Stamping Grounds

A postage stamp is principally used to demonstrate that postage has been paid. However, governments also use postage stamps to convey various messages to the world, and the message the stamp contains reaches many people. Therefore, postage stamps are frequently used to embrace and disseminate an idea or belief, to convey information to a target audience, or to announce or promote an event. Additionally, philately (or stamp collecting) remains a popular hobby. Stamp collectors, who consider stamps as works of art, meticulously collect, classify, and scrutinize the details linked to stamps. Philately also has deep ties to the Olympic games. Olympic postage stamps, which were first introduced to offer financial assistance in organizing the 1896 Athens Olympics, have also served the purpose of promoting the Olympics at the international level. Furthermore, the works of ancient Greek culture and art were admirably depicted on the first Olympic postage stamps. These stamps, which also contribute to the revival of the Olympics, have rich symbolic meanings behind their visuals.

The contemporary idea of the “work of art” is paradoxically both widely used and often unexamined. Therefore, we must re-evaluate the concept before we can understand what the deconstruction of aesthetics means for thinkers like Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe. By examining their analyses of works of visual art and contextualizing their thinking on the matter, Martta Heikkilä asserts that the implications of the “work of art,” “art,” and “the aesthetic” apply not only to philosophical questions but also to a broader area. Instead of the totality represented by the historical concept of Art, poststructuralist thinkers introduce the idea of the radical multiplicity of art and its works. From this notion arises the fundamental issue in Derrida and the poststructuralist tradition: how can we speak philosophically of art, which always exists as singular instances, as works? In Deconstruction and the Work of Art: Visual Arts and Their Critique in Contemporary French Thought, Heikkilä shows that the deconstructionist notions of art are still influential in the discourses of contemporary art, in which artworks proliferate and the concept of “work” is open-ended and expanding. This book offers an introduction to the deconstructionist theory of art and brings new perspectives to the complex, undecidable relation between philosophy and art.

Postage stamps have enjoyed a long tradition of informal and unstructured classroom usage. All too often, however, such usage has amounted to little more than a perfunctory circulation of some hastily gathered and possibly tattered postage stamps in a makeshift container. This approach fails to recognize the genuine instructional value of these tokens of popular culture. Nevertheless, some worthwhile suggestions for their explicit curricular introduction exist for French, German, and Spanish.' At least one brief set of seminal recommendations also exists for the incorporation of postage stamps in the Italian classroom.2 Since an ample inventory of reasonably priced new or cancelled postage stamps is already available, the use of these official documents from the realm of popular culture is a relatively simple task. Furthermore, Italy continues to produce new issues each year on a more frequent schedule. The diversity and abundance of the postage stamp renders it invaluable as a source for fascinating pedagogical strategies. In this article, we will examine several interrelated topics on postage stamps including their multiple functions, their significance as semiotic artifacts, and a rationale for their classroom use. Next, some suggestions for their successful incorporation into the Italian curriculum will be offered. Finally, specific recommendations for their inclusion in the Italian curriculum with exemplary activities in the areas of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and cultural understanding will be provided.

How do we read after the so-called death of literature? If we are to attend to the proclamations that the representational apparatuses of literature and politics are dead, what aesthetic, ethical, and political possibilities remain for us today? This book brings together works of continental philosophy and critical theory (Emmanuel Levinas, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Rancière) and works of art from Argentina (J. L. Borges, Juán José Saer, Ricardo Piglia, César Aira, Albertina Carri, the Internacional Errorista) in order to practice what Graff Zivin calls anarchaeological reading: reading for the blind spots, errors, points of opacity or untranslatability in works of philosophy and art. Rather than “applying” concepts from the former in order to understand or elucidate the latter, the book aim to expose works of philosophy, literary theory, narrative, poetry, film, and performance art/activism to one another. The work of aesthetic or political expression, then, does not appear as an object of study in the conventional sense, but rather as a possible source of philosophical and political thought itself. Ethical and political concepts such as identification and recognition, decision and event, sovereignty and will, are read as constitutively impossible, erroneous, through these acts of interdisciplinary and interdiscursive exposure.

The role played by postage stamps in the history of malaria control and eradication has largely gone unrecognized. Scientific investigators of malaria, especially Nobel laureates, were commemorated with special issues, but the work of the World Health Organization (WHO), which promoted an ambitious and global philatelic initiative in 1962 to support global eradication, is generally overlooked. This review examines the philatelic programme that helped to generate international commitment to the goal of malaria eradication in 1962 and established philatelic malaria icons that had worldwide recognition. Malaria-related postage stamps have continued to be issued since then, but the initial failure of malaria eradication and the changing goals of each new malaria programme, inevitably diluted their role. After the first Global Malaria Eradication Campaign was discontinued in 1969, few Nations released philatelic issues. Since the Spirit of Dakar Call for Action in 1996 a resurgence of postage stamp releases has occurred, largely tracking global malaria control initiatives introduced between 1996 and 2020. These releases were not co-ordinated by the WHO as before, were more commercialized and targeted stamp collectors, especially with attractive miniature sheets, often produced by photomontage. Having a different purpose, they demonstrated a much wider diversity in symbolism than the earlier stylized issues and at times, have been scientifically inaccurate. Nonetheless postage stamps greatly helped to communicate the importance of malaria control programmes to a wide audience and to some extent, have supported preventive health messages.

Postage stamps primarily issued by governments as receipts of postal prepayment, are important sources of global material and visual culture. Other than its utilitarian purpose, postage stamps represent the issuing countries, commemorate important occasions, individuals and places, serve as a medium of advertising, propaganda and an important archival entity. Produced by people of a specific community for purposeful communication, a postage stamp is inherent of symbolic visual content, therefore can be viewed as an artefact of the culture that it was produced in. With regard to the density of cultural information they hold, postage stamps are recognized as a tangible movable cultural heritage item by UNESCO. When looking at philatelic practices of Sri Lanka, Christmas marks a notable commemoration. Christmas is celebrated religiously by over 2 billion Christians in Sri Lanka, as well as culturally by many non-Christians. Complementing the National Christmas celebrations, Sri Lankan government issues a Christmas postage stamp, annually. Since its inauguration in 1980, there have been a total of 36 issues of Christmas stamps, making it one of the longest continuing sequels of commemorative stamps in Sri Lanka. In this study 5 issues of Christmas postage stamps representing five decades were analysed to learn how the information intrinsic to culture is inscribed within them. At the end of the study it was found that Christmas postage stamps of Sri Lanka are planned as carriers of material as well as conceptual elements of Christian culture, while offering miniature visuals of cultural integration in the island to the audiences.

Nautilids and Ammonites Worldwide: The World of Cephalopods and Their Reflection in Philately. By Hans Ulrich Ernst and Christian Klug. 2011. Verlag Dr Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, Germany. (ISBN 9783899371291). Bilingual (German and English). 224 pp. Hardcover. $38.50. In the series Reflection in Philately , Friedrich Pfeil (Germany) has published the second issue on Nautilids and Ammonites eight years after the first on Trilobites by Hans Ulrich Ernst, an avid collector of paleontological stamps and the common author in both issues. Dr. Christian Klug, the coauthor of this book, is a paleontological expert from the Paleontological Institute and Museum, University of Zurich. Both fossils and stamps are valued museum objects. The first record natural history, while the second record national history and resources. Both have the potential to record science history and, thus, play significant roles in science communication. A postage stamp can communicate a message, disseminate science information, and propagate science culture to the masses. Science-based stamps help to increase the potential of postage stamps beyond simple “collection materials” to valued sources of information. A postage stamp is a unique medium for science communication and can be a good teaching and learning aid. Utilizating postage stamp imagery as storyteller, the authors complement one another and present an appealing compilation of fossil stamps and postmarks scattered throughout the book. …

This research explores the visual representation of animals in postage stamps issued in North Borneo, Sarawak, British Malaya and Malaysia from the 19th to the 20th century. Since postage stamps were an official product of the State, this research exemplifies the postage stamp as a part of the visual culture that facilitates different State narratives and reveals their contribution towards the formation of colonial or national identities. Furthermore, the study explores visual art from a sociocultural perspective, intending to augment its value as a piece of historical evidence. It shows the visual representations of postage stamps as a record of the civilising process by examining the changes in animal representation as it shifts from a kaleidoscope of exotic romanticism towards the righteous pride of animal protection in the postcolonial era. More than hundreds of thematic animal stamps that were issued in Malaysia were examined in order to identify the preferences influencing animal selection in both colonial and postcolonial era. Following that, background studies, theoretical analysis and visual methodologies form the main research approaches. This paper addresses the research gap that State narratives are disputable without any visual cultural element or ideological construct.

The article is devoted to a detailed analysis of issues of postage stamps of the world during the first half of the XIX - beginning of the XXI century. The study is based on the study of the image content of postage stamps of the standard type, which are the most widespread and intended for long-term technological use. The main content of the study is the analysis of symbols of statehood on the background of postage stamps, which act as a carrier of historical information. The postage stamp reflects the historical and cultural heritage of the country and the prospects for the development of culture around the world. Performing its main technological function, a postage stamp with elements of symbolic load automatically formulates – attributive. In this sense, it is not just an artistic miniature, it acts as a kind of matrix that has the ability to connect history with the present. The plots of postal issues cover significant events in the history of the state, with their assistance the historical and cultural heritage is popularized. Therefore, the postal administration of Ukraine is directly interested in the plots depicted in postal issues. Due to its wide distribution in the world, and based on the communicative function of the postage stamp, it is advisable to reproduce the symbols of statehood – flag, coat of arms, national currency, maps, parliament or legislature, national monuments, portraits of national and political leaders who testify to the sovereignty of the state. As a way of understanding the past and perceiving the present, the postage stamp expresses a single concept: historical memory – artistic image - the sovereignty of the state. Possessing a semiotic aspect, the postage stamp fits into the general symbolic, symbolic theory of the image both art, and information. The high artistic level and content of the plots are visual forms that encourage the study of national symbols and form a positive attitude of domestic and foreign collectors to the issuing state.

Rejecting arrogance

Secret Fatalities and Liminalities: Translating the Pre-Verbal Trauma and Cellular Memory of Late Discovery Adoptee Illegitimacy

Kress and van Leeuwen showed that the visual could be considered as a semiotic mode, and developed a systemic-functional model of visual meaning. Drawing on Painter’s, Martin’s and Unsworth’s adaptation of their model to picture books, and on Panofsky’ approach to iconology, this paper contends that recycled images conceal different levels of meaning and function as palimpsests. The first part presents different approaches to visual meaning, and the shift in the function of the work of art, as pointed out by Benjamin. The following parts analyze the type of visual meaning developed by recycled images in two picture books written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean, and one by Shaun Tan. The article suggests that the processes identified by Panofsky in his analysis of meaning in works of art can be successfully associated to a systemic-functional model of visual meaning to reveal the function of recycled images in contemporary picture books.

This thesis is an investigation into traditional accounts of aesthetic representation. Using the work of Noel Carroll as an exemplar of the definition put forward in canonical philosophical accounts of aesthetic representation, I look at how Carroll’s account must work. By examining both the definition in abstract and how this definition is instantiated into existent and hypothetical works of art, it becomes apparent that Carroll’s definition is overly stringent and relies upon a counterintuitive distinction between aesthetic representation and aesthetic expression. This distinction is problematic insofar as the distinction seems to be a largely semantic distinction: the mechanism by which a work of art expresses something seems identical to the mechanism by which a work of art represents something, and the method by which one determines whether a work expresses a concept or represents it is wholly dependent on the content communicated. Moreover, if one retains a traditional definition of representation it becomes evident that either our understanding of representation is insufficiently complex to account for metarepresentation—representations that represent representation—or non-representation—representations that represent nothing. I propose a new definition for representation that combines aspects of Carroll’s accounts of both expression and representation, and investigate ways in which such a representation can represent both metarepresentational content and non-representational content. Graham Priest’s work provides a mechanic by which the limits of that which can be expressed may be appropriated into aesthetics, and Jacques Derrida’s account of Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty gives us a limit case of nonrepresentational art for which I contend a definition of representation must account. This representation at the limits requires a representation substantially more expansive than that proposed by Carroll—and thus demonstrates the need for widening the scope of that which can be represented. I conclude by demonstrating how an expanded definition of representation such as that which I put forward can be explanatory of contemporary works of art deemed non-representational in philosophy of art. Moreover, I hope to demonstrate why such an account is preferable to the alternatives.

Marcel Duchamp once asked whether it is possible to make something that is not a work of art. This question returns over and over in modernist culture, where there are no longer any authoritative criteria for what can be identified (or excluded) as a work of art. As William Carlos Williams says, A poem can be made of anything,even newspaper clippings.At this point, art turns into philosophy, all art is now conceptual art, and the manifesto becomes the distinctive genre of modernism. This book takes seriously this transformation of art into philosophy, focusing upon the systematic interest that so many European philosophers take in modernism. Among the philosophers Gerald Bruns discusses are Theodor W. Adorno, Maurice Blanchot, Arthur Danto, Stanley Cavell, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Franois Lyotard, Jean-Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, and Emmanuel Levinas.As Bruns demonstrates, the difficulty of much modern and contemporary poetry can be summarized in the idea that a poem is made of words, not of any of the things that we use words to produce: meanings, concepts, propositions, narratives, or expressions of feeling. Many modernist poets have argued that in poetry language is no longer a form of mediation but a reality to be explored and experienced in its own right. But what sort of experience, philosophically, might this be? The problem of the materiality or hermetic character of poetic language inevitably leads to questions of how philosophy itself is to be written and what sort of communitydefines the work of art-or, for that matter, the work of philosophy.In this provocative study, Bruns answers that the culture of modernism is a kind of anarchist community, where the work of art is apt to be as much an event or experience-or, indeed, an alternative form of life-as a formal object. In modern writing, philosophy and poetry fold into one another. In this book, Bruns helps us to see how.

This chapter highlights the unique status of the postage stamp that, thanks to its multiple dimensions as an official symbol of its nation, contributes significantly to disseminate and promote the cultural heritage, history, identity, and all aspects of cultural life. Many national and international activities are organized around the postage stamp in the fields of culture, the economy, education, history, tourism, etc. Indeed, postage stamps can be identified with various aspects of philosophy, the economy, and education that are part of “a new paradigm of heritage.” Furthermore, the unique quasi-monetary status of the postage stamp is subject to laws and regulations that are enshrined in an international intergovernmental treaty that is renewed every four years by the 192 member countries of the Universal Postal Union. Such laws are essential to safeguard the postage stamp against industry abuses that are undermining the credibility, name, and identity of stamp-issuing countries as well as depriving their national authorities of important revenue.