constructionism -- The Production of Knowledge (45)
"Subjects like 'madness'...and 'sexuality' only exist meaningfully within the discourses about them." (But "meaning" in this sense is not the only issue with respect to knowledge. Material conditions are another important factor. Physiology, chemistry, genetic profiles are real and have real effects independent of meaning.)
Where is the Subject?
Subject-positions (types, e.g. criminal, artist) (56)