Sectioned Lobster

The Signification

*From Myth Today, a section of Roland Barthes' Mythologies

In the second order, the semiotic order, the signification (the joining together of the second order signifier and signified) qualifies as the myth. Myth holds two dimensions: form and concept. The form of the myth is based upon place and familiarity- holding a spatial dimension. The concept on the other hand, is less rooted to place and linked through associative relations.

The construction of myth is a construction based on deformation. The mythical signifier, also the linguistic sign, carries with it two aspects- its meaning and its form. History attaches itself to the meaning while the form in the secondary system remains empty. The concept distorts this history and transforms the signifier into a gesture- depriving it of memory but still keeping its existence.

Myth is a double system; its point of departure is constituted by the arrival of a meaning. A spatial metaphor shall say that the signification of the myth is constituted by a sort of constantly moving turnstile (Fig.1) which presents alternately the meaning of the signifier and its form.[1]

Myth Production at the mythological Myth Factory

or

Myth lurking for a sign to steal

According to Barthes, myth is speech stolen and restored. He uses this analogy about theft to remark on myth’s suspicious, or ‘out-of-place’ look. When something is stolen but then restored, it is put back in place but not its original “place”. It is this brief act of larceny, this moment taken for surreptitious faking, which gives mythical speech its benumbed look.[1]

“I saw Mr. jones today out walking his dog. Something about him seemed a bit different.”

Myth assumes a position and plays “the part”

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[1] Roland Barthes, Mythologies (New York: Hill and Wang, 1957), 109.

Don't Look Now Spatial Sketches

Don't Look Now (1973)

In a way, Roeg employs a similar principal as the moment of hypotenuse in the filmic structure of Don’t Look Now. The plot to a degree runs linearly but also relies on flashbacks and insertions of the future to the present via premonitions. Tthe film pivots between past, present, and future- repose and tension. Roeg places the viewer at the moment of hypotenuse but is in control of perceptions- moving them forward and backward and never promising that they willl see something they would want to.

Encounter

John Hejduk, Diamond Museum C sketches, c. 1962, Fig. 1

For the chapter entitled Encounter from his book, Architecture’s Desire, Haye’s discusses the concept of spatial compression via Hejduk’s sketches for the Diamond Houses (Fig. 1). To put it more clearly, “This compression of deep space onto a flat elevational surface is homologous with both the picture plane onto which the perspectival space of the Renaissance is projected.”[1] There is a beautiful ambiguity which surrounds this concept as illustrated through Hejduk’s sketches. If the most basic ‘making of space’ can be done through the joining of two walls at right angles, then the square becomes the most primitive condition of architecture. When this space is constructed isometrically, the diamond serves as the governing shape- making it prior to, or more primitive than the square.

When looking at Hejduk’s sketch, one realizes that multiple readings of space occur depending on their perception. If one perceives the closed corner nearest to them in perspective, they are seeing the space differently from if they perceive that same corner farther from them. In these cases, space is moving in projection and recession. This ambiguity in spatial movement creates an event. Hejduk based the possibility of event upon the moment in which the space is perceived between projection and regression (repose and tension) and is once again collapsed. He called this pivotal point the “moment of the hypotenuse.”

For the percept itself is located on the crease in time between the past and the future. “It is a beautiful distance,” he decalres of the space and time seen backward and forward from this plane. “As you go back into space it gets into deeper perspective, it gets less clear and you can never really complete it, because that’s the unknown, it isn’t fixed. so it gets darker. as you get to the present, it’s clearer. on the plane of the present is that horizontal armature, which is the hypoteneuse; you just speculate on futures[1]

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[1] Ibid.

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[1] K. Michael Hayes, Architecture’s Desire (Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 2010), 92.

Don't Look Now (1973)

* Recently I watched the film, Don't Look Now, to look at how Venice is depicted. I know I was supposed to watch it through a purely analytic lens but ended up being captivated by the plot. For anyone who likes creepy films, this one should not be missed.

One of the things I love about Venice is that it's so safe for me to walk. the sound changes, you see, as you come to a canal. The echoes of the walls are so clear. my sister hates it. She says it's like a city in aspic left over from a dinner party and all the guests are dead- gone. it frightens her. Too many shadows.

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The Italian Job (2003)

In the opening scenes of The Italian Job, the viewer is witness to a robbery being conducted by a cast of likable thieves- and like any good crime-caper film, a chase ensues! This chase however differs from the typical car chase found in many other films. This chase is a boat chase- and a boat chase through Venice! What lends excitement to these great sequences, beyond good editing and directing, is the depiction of the spatial characteristics of the canal city. As Handsome Rob (Jason Statham) escapes his pursuers via ultra-fast speedboat through an antiquated context, he is forced to weave and dodge through canal alleys to avoid many close calls. This avoidance of collision with the city does not only happen on one axis because Handsome Rob must also duck his head to escape decapitation while passing under small bridges. It becomes apparent that Venetian space operates at all of the Cartesian axes.

Light and dark seem to mimic extreme spatial variations as camera shots turn from lighted scenes upon the canal to extreme dark under bridges. Even before the chase begins, the viewer is presented to the scenario as the camera lens moves through floors and levels in the building where the robbery is first conducted. The viewer is also made aware of the greatest sub-level of the city underwater as it is revealed that this is where the real robbery is happening while the boat chase was a diversion all along.