Chapter 1: Terms

Question 1

Graphic

Answer 1

Of or pertaining to the arrangement of visual elements with regard to their composition as forms on a surface or in a visual field; graphic forms need not be pictures or signs but can be abstract shapes or patterns.

Question 2

Visual

Answer 2

Able to be perceived by the eye and optic system, available to vision; also, any properties of things that are only perceptible through the sense of vision.

Question 3

Signs

Answer 3

Any sound, object, mark, or other token that can be used to represent something else in a systematic way.

Question 4

Symbolic forms

Answer 4

Signs or objects whose value derives from their meaning as representations rather than from their material properties or literal form; in psychoanalytic terms, the symbolic designates the realm of language and representation systems as the site of meaning production and identity formation.

Question 5

Proto-writing

Answer 5

Signs, glyphs, marks, and other forms of inscription that anticipate more systematic writing systems but do not have a stable representational relation to language.

Question 6

Representation

Answer 6

A sign or image that stands for something else; abstract or arbitrary signs may function as representations, but which representational art always contains recognizable elements of that which it depicts.

Question 7

Language

Answer 7

A stable system of human communication that depends on consensual sign values for the exchange of information, ideas and feelings.

Question 8

Visual code

Answer 8

A stable sign system in a graphic form.