Image, Text and Foul Language
- Some notes on the work "Interior"
Image and text are two different representation structures. One is pictorial and visual without any specific verbal linkage while the other is the written form of language and is therefore, linguistic, which means readable and pronounceable. This suggests that, like image, text is also a visual sign.
Meaning (signified) of an image is rather unfixed, obscure and open to different interpretations but it is rather clear in text. Text functions as a guide to direct the reader to perceive and to interpret meaning in a certain manner. These perceptions and interpretations, on the other level, are also affected and conducted by norms, beliefs, common sense, etc. The materiality of text is different from that of image since it contains both representation modes, verbal and visual. Based on different relationships between these aspects, text can be roughly divided into two categories: passive text and active text.
Passive text appears as linear, calm, and smooth with uniformed size, typeface and colour in order to serve its main and the only purpose suitably, that is to present and transport the literal meanings or ideas to the reader smoothly. Any additional visual interpretation or distortion is unnecessary, unfavourable and even discouraged. Its linguistic and literal features are so overwhelming and dominating that its visual properties have almost been suppressed completely. To some extent, we could say that passive text only serve as linguistic sign.
Active text, on the other hand, put its emphasis on both its literal meanings and visual appearances in which the latter is used actively to enhance and intensify the former. The visual elements in active text play a more important role than that in passive text.
The idea of using its form to intensify its content and literal meanings was first clearly advocated in Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism1 in 1909. “When necessary, we shall use three or four columns to a page and twenty different typefaces. We shall represent hasty perceptions in italic and express a scream in bold type.” Active text becomes recognised as a written form of language, as a visual sign apart from its linguistic features. After this, text no longer remains passive in all circumstances.
