Text and Image, a Trilogy - from Cheryl Penn

[Marie Wintzer]

Word lovers will be thrilled today (as I was), Cheryl is sending me three absolute goodies, putting on the balance text and image and how we perceive them. The first of them, "How text and image lie", was the original piece, which gave rise quite rapidly to additional thoughts and ideas, new work to complete her concept.
My first thought when I opened the first envelope was wow, if those images and text are lies, I can happily be lied to any time! I'm afraid it doesn't show on the pictures, but the tones of green and blue are fantastic, and such a happy combination with the red thread. The lady in green, who is she? Her staring eyes are chilling yet so compelling...

 

 

Of course a lot could be said about the double (triple?) meaning of Lie (not telling the truth) / Lie (horizontal position) / Lie (held within), one could dedicate a full blog to this wordplay, but what I read in this piece is the deception of our own mind through words and images. Words that are not what they seem to be, images we think have a meaning, the meaning we want them to have. The endless possibilities of words, the endless interpretations we have of them. Words lie, but only because our mind likes to be lied to? I think so more often than not. I know MY mind very often makes up its own cake with various layers of sentences, images, all tightly bound by imaginary thread. So yes, text lies, images are deceptive, and words do harm (that fantastic puzzle piece to Rob!).

 

 

The second card is a bundle of lies :-))  Text and image Lie in shades of grey too. Shades, yes. What defines the various shades of a text? Is it inherent to the text itself or is each individual performing its own grading (that can also vary in time). Does a text have a different shade depending on the image it is juxtaposed with? I think so. But here again, there are so many variables that are hard for me to pinpoint and analyze in depth (help, you word-experts out there!).

Just as I am writing this it strikes me that the word image has numerous definitions that can all be relevant in this context, and that the pairing of TEXT and IMAGE has got nothing to do with chance but has been carefully thought through. A few of them:

Image
- An optically formed duplicate, counterpart, or other representative reproduction of an object.
- One that closely or exactly resembles another; a double.
- A character projected to the public.
- A mental picture of something not real or present.
- A figure of speech, especially a metaphor or simile.
- A concrete representation [..] that is expressive or evocative of something else.

To me, an extremely interesting part of Cheryl's concept (with a fragrance reminiscent of Ether), about which a LOT more could and should be written.

 

 

The third card, Text in Knots, is from Cheryl's recent Ghostwriter series. The Ghostwriter is not exactly a ghostwriter as we know them. His true occupation is undisclosed, all we know is that he is looking for something. Is he the one who is writing the Text in Knots, or is he the one untangling them?

 

 

Text in Knots is a member of the Lying Text family. It is the most elaborate one, the one that requires the most skills and technique. An advanced and almost exclusive member of the family. More fun, certainly exhilarating, hence the most addictive and dangerous of them all.

Knot sure
Knot clear
Knot meant to
Knot kidding?
Knot what I wanted to say
Why Knot then

No wonder the Ghostwriter is having a tough time. But he knows he is after something big, and maybe we will soon know more about it (cf Bifidus' blog for a start)...

 

 

A lot more could be written about this series, as usual I feel like I have only been scratching the surface of what is a much deeper concept. We need more Text, we need more Image. I need to untangle those Knots! Cheryl, I am thrilled you sent me those two additional cards, the three of them work really well together, absolutely fab, thank you HS!

[cheryl penn]

OK OK!!!! I was just having a moment :-)))X

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

don't do that angie, just save all your awesomes for me.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

awesome post cheryl! ;-D

 

as for long term benefits of faster communication -

i've read, and i can hunt down the source if you're interested,lmk:),

that increased communication bandwidth will allow more information

to be expressed per unit time, thereby allowing a person

to more quickly reveal themselves, their soul, their essence,

to another person, thus closing the gap between individuals;

and bringing the community at large that much closer, that much faster

to unity of persona. yet another reason to really try to promote

a free society now, because the sooner we open up to one another,

the faster change will come. and we need to bring ourselves together

now more than ever, IMHO, with all the global issues happening

with climate, economy, etc.

 

poetic language is pretty; but there is much to be said for communication as well. ;-D

 

as always, just my 2c!

[cheryl penn]

Was getting lost myself - truth is, languages are dying and English is shrinking. The fact that there are more  - and faster ways to communicate it - not certain as to the long term benefits of that. This is of course a hotly debated issue world wide - so my two cents worth are exactly that - small bronze coins! The death of language - as in world wide languages IS a reality - some say good, if we all spoke English we can all get on (WWWWHHHAAATTT planet are they on???) others say - language is an expression of identity and culture.  Language expresses emotion (the staple human condition???) - when its reduced to gr8 - well, I dont think it is.  And its NOT just about linguistics - if I hear AWESOME one more time - I'll POP!

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

i'm kind of lost on your comment cheryl;

are you commenting on the degradation of language due to the cell phone text boom?

 

we discussed this at some length in my composition class in the spring,

and i find it interesting to visualize it not as a degradation of language,

but more of a transferrance, and it goes hand in hand on my earlier reply

to thom's comment on the "addictiveness" of socil networks,

(in particular IUOMA). from what i understand is that although the

"collective attention span" has been reduced (this quote from david stafford),

we communicate much more rapidly than we had when language

was expressed, on average, through more intricate literary devices.

 

in short: it takes time to compress information in a more elegant format;

but now we have an abundance of bandwidth to communicate by,

there's no need to sit down and force our words into tiny, pretty packages;

not that there is anything wrong with that - and it certainly will always have

its place in art -- but as a whole, the world doesn't need as many words

in our heads, and on our tongues.

 

certainly a lot in there to think about, whether or not you agree with me;

and i'm still churning it up, so i'm not even sure if i agree with me! ;-D

[cheryl penn]

I think the beauty of words and language is  lost in passiveness. It takes effort to learn, to elucidate meaning - I dont know - I'm a pessimist after a stint in the trenches like today!

[cheryl penn]

Yes - but think about how large the dictionary was 100 years ago. Then 10 years ago - now, if students use 20 - 30 pages thats alot? 

Ether-olic for sure am I!!!!

[Thom Courcelle]

Hello, my name is Thom and I am an ether-olic.  Are there doughnuts here?

[cheryl penn]

Was just thinking about 'the art of the scribe' - that the art of writing was essentially transmitted from one generation to another by scribes- it was an instrument of power and knowledge requiring long and rigorous periods of training and initiation. Story Telling gave way to writing, and now? Now I think society is loosing both :-(

[cheryl penn]

Thom - nice to see you :-) - its generally left to DVS and I to waft through the Ether :-).