Vesa Matteo Piludu

1. Introduction to Semiotics of Cultures, 2010Juri Lotman – Universe of the MindChapter 2I-I and I-S/he communication Vesa Matteo Piludu University of Helsinki

2. Chapter 2 I – S/he I - I • Communication system I-S/he • Adresser I • Context – Message - Contact - Code • AdresseeS/he • Information transferred in space • Relevance: quantity of information • Media

3. I - I • Self-communication • Self-reflection on meanings • Information can be transferred in time (reminders) • Mnemonic • Or creative function (supplementary information) • Addresser and addressee remain the same, but the message is reformulated and acquire new meanings or is expressed in new languages • Relevance: quality of information • Art

4. The I – I communication • The I –I communication is sensible to external codes or different languages (music, visual codes, architecture), or messages and texts • Isn’t produced in monastic isolation

5. Example 1: Dream at sea by Tyuchef • Both the sea and the storm rocked our boat • Drowsy I gave myself over entirely to the whim of waves • There were two infinites in me • An they began willfully to play with me. • Around me the rocks sounded like cymbals • The winds answered and waves sang. • Deafened I lay in the chaos of sounds, • But my dreams rose up over the chaos of sounds

6. Example 1:I – I and foration of new messages • I - I • Message 1 (importance of sounds) • Is transformed in Message 2 (importance of sounds for the self) • Code 1 (music) – Code 2 (poetry)

7. Example 2: Eugene Onegin a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin • All translation by Charles Johnson available as Google-book or Penguin classic • Chapter 8 / XXXVI - Universe of Mind, page 24 • What happened? Thought his eyes were reading, • His thought were on a distant goal: • Desires and dreams and grieves were breeding • And swarming in his inmost soul. • Between the lines of text as printed, • His mind’s eyes focused on the hinted • Purport of other lines; intense • Was his absorption in theirs sense.

8. Example 2: Eugene Onegin a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin • Chapter 8 / XXXVI - Universe of Mind, page 24 • Legends, and mystical traditions, • Drawn from a dim, warm-hearted past, • Dreams of inconsequential past, • Rumors and threads and premonitions, • Long, lively tales from wonderland, • Or letters in a young girl’s hand.

9. Example 2: Eugene Onegin a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin • Chapter 8 / XXXVII - Universe of Mind, page 24 • Then gradually upon sensation, • And though, a sleepy numbness steals; • Before his eyes, imagination • Bring out its faro pack, and deals. • Chapter 8 / XXXVIII - Universe of Mind, page 24 • Who could have looked the poet better, • As in the nook he’d sit alone • By blazing fireplace, and intone • Idol mioor Benedetta, • And on the flames let fall unseen • A slipper, or a magazine?

10. Example 2: Eugene Onegin a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin • Codes supporting I-I communication (self reflecion): • Printed texts (source for imagination) • Flickering of fire • The intoned tunes • The hero is not searching for an immediate message in the texts • He is reading between the lines • The book serve to stimulate the flow of the thoughts: the faro pack of his imagination • The intrusion of other codes (fire, texts, music) organize and stimulate the internal monologue of the hero

11. Buddist monk and stone park • The Mathematical rhythm of the sand garden / stone parks evoke a mood conducive to introspection • Karesansui, or "dry gardens," are abstract representations of natural landscapes in which stones, gravel, sand, and moss are used to depict mountains, rivers, and islands

12. Stone – Sand gardens

13. Japanese Zen Garden, Kyushu, Japan

14. Japanese Zen Garden

16. Kinkaku-ji or 'the Golden Pavilion - Kyoto

17. Nijo-jo [jo=castle], exterior and garden It was the Tokugawa Shogun's Kyoto residence

18. A Zen Buddhist temple priest rakes gravel in a Kyoto garden

19. Human communication • Based on two models • I-s/he: • Already given information transmitted from one person to another using the same code • I-I • Increase of information (new ideas), its transformation, reformulation using new codes • Self-discovery, auto-psychotherapy

20. Problems of I-I communication • Vygotsksy • The internal speech is soundless • This create a problem when it’s necessary to express it by sounds or words • Kyukhebeker(prison diary): • “I have been dreaming not of objects, or events, but some kind of abbreviations which relate to them like hieroglyphs to a picture” • Intense symbolization • This can lead to cryptography or a form of writing understandable only by the writer • Sometimes mnemonic draft (done by musicians or writers) are not comprehensible for other people

21. Example: Pushkin love anagrams • Creative I – I communication could lead to a kind of innovative cryptography, anagrams, creative writing • Pushkin, 1928, poem: Alas! The tongue of garrulous love • Dedicated to Anna Alekseevana Olenina • Jotting: • Ettenna eninelo • Eninelo ettenna • Olenina • Annette • Anagram of the name and surname of Anna, Annette in French • The repetition create an hypnotic rhythm, similar to a love spell

22. Tension between the codes • If a message in a natural language • Is followed by a supplementary code (rhythmical) • There is tension between the two codes • As a result the • the text could be interpreted following the secondary code (the rhythmical) • But the normal semantic values remain valid

23. Texts used as codes • A text is used as a code • When it does not add simple informative messages • But it transform the self-understanding of the person who has engendered the text • And it transfers already existing messages into a new system of meanings

24. Example: Pushkin’s Tatyana (Onengin) • Tatyana read novels in that way: • Seeing herself a creation • Clarissa, Julie, or Delphine • By writers of her imagination, • Tatyana, lonely heroine, • Roamed the still forest like a ranger, • Sought in her book, that text of danger • And found her dreams, her secret desire; • She signed, and in trance co-opted • Another’s joy, another breast, • Whispered by hearth a note addressed • To the hero that she’d adopted.

25. Tatyana • The text of Tatyana is not a simple media message, like news • But a code, a new language, a model for reinterpreting reality

26. Poetic and artistic texts • Oscillate between the I – s/he and the I-I communication • Both are present

27. Literature • As a whole is more oriented towards self-reflective communication, but the element of I-s/he communication are always present • The literate generally has a negative attitude towards the standard message texts • The poetic text could be even in conflict with some laws of the natural language • But also in the most extreme cases, avant-garde poetry is perceived as a text in a natural language (French, Russian) • Otherwise it couldn’t fulfill his communicative function • Poetry is a pendulum, oscillating between I-s/he and I-I systems

28. Art and culture • The laws of construction of an artistic text are very largely the laws of construction of culture as a whole • There are cultures (media) where the I-s/he channel is predominant: • Cultural consumer as ideal addressee • great quantity or bombing of information • few self-reflection, passivity • Education as acquisition of knowledge • And other more oriented to auto communication (avant-garde)

29. Folk culture • The participant of a carnival are all receivers and senders of information: they are generally all actives • The system of language (folk song) could be formal and structured, but the contents are often free • The listener could be a singer and he could transform the song in his future performance • A modern theatergoer, if isn’t a theatre professional, is more passive than a storyteller • The folk cultures are however less dynamic in terms of acquisition of new knowledge

30. The perfection in the middle • The most viable cultures are those system • Where the struggle between the two systems has not resulted in an all-out victory for one of them