Original_To:  BITNET%"mbu-l@ttuvm1.bitnet"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Mon, 23 Nov 1992 06:30:00 EDT
From:         "Composition Digest (Robert Royar,
              Moderator)" <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>
Subject:      (Fwd: *C&CD*) Syntax of imagery (10)

Entry: 10
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 04:53:10 EST
From: IN%"RobertRoyar@Delphi.COM" Robert Royar, (C&CD Moderator)
Message-id: <1992Nov23.045310.v7.028.1.Grendel.Lair@Cratylus>
Subject: Syntax of imagery (10)
Reply-to: "Computers & Composition Digest (R. Royar)" <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>
Organization: Cratylus Educational Software

In a recent message
>Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 02:11:57 -0200
>From: "(Leland Emerson McCleary)" <mccleary@CAT.CCE.USP.BR>
>Subject: Music and Imagery (*MBU*)
>Message-id: <01GRGXOPLS2O8WW01Q@ulkyvx.bitnet>

>How many would object to the statement that imagery has semantics
>but no syntax.

I argue that semantics and syntax are closely allied (welded) in all
sense-mediated experience. Where there is meaning, both are present. Even
the nonsense *sentences* of the linguists hold some semantic
element--ironically given them by their very syntactic structure.
  *Gee bleem iopioooed gee woiuthell*
oder auf Deutsch
  *Fa Blemingtheroiusya fan woiuthellkiet iopiot*

Syntax is a way of organizing discrete elements to create a meaningful new
element. Thus we use syntax to assembly words and punctuation into phrases
and clauses. Viewed this way the syntax of imagery is tied to spatial
organization and iconography. A well-trained iconologist can read a
painting and determine subtlties of meaning based not only on its elements
but also on their positions in the work. One of the more obvious examples
of this syntax is that embodied in the triptych. The order of the three
grosser elements determines much of the meaning in the triptych. Why is
this?

Some would argue that as symbol manipulators our primary goal is to impose
meaning on whatever our senses present us. Some would argue that insanity
stems from the failure of this ability. The visual imagistic stream can be
ordered by some using words, by others with color, by some with
chiaroscuro, by some with blueprint and brick, by others with sound, and by
a few with violent actions on their fellows.

The syntax of images is not currently taught to most (even well-educated)
people--our education system prefering to teach art appreciation without
interpretation and analysis. The romantic movement in literature,
impressionistic and expressionistic movements in art cloud the structural
"syntax" underlaying literary and visual arts. The Abstract movement should
serve to remind us of the syntax inherent in the visual--with its
reinterpretation of such key structuring concepts as perspective and
linearity. Previous to that we can look at renaissance painting and
"gesture theory" or the doors of Notre Dame.

 -- Robert Royar (RobertRoyar@Delphi.com) New York Institute of Technology
    "If the Russians can get rid of the Communists, the Americans can get
     rid of the Republicans."
                                                             - Rudy Rucker

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