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The Light as a Metaphor for Language
Light as a Metaphor for Language was a project focused on understanding and manipulating light (1) and its properties. I created a variety of still lifes, using different types of light sources and placing elements (either opaque or translucent) between the lights and the composed scene. Over time, the accumulation of patina and dust altered the sheen and texture of the objects.
The project also served as a reflection on visual semiotics. I selected objects for the composition (writings, photographs, found objects, pictorial or sculptural elements, etc.) to create metaphors featuring different iconic signs (2) (icons, indexes, and/or symbols). Visual metaphors (3) that were derived from either rationality or poetics.
References
Texts
- 1. Stroebel L.; Zakia R. (1993). Encyclopedia of Photography. Third Edition. Boston, London: Focal Press. P. 436.
“Light is fundamental to photography. The word photography literally means drawing with light. The function of photographic materials is to record patterns of light, and the function of the photographic equipment used for taking pictures is to produce, measure, and control light. Few things are more valuable to the photographer than an understanding of light. To be complete, this understanding must be made up of both aesthetic and physical components. The aesthetic component is the artistic side of photography. In using photography as a medium for artistic expression, the photographer is painting with light, or recording a naturally occurring arrangement of aesthetically significant light values. In either case, the ability the aesthetically evaluate and control light is essential […]”.
- 2. 010 Semiòtica visual i fotografia / Visual semiotics and photography
- 3. Ferrater, J. (1971). Diccionario de la Filosofía. Tomo II. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. P. 191.
“Para Ortega Gasset […] La metáfora es un procedimiento intelectual por cuyo medio conseguimos aprehender lo que se halla más lejos de nuestra potencia conceptual.” La metáfora ejerce en la ciencia un oficio suplente y no, como en la poesía, un oficio constituyente. Pero, además, la metáfora científica se basa en un “uso al revés del instrumento metafórico”, pues en vez de afirmar identidades entre cosas concretas, sostiene identidades entre partes abstractas de las cosas. La metáfora poética va del menos al más; La científica, del más al menos”.
Images
- The first and third photographs depict a text by the philosopher Ignasi Roviró on the semiotics of advertising placed above an old door. I used the reverse side of that door in commercial images of cold meat.
- The middle image is a conceptual reflection on the shape and symbol of the triangle. In the top left, there is an image of the Memorare project (a slide projected from behind the door). In the centre, there is a triangle-shaped light (projected from an optical spot). In the bottom right, a stone from the stream where the Memorare installations were created.