Semiological Interpretation Research Articles

Sign and Symbol in Picasso

Writers on the semiology of Cubism have often cited Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s 1946–48 descriptions of Cubism as a form of writing. They seem, however, to have overlooked Pablo Picasso’s 1945–48 statements about art as a sign language. The first section of this essay argues that Kahnweiler was in fact inspired by Picasso’s statements. The second section retraces the origins of semiology in nineteenth-century philology, its revival by Claude Levi-Strauss, his influence on critical theory, the rise of a semiological interpretation of Cubism, and the problems with this interpretation. The third section links Picasso’s 1945–48 statements about art as a sign language to his contemporary visual work; specifically, to his illustrations for Pierre Reverdy’s book of poems Le Chant des morts. The idea of art as a sign language is traced to Picasso’s 1924 drawings of “star charts” or “constellations”. However, Picasso’s 1945–48 designs using a similar vocabulary are analyzed as signifiers without signifieds—that is, as symbols, rather than signs.

What is Wrong with the Recent Semiological Interpretation of Kant’s Religion

AbstractIn this article, I challenge the semiological interpretation of Kant’s Religion, particularly as advanced in recent years by James DiCenso and Allen Wood. As I here argue, their interpretations are neither compatible with broader aspects of Kant’s positive philosophy of religion, nor with how Kant himself describes the project of the Religion. Kant wrote the Religion in order to explore the compatibility between his theologically affirmative pure rational system of religion and Christian doctrines, particularly as understood by the Lutherans and Lutheran Pietists of his era, rather than as a treatise on how to make Christian theology compatible with contemporary secularism.

Unruly Puppets: Producing the Urban Poor in a Bangladeshi Television Idol Competition

Magic Tin Chakar Taroka (Magic Three-Wheeler Star) or Tin Chaka (Three- Wheeler) is a reality competition to find music talent exclusively from the urban poor of Dhaka city. This programme was shown on Bangladeshi satellite television in 2008. The present article is an ethnographic exploration of the Tin Chaka event which demonstrates how the cultural identity of the urban poor in Dhaka has been performed by the production of ordinary celebrities in the visual media. In doing so, a combination of on-screen and off-screen observations were undertaken for a period of six months which was complemented by semiological interpretation of adverts, jingles and other visual materials. In this article, I argue that, despite its admirable inclusivity and thereby remarkably instant acceptance by the audience, the reason behind the discontinuation of Tin Chaka in following years lies in the inscriptions of the show as a charitable undertaking, an act which has often been performed in the reality television programmes in the name of “democratisation”.

Automated analysis of seizure semiology and brain electrical activity in presurgery evaluation of epilepsy: A focused survey.

Epilepsy being one of the most prevalent neurological disorders, affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide, and with almost 30-40% of patients experiencing partial epilepsy being nonresponsive to medication, epilepsy surgery is widely accepted as an effective therapeutic option. Presurgical evaluation has advanced significantly using noninvasive techniques based on video monitoring, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological and neuropsychological tests; however, certain clinical settings call for invasive intracranial recordings such as stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG), aiming to accurately map the eloquent brain networks involved during a seizure. Most of the current presurgical evaluation procedures focus on semiautomatic techniques, where surgery diagnosis relies immensely on neurologists' experience and their time-consuming subjective interpretation of semiology or the manifestations of epilepsy and their correlation with the brain's electrical activity. Because surgery misdiagnosis reaches a rate of 30%, and more than one-third of all epilepsies are poorly understood, there is an evident keen interest in improving diagnostic precision using computer-based methodologies that in the past few years have shown near-human performance. Among them, deep learning has excelled in many biological and medical applications, but has advanced insufficiently in epilepsy evaluation and automated understanding of neural bases of semiology. In this paper, we systematically review the automatic applications in epilepsy for human motion analysis, brain electrical activity, and the anatomoelectroclinical correlation to attribute anatomical localization of the epileptogenic network to distinctive epilepsy patterns. Notably, recent advances in deep learning techniques will be investigated in the contexts of epilepsy to address the challenges exhibited by traditional machine learning techniques. Finally, we discuss and propose future research on epilepsy surgery assessment that can jointly learn across visually observed semiologic patterns and recorded brain electrical activity.

Recent recordings of plainchant

The latest entry in the traversal of Graduale Novum 1, the AISCGre edition of restitutions of Mass Propers, arrived too late for last year's roundup of new recordings (no. 1 in the list below). It offers the Propers for the eleventh to the fifteenth Sundays in Ordinary Time. The title, ‘Gustate et Videte’, comes from the incipit of the communion for the fourteenth Sunday. The chants are sung in the best semiological interpretation with superb choral tone. The notes are interesting for a wry explanation of the lack of correspondence between the new liturgical calendar and the old. The first four sets of Propers on this disc match the fifth to the eighth Sundays after Pentecost, but the last set come from the tenth Sunday after Pentecost (with the exception of the communion). Because of the imprecatory introit of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost, averte mala inimicis meis . . . disperde illos, this set was passed over. The editors of the 1970 Roman Missal, on second thought, decided, upon reaching the sixteenth Sunday of the Year, to restore the missing chants (except the communion) to that service, while removing the offending lines in favour of another verse from the same psalm. (As the Graduale Triplex shows, the text of the introit escaped the tampering.) At this moment, EOS has three more CDs awaiting issue by three of the directors who have contributed earlier discs to the series. The second volume of Graduale Novum is expected to be published in 2017.

Review: Rituals in Cameroon Drama: A Semiological Interpretation of the Plays of Gilbert Doho, Bole Butake and Hansel Ndumbe Eyoh.

The Bayreuth African Studies series is renowned for its promotion of Cameroonian literature through the publication of doctoral research theses by Cameroonians who have studied in Germany. One of the publications for 2011 is Mforbe Pepetual Chiangong's Rituals in Cameroon Drama: A Semiological Interpretation of the Plays of Gilbert Doho, Bole Butake and Hansel Ndumbe Eyoh. At first glance, there seems to be nothing original about the subject matter of Chiangong's book. Investigations into ritual drama in Africa have been part of literary scholarship as far back as the 1960s. Various authors have discussed the subject from various perspectives and have reported on case studies of ritual performances in different communities.

The Philology of Kinesiology

This paper presents a cultural analysis of our field of study through the lens of one word: kinesiology. Through historical, anthropological, and semiological interpretation, the cultural use of the word is discussed within the academic field of physical activity studies in North America. The study of the use, or the philology, of kinesiology within the study of physical activity is traced from its traditionally recognized Greek roots to the present cultural use, which is shown to symbolize the postmodern world. The progression from which kinesiology evolved, fist describing a “course of study,” then meaning a broad academic field, is noted. Throughout the term's existence in the field, common motifs associated with its use are highlighted. These motifs include coupling of the modem word to ancient Greek origins; the signification of “action,” “change,” “unique,” and “special” aspects; the use of the word to denote scientific, disciplinary, and academic characteristics; and the appropriation of the word t...

映像のリアリティに関する理論的考察

This paper is an analysis of Reality in ‘image’. ‘Image’, here, means represe rated visual images of physical reality by optical instruments. There are tow purposes here: (1) To reveal intrinsic features of the ‘image’ itself, (2) To consider what kind of sense could be generated by stimulating our sensibility. As for procedure of the concrete analysis, the author first reveals the structure of the representation of ‘image’, based on semiological interpretation. Secondly, the author analyzes the features of ‘image’ and the structure of human sense of sight through a concept introduced by Benjamin, namely, the ‘optical unconscious’. Finally, the author explores the origins of our sense of reality through image.

An Historical Outline of Laennec

The American College of Chest Physicians has adopted as its emblem the thinking figure of Laennec. By so doing, it pays homage to the savant who permitted the birth of pneumology and it proclaims the action of the genius who made possible the clinical study of diseases of the heart and lungs. On the occasion of the reunion in Mexico City of a group of distinguished members of the American College of Chest Physicians, I want to offer in their honour, a brief outline of the man who symbolizes their College. I want to show them, in a few strokes, the brilliant work of the most illustrious of their predecessors in the science they cultivate, something like a historic medallion of Ren#{233} Th#{233}ophile Hyacinthe La#{235}nnec. When he began his studies in the old Faculty of Medicine of Paris on the 6 Frimario of the IXth year of the Revolution, that is, on the 27th of November of 1801, clinical medicine was only in its beginnings. Despite the 25 centuries elapsed in the midst of oft painful efforts, the clinical study of a patient was something more of an intuition than of an observation; more of a guesswork than a study. The clinical history was lacking sound basis since the symptoms had no correct semiological interpretation. Physical examination was limited to palpation, which rendered meager information and percussion was just starting as advocated by Auenbrugger and Corvisart. It was practised tapping directly on the chest with four fingers, which made it quite imperfect in its beginnings. Yet it was capable of rendering the first positive information such as the concept of fullness and emptiness, the dimensions of the precordial area, the presence of fluid within the pleural cavity and the congestive state of the lung. Auscultation did not exist. Nobody had made of it an exploratory method until one day of the year 1816, in one blow of brilliant intuition, it was invented by Laennec. Before his time, surely, there were some who listened to the chest of their patients, and they might even have obtained isolated data. Before him many had, no doubt, listened, but had not learned to listen. That is why Laennec is one of those rare cases in science: that of the discoverer without precursors. Only the old father of medicine, Hippocrates in his book “An Account of the Diseases,” speaks of sucusion, which indicates the presence of hydropneumothorax. “You will know by this-he saidthat the chest has water and not pus; and applying the ear over the side of the chest, you will hear a noise similar to that of boiling vinegar.” This assertion is false, as pointed out by Laennec, but the proof is beyond doubt that Hippocrates evidently used direct auscultation. Hippocrates also