Representation, Abstraction & Symbolism Flashcards
Representation
Taking a fact-based documentary approach to a subject.
Trying to show something as it really is. (Maybe it’s education or serves as evidence of an event.)
Representational image carries with it the authority of being accurate and true.
Abstraction
To reveal something essential and evocative about the subject by simplifying its form.
For example, by adjusting and emphasizing the tone of an image we can create a feeling of suspense.
Symbolism
A simplification of the subject that creates a one-to-one between the symbol and a thing or an idea.
The connection between the symbol and the thing or idea is arbitrary. In that way, it’s like written language where a word has an arbitrary connection to the thing or idea it denotes.
Simplification
Turns representational images into abstract and symbolic images.
The Evolution of the Mouse
As we move from representation to abstraction to the symbolic we create, shift and refine meaning.
What gives us the facts and shows something as it is?
Representation.
Its goal is to be accurate if not objective.
Representation documents what we see and recognize from our environment and experience.
It is specific and reports the visual details.
Physical reality, the world we live in, provides the most basic and dominant visual experience–everything that we see and recognize is informed by context and past experience. This is what?
Representation
Linear Perspective
Objects appear larger in the foreground and smaller in the background.
Mathematically complex calculations create the scene and can be used to map out the architecture and figure placement.
Vertical Perspective
Before the invention of linear perspective, hierarchy was created by the size and placement of objects and figures to indicate which was most important.
Photo Realist Painting
Recreated the documentary style of camera to produce hyper-realistic representational art.
Photographs suggest a lack of bias and are often used as evidence of facts. This photo realist painting challenges and maybe even make fun of that bias.
What is the simplification of reality and generalizes the facts while intensifying the feeling of the visual content?
Abstraction.
We abstract images by taking liberties with color, form and light, etc. Subjects can be partially of fully abstracted.
We use abstraction to create a feeling or an ambiance.
It is evocative.
What is the process of abstraction?
Relies on reducing elements to simple, basic shapes.
Abstracting a representational tree form…
Provides adaptive flexibility in the design of a shade structure.
Allows selective use of the critical parts of the form in conceptual charts and approaches the symbolic.
Abstract Meaning IS
Created by simplifying.
Direct and emotional.
Intense, distilled and elemental.
Has a direct connection to our visual perception.
Has impact with fewer specific external references.
The more abstracted, the more general and universal (vs the more representational, the more specific).
Finds the structural level of any image, in terms of tone, shape, color, line, direction, meaning, etc.
The Abstract level of meaning is the understructure of composition in terms of elements like:
tone, shape, color.
line, direction.
balance vs instability.
stasis vs activeness.
meaning.
emotional impact.
Concept-Based Abstraction
Can take almost any visual form if it satisfies the requirements of the concept.
Function-Based Abstraction
Abstract form that derives from the object’s function; it looks like what it does.
Symbolism
Symbols are visual codes that arbitrarily connect an image with a meaning.
The meaning of symbols must be learned and shared.
A symbol stands in for an idea, belief, action or object.
What are all examples of Symbols/Symbolism?
Icon.
Pictograph.
Emoticon.
Symbols are used like words.
Symbolic Meaning
Expressing and communicating via shared, coded forms, ex. language, writing.
A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that denotes (refers to) something else by learned association.
The association between the symbol and what it represents is arbitrary.
Can refer to a thing, an action, a group, an idea, a business, institution, political party, religion, etc.
Semiotics
The study of signs and symbols.
An icon looks like what it represents.
An index indicates what it signifies (ex. smoke suggests fire).
A symbol has an arbitrary relationship to what it stands for.
Symbols are ___ ___
Culturally Dependent.
Only those within the culture or subculture will recognize a symbol’s meaning.
A symbol has an arbitrary relationship to what it stands for.
Icons and Indices (Indexes) are ___ culturally dependent.
Less.
Graphic Symbols
May be iconic, use representational information to communicate meaning.
Cultural knowledge is often required to understand their meaning.
Symbols may not…
Derive from representational images or may have evolved away from them–they refer—arbitrarily—to what they represent in terms of functionality, concepts, and ideas.
What else is an apple a symbol of?
Education
Knowledge
Immortality
Temptation
The fall of man and sin
Symbols and Code Systems
Numbers, written language
Systems of religious iconography
Some corporate logo systems
Discipline-specific symbols and codes (ex. architectural symbols, electrical circuitry symbols)
National flags
Examples: breast cancer ribbons, flags at half mast, Christmas trees
Symbolic Meaning
The use of symbols demonstrates symbolic thinking, a step toward abstraction from simpler concrete thinking, a stepping stone to language.
Includes written languages and specialized codes–ex. mathematics, musical notation, etc.
Is required for complex communication–creates efficiency and builds on shared knowledge.
Verbal and Written Language are Symbolic __
Systems.
Symbols in general can be seen as mechanisms for efficient understanding.
Example:
;-)
vs
The previous statement should be interpreted as a joke, wisecrack, or at least employing irony.
Visual Symbolism
Visual symbols require simplicity to be effective.
Symbols depend on links to memory and experience.
Variations in Common Symbols
Even standardized icons sometimes show cultural or stylistic variations of design.
Logos are Symbols
Usually trademarked, logos are symbols abstracted from images or from other symbols, such as language characters, to denote a discipline, an organization, a corporation, a product line
Juxtaposing symbolic messages can create __
Irony.
Some words to use instead of “represent” because that refers to representations, not symbols.
Denotes
Symbolizes
Signifies
Means
Suggests
Depicts
For instance, when talking about symbols
1. denote - to be a sign of; indicate; “dark clouds denote rain”
To signify or refer to explicitly; stand for; mean; said of words, signs, or symbols.
- signify - to be a sign or indication of; “his angry look signified his intent”
