Problems With The Experiential Analysis Of The Image

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 292-3):

As far as experiential meaning is concerned, the FitzSimons’ portrait is what Kress & van Leeuwen call conceptual (as opposed to narrative). He is bald, with a full beard, closely trimmed, and an open necked shirt; there is no circumstantiation. If we needed reminding, the portrait confirms that this is in fact the Peter FitzSimons, a well known sports journalist and pay TV commentator, who played rugby for Australia in his sporting prime.

The beach landscape conversely has little attribution, since individual participants are barely distinguishable; but there is rich circumstantiation for the sky (with feathery clouds), the sea (small surf and a few bathers), the beach (with many sunbathers) and the buildings on the border between land and sky. The orientation of the people and blankets on the beach along with the north of the beach and suburbs compose release vectors (lower left to upper right); these are counter-balanced by hold vectors (lower right to upper left) construed by the sea and feathery clouds in the sky¹⁵. From a narrative perspective, the vectors thus oppose man and nature, more specifically people's urge to get into the water contained by the sea's incursion into the curving sand.

¹⁵ The notion of hold and release vectors is taken from Arnheim 1982.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, 'with a full beard, closely trimmed, and an open necked shirt' is circumstantiation. But this is a verbal description of the image. No argument is provided as to what does, or does not, constitute circumstantiation in a modality without a lexicogrammatical stratum.

[2] To be clear, the grey-scale portrait photograph (Token) identifies, and is identified by, the grey-scale text Peter FitzSimons (Value).

[3] Again, no argument is provided as to what does, or does not, constitute circumstantiation in a modality without a lexicogrammatical stratum. Wording that describes the photograph can include or exclude circumstantiation, as the describer wishes.

[4] To be clear, the notion of 'vector' is a way of modelling the expression plane of images. The content plane meanings that a vector realises are direction and magnitude.

[5] To be clear, these meanings attributed to the expression plane 'vectors' are entirely arbitrary, since few (if any) people could come up with this specialised interpretation independently. As such, it lies closer to the field of art appreciation than semiotics. It is analogous to speculating on the 'meaning' of the absence of the letter 'e' or capitalisation or punctuation in a poem.