Deconstruction
Jacques Derrida observed a tendency in western philosophy and critical theory to ‘create dualistic oppositions and install a hierarchy that unfortunately privileges one term of each dichotomy (presence before absence, speech before writing, and so on)’ (Reynolds IEP) Derrida created ‘deconstruction’ which is a mode of questioning these assumed hierarchies and structures.Like many theories and texts that evolved from Structuralism/Post-structuralism (Barthes, Baudrillard, Faucault, etc.) in the 1970s and 80s, Derrida’s thinking
was disseminated through Universities and art schools in Europe and the US.
‘Design, Writing, Research’ Lupton and Miller, 1996:
Ellen Lupton explores aspects and methods of deconstruction and how it had an impact on Graphic Design practice.
‘Deconstruction, like critical strategies based on Marxism, feminism, semiotics, and anthropology, focuses not on the themes and imagery of its objects but rather on the linguistic and institutional systems that frame their production.’
'Western culture [...] has been governed by such oppositions as reality/representation, inside/outside, original/copy, and mind/body. The intellectual achievements of the West [...] have valued on side of these pairs over the other.’
‘If writing is but a copy of a spoken language, typography is a mode of representation even farther removed from the primal source of meaning in the mind of the author.’
speech/writing – writing/typography – seeing/reading
‘Design and typography work at the edges of writing, determining the shape and style of letters, the spaces between them, and their placement on the page. Typography, from its position at the margins of communication, has moved away from speech.’
‘Hori’s typography challenges the traditional opposition between seeing and reading by treating the surface as both theoretical content and sensual form, as both text and texture. Rather than deliver information directly, Hori’s poster expects the reader to work to uncover its messages.’
‘If writing is but a copy of a spoken language, typography is a mode of representation even farther removed from the primal source of meaning in the mind of the author.’
speech/writing – writing/typography – seeing/reading
‘Design and typography work at the edges of writing, determining the shape and style of letters, the spaces between them, and their placement on the page. Typography, from its position at the margins of communication, has moved away from speech.’
‘Hori’s typography challenges the traditional opposition between seeing and reading by treating the surface as both theoretical content and sensual form, as both text and texture. Rather than deliver information directly, Hori’s poster expects the reader to work to uncover its messages.’
Typography, which is seen as exterior or in opposition to the written text is actually embedded within it. Graphic marks other than the alphabet cannot be seen as ‘signs’ and are excluded in traditional semiotics. However, deconstruction shows us that typographic adjustments can impact greatly on the meaning of the written word.
‘Traditional literary and linguistic research overlooks such graphic forms, focusing instead on the Word as the centre of communication. According to Derrida, the functions of repetition, quotation, and fragmentation that characterise writing are conditions endemic to all human expression.’
‘Pastiche’ – Fredric Jameson
‘Jameson is highly critical of our current historical situation; indeed, he paints a rather isotopic picture of the present, which he associates, in particular, with a loss of our connection to history.
According to Jameson, postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series
of emptied-out stylisation (what Jameson terms pastiche) that can then be commodified and consumed. The result is the threatened victory of capitalist thinking over all other forms of thought.’ (Felluga, Dino. Accessed 07/01/14)
'Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter.’ (Jameson, 1991)
‘the advanced capitalist countries today are now a field of stylistic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm.’ (Jameson, 1991)
‘Modernist styles become postmodernist codes’ (Jameson, 1991)
‘Traditional literary and linguistic research overlooks such graphic forms, focusing instead on the Word as the centre of communication. According to Derrida, the functions of repetition, quotation, and fragmentation that characterise writing are conditions endemic to all human expression.’
‘Pastiche’ – Fredric Jameson
‘Jameson is highly critical of our current historical situation; indeed, he paints a rather isotopic picture of the present, which he associates, in particular, with a loss of our connection to history.
According to Jameson, postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series
of emptied-out stylisation (what Jameson terms pastiche) that can then be commodified and consumed. The result is the threatened victory of capitalist thinking over all other forms of thought.’ (Felluga, Dino. Accessed 07/01/14)
'Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter.’ (Jameson, 1991)
‘the advanced capitalist countries today are now a field of stylistic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm.’ (Jameson, 1991)
‘Modernist styles become postmodernist codes’ (Jameson, 1991)
Examples of Pastiche
Stranger and Stranger
Why Pastiche? Looking to the past. Emphasis/Reflecting on Victorian Etching, Typefaces etc.
Keep Calm and...
No comments:
Post a Comment