ix 08/29

Yet another fun interesting class that has placed many new thoughts and ideas in my mind that vie for singular attention. The primary idea that has caused me to lose some sleep--not really, though i have caught myself staring at nothing while i reflect on it--is whether or not thought can exist without language. Here is where you get into the notion of words and their meaning(s) as being unstable. What is meant when they say language? A quick internet search yields an Encarta definition of "communication with words" and/or "nonverbal communication between animals" and/or "nonverbal communication between humans." The key operative word here seems to be communication; words/sounds are not necessarily a requirement. Can thought then exist without communication? Which came first: the grunt and then the thought association (as was illustrated in class with the example of the caveman and the boulder) or did thought first exist as a "vague, uncharted nebula," as De Saussure posits, which elicited meaning in abstractions (such as configurations of sound) and related them to a corresponding physical surrounding.

Just a thought.

The other ideas/images that kept penetrating my mind were the image-definitions for Jenks' Emergent Rules.The image association lecture on the definitions to the 11 rules definitely helped to concretize the reading for me. For example, the slide of Disharmonious Harmony immediately made me think of the new "multiplex" building currently being constructed diagonally across from the Suntrust building. Both the Orlando building and the pictured building share the same facade effect where traditional concrete cubes along the side of the building slowly disappear to create an effect of disintegration/molting that reveals, in its metamorphosis, a completely new creature/creation made delicately of glass.
The best aspect of the lecture for me was being able to see that tmesis is not just merely a tool used on the pages of theory books but also an applicable concept in the physical three dimensional world.