"Language shapes the understanding of the world and the nature of our relationships. . .In an age of electronic media, where the printed word is rapidly being dematerialized, as a result of digital forms, 'the matter of words' may soon become an outmoded concept.
The first exhibit I no-ticed was this large stack of books and magazines. Piled together, these printed materials created a giant block, nearly 30 feet high! It seems to stand as a stark contrast to the now so "simplified" electronic devices that hold as much (and probably more) information. . .all within the palm of your hand.Then, the artists created this piece through placing a large piece of paper onto the large book sculpture, and then, using a graphite stick, rub the impressions as if writing on a tombstone. Adam Bateman suggests that this piece is meant to imply the "object-ness" of the books.
Do we view books as mere objects, or do we view them as knowledge?
Another exhibit I found particularly interesting was this collection of highlighted Bibles. According to Harrell Fletcher, he met Veda Epling, a homeless woman living in the doorway of a church. He enjoyed her colorful way of highlighting her Bibles in some code only she knew. He says: "Her Bibles exemplify the use of a restricted language code, as she is the only person who can understand her color-coded communications between herself and God."
My questions is:
How is her code of reading the Bible different from keeping the original Bible in Latin, rather than translating it into English or Greek? Is her code viewed as less important because it seems so simple?
This next exhibit I found rather intriguing, and at first I was a little shocked. It is a 32-minute looped video of books in a washer! Adam Bateman titles it "Admirals in Collision", also the title of a book in the washer. The title is a play on linguistic theories and deconstruction, emphasizing that while the books are physically being washed and destroyed, the contents are still there---the pulp and the words are all still there, but they've been washed and abused and used. He says that it has been "reorganized."
In what ways do we use and abuse language?
In what ways do we minimize the importance of books and their ability to preserve language?
Are we replacing the printed word for electronic versions?
well, one abuse of language (and music) would be Rebecca Black's "Friday"
ReplyDeleteno but really, though - i think that the thing about the abuse of language that's interesting to me is that the first thing that comes to mind is overly colloquial language in settings where it may not be appropriate - also, vulgarity comes to mind, but i think that abusing language is really the way that it gets changed and morphed, etc. in france, for instance, there is an organization whose job is solely to make sure that the language stays pure. they regularly vote on whether or not words can be added tho the french vocabulary or not. in such a linguistically stringent society, it's easy to see how some things might be considered linguistic abuses - on the other hand the English in Guyana in south America is so modified that it takes a few weeks to adjust and really know what people are saying. the missionaries i served with there had a joke that the only things keeping the Guyanese people speaking English were American TV and American rap. in this linguistic environment, grammatical mistakes, new phrases, etc., are all accepted - thus making "abuse" of the language nearly impossible.