MEANING 1 - Blog Exercise

Representation: the clock


The clock is a daily used product. In our basic knowledge, we have 24 hours a day and a generic clock manifests every 12 hours. The hands of this representational clock can clearly give us what we need to know. This image operates by showing the viewer with the short hand what hour it is, and the long hand tells us what minute it is. Although there are multiple forms of the device that tells us the time, this type (this image) is representational in the fact that it is installed in most schools and public spaces due to its readability.

Abstraction: Jasper Johns

This canvas created by Jasper Johns is called Corpse And Mirror II. It is composed of multiple short grouped lines, each group going in a different direction. These groups of colorful lines don't mean anything, really. Not even a segment of the lines represent an outline of an object or words. If you look at it subjectively, it has no relation to the title what so ever. One can only stare at the painting and try (very hard) to grasp the feelings the painter is trying to convey. Hence, one can only guess the abstraction derives from the sense that corpses and mirrors are both fragile and broken. The lines create triangle patterns which suggests distortion, looking like fragments of broken glass. Even though the colors are happy but they are just the three original colors-blue, yellow, and red, maybe suggesting the corpse which is dead- is the end of our journey and it goes back being the origin.

Symbolism: The handicap sign

This symbol has been around as long as I could remember. I think it is very clever and readable. Although not all handicapped people are in a wheelchair, the wheelchair does express the image of a person needing physical aid to transport. The lines are reduced to the minimum level, and the white lines with the blue background is very eye catching. The whole point of a symbol is to be readable and eye catching. We can obviously read this graph that it is a side view of a man sitting in a wheelchair, and that is why this symbol is so successful!