The Sound of Simple Shapes

A rather bizarre question popped into my head today. ...What does a spiral symbol sound like? If a spiral is a path, and the center of the spiral is the start point and the spiral is 'unwound' and transformed onto a line that represents time, then the sound would start out high-pitched (high frequency) and soft (low amplitude), and get lower in pitch (low frequency) and louder (higher amplitude) over time.

The sound of a circle? A short (brief) continuous tone of equal amplitude and frequency.

The sound of a square? A rising continuous tone, then held for a brief duration, then falling and held for a brief duration....remarkably similar to the prosodic structure for approval.

This is the general idea. If phosphene patterns are commonly found in prehistoric art (and carry on throughout the ages) in cultures with an assumed verbal language (but no written language), then is there a link between SOUND and these simple shapes/patterns? Perhaps the sounds of these shapes correspond with sounds heard in the natural environment, or perhaps the sounds correspond with chanting utterances of sacred rituals?

Keep in mind that the sounds I'm talking about here are not sounds arbitrarily assigned by humans to the phosphene symbol. The sounds here are achieved when the actual path of the symbol is 'unravelled' and transformed into a sound wave. Also rather strange is that the sound waves derived from these symbols look very much like the acoustic mappings of bird calls.

In prehistoric pottery, border patterns are prolific. If a border contains several discrete symbols, the resulting sound map would reflect simultaneity, achieving a harmonic set.

Phosphene Lexicon

Some qualified speculation about a Phosphene Lexicon....

"But what turned out to be truly amazing," said Cardenas-Arroyo, "was that many of the patterns made by the Tukanos were nearly identical to the phosphene patterns described 40 years earlier by Knoll." Moreover, he showed how phosphene-inspired patterns used in contemporary indigenous cultures are very similar to designs on ancient pottery.

"I believe that many of these design patterns were like an unspoken language that held symbolic meaning through their iconography, which transcended linguistic and cultural barriers," he said.

"Archaeologists should make a greater effort to decode the symbolism beyond the art."

- Felipe Cardenas-Arroyo
Columbian Archaeologist

http://www.iadb.org/idbamerica/Archive/stories/1998/eng/e998k.htm

Interpreting the Storyline of a Graphic

Going back a few weeks, I suggested that graphical depiction may be a compound form of language (or verbal expression). If this is so, then it is, indeed, linear. When a person looks at an image, their eyes start in a particular place, and travel to other interesting spots in the image. This eye travel creates a path over the image -- a linear path. Where the eyes start and stop and start and stop along the path depends on those things in the graphic that attract attention. In looking at a picture, or a graphic, people visually traverse it in a linear fashion. As to what a pair of eyes might find interesting enough to fixate on -- is another discussion entirely -- but I do think Gestalt Principles may play a part in this (at the most fundamental level). For example, the intersection of two lines, or a bump on a line, is much more interesting, than an uninterrrupted straight line. A vertical line is more active (dynamic) than a horizontal line. A diagonal line is supposed to be even more active than a vertical line. I need to find more information about how lines and simple shapes are interpreted, how people find meaning in these basic outlines. This will provide some insight as to how we might interpret phosphenes.

First Patterns

This is a search for first patterns, the fundamental patterns that underpin human thought. I want to discover the language - both the vocabulary and the rules - of pattern thinking.

Why is it we see the same phosphene shapes in arts and crafts -- and even in nature? Fundamental patterns must be the most resilient, most robust, most balanced types of patterns-- that rely on the physical properties of our natural world. The reason triangular shapes are so strong, the stability of the hexagon. A pattern is a field of structures bound together by certain principles, or rules.

Some patterns are stable and balanced. Others are, by nature, unstable and act as attractors (with receptive components). Some modules within patterns resist bonding with other parts of the patterns (funny how much this sounds like the bonds of chemistry). Some patterns are unstable and receptive to joining another pattern field. Some patterns are stable and resistant to joining another pattern field.

No evidence yet for Phosphene Maps

I haven't yet found any evidence in the drawing development of children for phosphene maps. Children draw scribbles, then straight lines, then curved lines, then closed shapes, the 'tadpole' figure, and then a stick figure with a body in a scene. There doesn't seem to be any mapmaking going on. I had hoped to find evidence of geometric patterns in early toddlers, but so far there doesn't seem to be any. This lack of evidence would support theories that geometric maps are actually more advanced than pictorial ones.

There are cultures where geometric patterns emerge as a dominant motif in art and decoration and for ceremonial purposes -- Native American cultures. It's also interesting to note that cultures such as these usually do not have a written language. They have an oral tradition, and then use geometric and curvilinear graphics to designate symbolic meanings.

I need to investigate more about cuneiform writing and the Mayan culture.

It may very well be that the geometric representations are a different branch of communication or expression that is unique to some cultures who (perhaps) are more oriented in right-brain (for lack of a better label at the moment) values.

I plan to read (again) Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin. This may offer some insight about visual representations and visual thinking.

Jennifer Bartlett - Painter

In the early 80s, while working on my arts degree, I became transfixed by the art of Jennifer Bartlett when her first series of paintings called "In the Garden" were featured in an arts magazine. The fact that I liked her work greatly surprised me, because I didn't really like contemporary art. My attitude towards contemporary art has always been, "I'm living it. Why do I need to look at it? Why remind me of what I already know?"

Anyway, I haven't even thought about Jennifer Bartlett for years, but with renewed interest discovered that one of her recent exhibits involves painting images of maps, and that she actually started out as a map maker. There is something in her work that represents some kind of 'first principles' of perception and cognition. Something fundamental about how humans represent and know about their world. Something timeless.

In the words of critic Maurice Berger, Bartlett’s art “juxtaposes the raw and the cooked, examining the way the world is filtered through the human mind and is encoded into cultural conventions or sign systems.”

The First Graphical Language

I am quite convinced that phosphene maps, or protoglyphs, are the First Graphical Language used in visual expression. I think there is a vocabulary, and there is a syntax. The rules that comprise the syntax have evolved through human experience and human perception of the natural environment.

Palaeolithic humans lived directly in nature, as relatively small beings in a much larger world. It is difficult for contemporary humans to understand the relationship of early humans with nature, because for such a long time now we have lived in human-made environments. But just as contemporary humans quite voraciously 'want to know' what's happening 'out there' and watch the news or talk to neighbours or friends, I think early humans also had this curiousity and shared their knowledge of the greater world with their clan. Graphical depiction is a way to share information either as an aid to a verbal description or as a standalone communication when the subject is either unable to speak for some reason, either because they need to be quiet, perhaps aren't physically present, or may be incapacitated or even disceased.