Re: interactivity and process

dkern@juno.com
Thu, 18 Jun 1998 21:22:05 -0500

On Thu, 18 Jun 1998 20:34:42 -0400 "Jeffrey D. Mathias"
<jeffrey.d.mathias@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>dkern@juno.com wrote:
>> Why must the miscommunication be ascribed to any "shortcomings of
>our
>> society?" Rather, we should make allowances for the ambiguity of
>language
>> (visual included). It is not a shortcoming of language that it fails
>to
>> describe precisely; instead, that is where it's richness lies--no
>> ambiguity, no poetry.
>
>BUT YOU MISSED THE POINT. Miscommunication is not the shortcoming.

Jeffrey, please read again. That is precisely my point. I responded to
the comment you made in your previous post: "When it gets right down to
it, this 'communication hardly ever occurs'. This might very well be an
indicator as to shortcomings of our society or culture." You were
condemning society or culture for its inadequacies when it is an inherent
attribute of language to not quite mean what is says. There is always a
chiasm of non-knowledge that separates the representation from the
object, or in other terms, the signifier from the signified. I believe we
are in agreement that this space is potentially beneficial to the work of
art and the viewer's (and maker's) relation to it. What I don't
understand is your accusation that society and culture as a whole (or, at
least, advertising) are somehow to blame. Perhaps I'm just reading your
message incorrectly and you are, in fact, making a rhetorical statement.
Ironic, isn't it?

David Kern

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