Sunday 16 March 2008

Barcelona

A week at Alimentaria in Barcelona. Lots of Iberian foodie types and modern building stuff.






Friday 7 March 2008

Deduction, Induction and Abduction

Following on from the previous posts it is worth noting that some of the issues I struggle with over imagery are discussed in the realms of semiotics/semiology. A great collection of papers on Marketing and Semiotics was published in 1987 under the editorship of Jean Umiker-Sebeok. In a paper by Morris Holbrook he discusses the how, quoting Burnham "..."the artist realises that a standardized product is essentially a piece of language containing syntagm and system" so that "the intention is to tranform common objects into art" via a process wherein "the artist's genius is in recognising the totemised environment of brand products and mass media."

Is that where the "artistic" need arises for photographers to capture the essences of scenes? To give expression to what is seen AND felt?


He goes on to say that, "The understanding of such consumption-based artistic nuances involves a type of logic that Pierce [a American founding father of semiotics) called abduction. ....As described by Peirce, abduction follows a different logical process from the familiar deduction or induction. Briefly, given
1) a rule ( a law of nature or general truth drawn from experience),
2) a case (a presumption or hypothesis) , and
3) a result ( an observed fact)........

deduction draws an inference from 1) & 2) to 3)
induction from 2) & 3) to 1)
&
abduction from 1) & 3) to 2)

he then goes on to give Pierce's example about a bag of white beans [!]

Deduction
Rule: All the beans from this bag are white
Case: These beans are from this bag
Therefore Result: These beans are white

Induction
Case: These beans are from this bag
Result: These beans are white
Therefore Rule: All the beans from this bag are white

Abduction
Rule: All the beans from this bag are white
Result: These beans are white
Therefore Case These beans are from this bag

Marketing & Semiotics Jean Umiker-Sebeok 1987 pp 98-99

"the artist's genius is in recognising the totemised environment of brand products and mass media." Again is that where irreverent comedy gets its kicks?

South Somerset Homes bird sanctuary


Here's another one that I cannot but see a Kiwi bird every time this housing association's vehicles rush by. Slowly I begin to see the tree and the house but the red shouts to me first.

Fairtrade emblem


If I am not careful this is going to end up a blog of symbols, logo and signs but perhaps that's necessary.
So here's the Fairtrade logo that great image of a quirky looking parrot! Strange what your eyesight and mind can do. Oh no it's not it's a person set between sky and earth - I hadn't cottoned on to this till recently. Then Oli of OW consultancy pointed out it is actually some weird green and blue fishes. Logo's are so awkward and difficult to get right. If you look on Google images however you do tend to see the Fairtrade logo closely connected to the statement: "Guarantees a better deal for Third World producers" which in essence counter balances the pure imagery of the logo. And yet! Isn't Third World pace now? Time to change?