Klaus,
Perhaps I do not understand what you mean by abstraction. I would say that war
is concrete as well as torture just involving more, many, big, complexities. So
what do you mean by the words concrete and abstract? Also unfortunately email
is text based or I would demonstrate a number of ways of saying no without text
or conventions. Are feelings do you suppose concrete or abstract. What about
sound?
Jan
Jan Coker
C3-10 Underdale
University of South Australia
+61 8 8302 6919
fax +61 8 8302 6239
Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one
and the same reality
Albert Einstein
-----Original Message-----
From: klaus krippendorff [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, 14 May 2004 12:46 PM
To: Jan Coker; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: Theory-focused understanding of ontology & epistemology
i have seen pictures
i have seen pictures that are blurred
i have seen pictures that simplify an original representation, icons, for
example
i have seen pictures from which much of the redundancy has been removed,
compressed images
but i have not seen a visual abstraction.
torturing someone in prison is concrete. war is abstract. you can take
pictures of how a prisoner is tortured. you can't take a picture of war
(which is not meant to say that you couldn't take a picture of something
that epitomizes a particular war or atrocity but then, to understand that
this picture epitomizes a particular war, you have to know a lot of that war
from sources other than the picture).
pictures, even schematic drawings are concrete. concepts are abstract. you
can't even say "no" in a picture without retort to a convention, for example
X-ing something out or printing a red circle with a diagonal bar over a
cigarette.
klaus krippendorff
gregory bateson term professor for cybernetics, language, and culture
the annenberg school for communication
university of pennsylvania
3620 walnut street
philadelphia, pa 19104.6220
phone: 215.898.7051 (O); 215.545.9356 (H)
fax: 215.898.2024 (O); 215.545.9357 (H)
usa
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