Resemblance, mimesis and communication

Resemblance is a powerful communication tool. We have experiences and these are coming into our bodies via sense perceptions. Therefore our initial building blocks of sense making are ‘embodied’. The writers Johnson and Lakoff have written extensively on how this works see:

Johnson, M. & Lakoff, G (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought London: Basic Books

Lakoff, G (2003) Metaphors We Live By London: University of Chicago Press

Johnson, M (1990) The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis Of Meaning, Imagination, And Reason London: University of Chicago Press

 The core idea that Johnson and Lakoff develop is that we make meaning by linking things to what we know and the thing we know most about is our own body. They argue that the mind is 'embodied', i.e. that if we were a different shape or size, or if our sense organs were different, like a bat's for example, we would think very differently, therefore the old mind/body divide, as illustrated by Descartes' maxim, 'I think therefore I am', needs rethinking. Taking a concept such as ‘justice’ Johnson and Lakoff trace this back through what they call body schemas. We are very aware of balance because of the fact that we stand on two legs, therefore we spend a lot of time being balanced in order to stand, walk etc. If something goes wrong we are off balance; for instance if we are injured or ill. Of course in extreme cases such as very old age or bad injury, we can’t rise into a balanced position. Gradually an awareness of balance and off balance becomes transferred to an awareness of things being right or wrong. This gradually evolves into a sense of justice and this is why we have a statue of justice with a pair of scales over the Old Bailey law courts. It is this type of connection through resemblance that allows us to develop sophisticated concepts via what can be seen as quite basic similarities.

Statue of Justice Old Bailey law courts

Our first attempts at communication would probably have used likeness and so would therefore the earliest art forms. A stone that perhaps looked like a body or a rockface that looked like an animal. The Grey Man of Merrick is a typical example.

The Grey Man of Merrick

But we have other connections to things that are much more interesting.

Look at this picture of deer tracks. The marks look nothing like a deer, but the experience of watching a deer walk past on muddy ground tells us that these are the marks made by their cloven hooves, therefore a more complicated link is made. These tracks become signs that can stand for a deer. By building on these different types of resemblances we gradually start to build sophisticated languages. A resemblance doesnt have to look the same as something, it simply has to have some form of connection to something.

Analogy is another concept that is central to how ideas associated with mimesis work. An analogy is usually defined as a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. Think about those ideas that are ‘more like’ and ‘less like’ something. As humans this is a game we can all participate in, but it is also a game that relies on common experiences. If you have never seen a river you won’t understand an analogy such as ‘time flows like a river’.

Melancholia by Albrecht Durer is an allegory; allegory is often defined as an image that can be interpreted to reveal a secondary meaning, typically a moral or political one. However allegories are constructed by building upon analogies.

Melancholia by Albrecht Durer

So much has been written about this image that I don’t really want to add any more, but it would be interesting to trace the layers of history that lie behind Durer’s imagery, to explore how geometric figures are slowly transformed over time into forms that stand for concepts, how children are used to stand for various concepts from innocence, to the idea of the tabula rasa, or in this case the concept of the accompanying spirit or ‘genius’. Why does the central figure ‘Melancholy’ have wings and how did the keys and money bag hanging from her belt become symbols for power and wealth? What is interesting is perhaps the journey that these things have taken on the road towards becoming symbols. It is a journey that starts with ‘resemblance’ and this is why mimesis is such a rich area within which to explore ideas.  

Keith Coventry: East Street Estate 1994

Going back to Keith Coventry, (see the post before last), the Tate Gallery has this to say about his work:

"Coventry’s painting and sculpture from the 1990s use modernist conventions to reflect abstractly on the social realities of urban life – his ‘Estate Paintings’ mark the rupture between the aspirational aesthetic forms of postwar planning and the failure to realise utopia on a social scale. At the same time the series signifies an optimistic, all-encompassing value system; while falling short of grand expectations for a new order, the ‘Estate Paintings’ commemorate a certain moral and political conviction gradually abandoned by the dismantling of the United Kingdom’s welfare state".

This is a contemporary allegory. Artists are still trying to make allegories and in doing so rely on mimesis in order to build ideas through resemblance. It is for me a key and enduring concept that links contemorary practice back to thousands of years of art history.

Texts and web-sites associated with these last three posts

 Gombrich, E (2006) Art and Illusion

Kamdi, M. M. (2004) Art and Cognition: Mimesis vs. the Avant Garde London: Routledge

Available at: http://www.aristos.org/aris-03/art&cog.htm

 Donald, M (2002) A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness London: Norton

http://www.dah.ucsd.edu/dean/mimesis.shtml

http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/mimesis/

http://www.jstor.org/stable/488009

 Walton, K. L. (1993) Mimesis as Make-believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts New York: Harvard University Press

 Hagberg, G. (1984) Aristotle's "Mimesis" and Abstract Art

Philosophy Vol. 59, No. 229 (Jul., 1984), pp. 365-371: Cambridge University Press

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism

 Hanssen, B. (2000) Walter Benjamin's Other History: Of Stones, Animals, Human Beings, and Angels San Francisco: Uni of California Press

Halliwell, S (2002) The Aesthetics of Mimesis: Ancient Texts and Modern Problems  New York: Princeton University Press

 Bolt, B (2007) Material Thinking and the Agency of Matter  Studies in Material Thinking,  Vol. 1, No. 1 (April 2007), ISSN 1177-6234, AUT University http://www.materialthinking.org/sites/default/files/papers/Barbara.pdf