Wednesday, February 28, 2007

dots and points; recent specimens



“[...] a description is an objective depiction and a depiction is a subjective description. Interesting idea, hard to illustrate.” A quote from the blog of Paul Pope (pulphope.blogspot.com). We looked at this sentence with great care. In it we found something similar to our recent inquiry of research. At first we thought these examples were constellations mapped out, having read Mr. Pope’s thoughtful paraphrased sentence, we looked at the examples again and found more to it than that. We now believe these examples to be that of dots and points.

1. A spatial point is a concept used to define an exact location in space. It has no volume, area or length. Points are used in the basic language of geometry, physics, vector graphics (both 2d and 3d), and many other fields. In mathematics generally, particularly in topology, any form of space is considered as made up of points as basic elements.
2. A point in Euclidean geometry has no size, orientation, or any other feature except position. Euclid's axioms or postulates assert in some cases that points exist: for example, they assert that if two lines on a plane are not parallel, there is exactly one point that lies on both of them. Euclid sometimes implicitly assumed facts that did not follow from the axioms (for example about the ordering of points on lines, and occasionally about the existence of points distinct from a finite list of points).
3. Therefore the traditional axiomatization of point was not entirely complete and definitive.
4.When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot is usually reserved for the Interpunct ( · ), or to the glyphs 'combining dot above' and 'combining dot below' which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in Central European languages and Vietnamese.
5. In mathematics and physics the dot denotes the time derivative.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

recent specimen


The preceeding is one of the specimens that have been at the forefront of our research. This specimen in particular is in the personal possession and collection of Mrs. S. McConnell. Our preliminary decipherment of the specimen, word-form, connotes the same general meaning as the word “toilet”. Obviously, words have a certain appeal for some people. Even a toilet can be beautiful.


Edit note:

Top: toilet, 8 in. by 8 in., mixed media with pen & ink, December 2006
Bottom: fountain, Marcel Duchamp, 1917

Thursday, February 15, 2007

An area of research



=






...?

it poses some interesting questions that we are currently researching answers to, but what does it mean?

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

commentum est veritas


We are currently awaiting the reply from some of the participants of a project that is going to take approximately 10 years to complete. It deals with the tracking and monitoring of participants signature over the course of this time period but it also monitors their location over the time period as well.
26 are involved and we eagerly await the results of our collective (those of initiator and those of the participants) efforts.
There are also plans in the works for some of our researchers to head out the Eastern part of the country known as Canada. The purpose of this is very much of close concern but we will certainly have photos available once the voyage is confirmed.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Onwards on the meaning



The basis of the primary focus of the Library of Language Specimen Studies’ research is in language. Fairly simple, no?
After much research there is really nothing simple at all about language. There are many facets to what language is. It has the use of mediating meaning through communication, plus there are ground rules to that mediation. An example would be, misunderstandings in a dialogue. One participant, for simplicity we will call him/her Y, is conversing with the other participant in this example we will refer to him/her Z. At some point during their conversation (in this example they are using the same language, same regional dialect, same level of education, same age, similar life experiences, same mental faculties... pretty much copies of one another) there is a meaning or idea that needs to be conveyed. Y would like to describe an apple she/he ate. Z is not familiar with this fruit (hence, only similar life experiences). Y goes about describing the round form of the fruit, if this particular apple had a stem on top or not, the sweetness of it, the texture of it. A peculiar thing is going on in Z’s mind. The description of the features of the apple from Y are being processed by comparison method. The description of the form is being compared to, say, a globe or spheric ball. The sweetness of the flavour of an apple is being compared to say a watermelon. This is where language has its obvious oddities... It is easy to describe what it is and what it isn’t, eventually anything can mean everything.
We find these types of phenomena fascinating. In forthcoming entries, we hope to add some of our current areas of research.



*The Phaistos disc. 1850-1600 BCE. Discovered in Crete in 1908. Currently remains undeciphered

Thursday, February 8, 2007

What this is about?


At this present time it is quite difficult to quantify what the Library is all about. From the title of this prospective website, it is quite easy to understand what the Library deals with... but what does it, the Library, do?

The purpose is that of gathering knowledgeable examples of Language. Heck, we don't understand it most of the time ourselves.

We hope that in future posts about our progress on current samples that the reasoning becomes clearer. Until then, please take care.