IMAGESTools for analysis.

Levels of Abstraction:Picture, Symbol, Sign

MUSIC32N

LEVELS OF ABSTRACTION

Sign

Symbol

Picture

Images are pictures to the extent to which they portray things located at a lower level of abstraction (less abstract) than they are themselves. They do their work by grasping

and rendering some relevant qualities – shape, color, movement – of the objects or activities they depict.

The question is: What is it like?

An image acts as a symbol to the extent to which it portrays things which are at a higher level of abstraction

than is the symbol itself. A symbol gives particular shape to types of things or constellations of forces. Any image is of course a particular thing and by standing for a kind of thing it serves as a symbol , e.g., if it presents a dog in order to

show what the concept of dog is.

The question is: What is it?

An image functions as a sign to the extent to which it stands for a particular content without reflecting its characteristics

visually. In strictest sense it is perhaps impossible to be purely a sign. Portrayal often slips in.

The questions are: What does it stand for?

What does it signal?

SIGNS

J.S.BACH (1685-1750) CELLO SUITE IN D-MAJOR

SIGNS

KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (1933- ) - THRENODY FOR THE VICTIMS OF HIROSHIMA (1960)

SIGNS

LABANOTATION NOTATION FOR DANCE BY RUDOLF LABAN (1920IES)

SIGNS (and SYMBOLS)

LABANOTATION NOTATION FOR DANCE BY RUDOLF LABAN (1920IES)

SIGNS (and SYMBOLS)

SIGNS (and SYMBOLS)

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HASEGAWA TŌHAKU (1539 -1610) – PINE TREES (LEFT) [61.7 × 140.2 IN, PAIR OF SIX-FOLDED SCREENS; INK ON PAPER]

PICTURES (and SYMBOLS)[and SIGNS]

HASEGAWA TŌHAKU (1539 -1610) – PINE TREES (RIGHT) [61.7 × 140.2 IN, PAIR OF SIX-FOLDED SCREENS; INK ON PAPER]

ANALYSIS OF IMAGES• background, middle ground,

foreground

• point - groups of points(size, scale of detail)

• line (softness, texture, thickness, color, shape: free/disciplined)

• tone (brightness, lighting, contrast)

• color (hue and saturation)

• patterns, textures (density, detail)

• composition, geometry(balance, center of equilibrium/interest,static-symmetrical ordynamic-asymmetrical)

MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610) – BASKET OF FRUIT [12 IN × 19 IN, OIL ON CANVAS ~1599]

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) – Shōno's White Rain from The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō.

[10 IN X 15 IN, woodcut print 1833-36]

Paul Klee (1879-1940) – Castle and Sun [20 IN X 23 IN, OIL ON CANVAS 1928]

Paul Klee (1879-1940) – The Twittering Machine [25.25 in × 19 in, Watercolor and ink; oil transfer on paper with gouache and ink on border 1922]

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) – Broadway Boogie-Woogie [50 IN X 50 IN, OIL ON CANVAS, 1942-43]

CY TWOMBLY (1928-2011) – COLD STREAM [32 IN X 22 IN, WHITE WAX PENCIL ON CANVAS, 1966]

https://vimeo.com/47276614

STAN BRAKHAGE (1933-2003) – MOTHLIGHT

[MOTH WINGS, FLOWER PETALS, BLADES OF GRASS, PRESSED BETWEEN TWO STRIPS OF 16MM SPLICING TAPE, 1963]