Suitbert Ertel
Prägnanz trends in perception and cognition
Gerhard Braun
Presentation versus representation. The relationship between sign and object
in visual communication
Götz Großklaus
Connotative types of daily value concepts
Wolfgang Fritz Haug
Ideological values and commodity aesthetics using the example of the jeans
culture
Helmut Richter
Semiotic aspects in the history of perception theory
Enclosure
Brigitte Uhde-Stahl
Christo's "Running Fence". Attempt at a semiotic analysis
Discussion
Pierre Maranda
Semiotics and anthropology
With statements by Karl Eimermacher, Jerzy Pelc
and H. Walter Schmitz
Literary report
Christian Stetter
Constructions versus positions.
Contributions to the discussion about the constructive science theory
Prägnanz trends in perception and cognition
Suitbert Ertel, University of Göttingen
Summary. An attempt is made to find theoretical and empirical relations between
formal aspects of perception and cognition. The Gestalt notion of Prägnanz
covers a wide range of laboratory and field observations on perceptual
dynamics. The principle is also applicable to historical material reflecting
the history of mind, science, and philosophy. Theoretically, however, the
author regards it as necessary to fuse the Prägnanz principle of Gestalt
psychology with the principle of entropy-reduction which draws on
information-exchanges between organism and environment (Klix 1971).
The dynamics of Prägnanz or entropy-reduction, are assumed to underlie thinking
and linguistic behavior. With the help of content analysis and a standardized
dictionary of formal and modal terms (DOTA-dictionary), the author has tested
various hypotheses derived from the Prägnanz principle. Systematic longitudinal
coding of appropriate text samples seems to reflect changes of entropy
intolerance among individuals or groups of authors. The integrative
consequences of the theory and the applied perspectives of the linguistic
research tool (measurement of ideological changes) need further confirmation.
Presentation versus representation. The relationship
between sign and object in visual communication
Gerhard Braun, Academy for the Arts Berlin, HdK
Summary. This essay analyzes the possible relations and boundaries between a
sign and its designated object. The question is how useful the classical
conceptual triad, icon/index/symbol, can be for such an analysis. First, some
types of indexical relations between signs and objects are discussed: symptoms,
signs indicating characteristics of their production, samples, index systems,
ostensive signs. Then, different sorts of arrows are analyzed, with the result
that they can have either a presentational or a representational function,
depending on the sign context and on the situation of sign use. In conclusion,
the classical triad, icon/index/symbol, is transformed into two binary
distinctions that can be combined to form four semantic terms: iconic
presentation, conventional presentation, iconic representation and conventional
representation.
Connotative types of daily value concepts
Götz Großklaus, University of (TH) Karlsruhe
Summary. This essay is based on the assumption that the members of a society
communicate continually about value concepts. This is done by means of everyday
messages conveyed in texts of all semiotic classes. Communication about value
concepts relies on a connotative standard of semiotic performance, i.e. a
connotative code. This code determines the patterns of connotative
signification and the way they are decoded. Starting from a basic meaning
(denotation), the connotative code generates a meaning of this meaning (second
meaning), a meaning of the second meaning (third meaning), etc. This chain ends
in value concepts. The historically existing connotative codes must be
subjected to empirical research analyzing three types of messages: one-place,
two-place, and three- or more-place connotation.
Ideological values and commodity aesthetics using the
example of the jeans culture
Wolfgang Fritz Haug, Free University Berlin
Summary. This essay is intended to be a contribution to the theory of mass
culture in capitalist society. The author combines the approaches of
culture-analysis and commodity-aesthetics with the approach to ideology
developed by the members of "Projekt Ideologietheorie", a research group at
the
Free University of Berlin. He starts out from the hypothesis that products such
as blue jeans contain the promise of a certain utility value and he goes on to
examine the semiotic structure of this promise. The analysis leads to the
conclusion that every product is located in a sphere of the imagination. In
product brands marketed by monopolies, this sphere of imagination becomes part
of an aesthetic supersign that is supplied along with the product. The
supersign establishes models of behaviour which are internalized in the
consumers' minds, thereby affording them an imaginary identity. A case study in
sexual pathology shows that this imaginary identity can, under extreme
circumstances, become strikingly real. In general, however, it is rather
unstable, as is demonstrated by the occurrence of "Epimethean shame". In
their
attempt to overcome each other, jeans culture and gentlemen's fashion turn to
their use even the taboos of religion and the arts. This leads the author to
his final thesis: Commodity-aesthetics today functions as a para-ideological
force; as such, it has become more powerful than religion and the arts.
Semiotic aspects in the history of perception
theory
Helmut Richter, Free University Berlin
Summary. In the first part of this paper, action vs. behavior, problems of
functionality and self-regulation, and the possibilities and limitations of
hermeneutic methodology within the entire extent of semiotic research are
introduced as relevant aspects for a study of the history of psychological
theories of perception from a semiotic viewpoint. These aspects are considered
in part two as a means of characterizing and discussing the everyday
understanding of perception and elementarist, behaviourist, phenomenalist, and
Gestalt conceptions of perception. It is suggested that semiotics is not to be
regarded as a study of actions - i.e. as something above "mere"
behavioural
sciences - if one is going to admit perception as an object of this discipline.
Some problems and the "delegationist" danger of this position are commented
on.
