Re-Animating the Modern Symbol: the Residues of Romantic Materialism in the Picture Language of Isotype

这是一个档案研究项目，涉及奥托·纽拉斯、玛丽·里德迈斯特(后来的玛丽·纽拉斯)和艺术家格尔德·阿恩茨(1925-1934年)在维也纳的Gesellschaft-and Wirtschaft博物馆(1925-1934年)、海牙的Isotype研究所和英格兰的Isotype研究所创作的文本、图形和照片。Isotype系统是当代信息图形学的前身，信息图形学是一种“国际图片语言”。我打算将它作为对符号交流的实践和理论探索来研究，展示如何通过早于当代符号学的旧的符号概念来理解它。奥托·纽拉斯对儿童读物插图、埃及象形文字、巴洛克徽章和17世纪画面的兴趣表明，同类型的“图片语言”和更广泛的项目(包括公开展览、摄影和儿童书籍)有着复杂而有趣的来源。这项研究涉及巴洛克和浪漫主义的象征意义理论，它们与浪漫主义对知觉的双向理解的联系，以及20世纪初德国和奥地利美术史和理论中发展起来的象征和象征主义理论。它特别关注沃尔特·本雅明的早期批评作品，他的‘气场’概念植根于浪漫主义理论，是他对现代性和现代媒体(他的特征是失去‘气场’)理解的关键。通过对浪漫主义教育家和结晶学家弗里德里希·弗洛贝尔的平行研究，该项目将探索合理化的几何形式如何体现这些象征主义的概念。将结合档案研究(在欧洲和英国的主要档案馆)和图形/摄影实践，分析Isotype的技术和过程。同样的类型被考虑不仅是因为它与Neurath的逻辑实证主义哲学及其直接的历史和社会背景的关系，而且还涉及到关于符号的这些更广泛的观念，这些观念不一定与Neurath自己的哲学兼容。研究方法的目的是将对象征主义的理论和实践探索带入生产性对话，促进对几何现代主义的唯物主义理解，并为当前文化理论(例如，物理论和行为者网络理论)转向唯物主义提供重要的历史背景。

This is an archival reseach project which deals with texts, graphics and photographs produced by Otto Neurath, Marie Reidemeister (later Marie Neurath), and the artist Gerd Arntz at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Vienna (1925-1934), in The Hague, and at the Isotype institute in England. The Isotype system is a precursor to contemporary information graphics, an 'international picture language'. I intend to study it as a practical and theoretical exploration of symbolic communication, demonstrating how it may be understood through older conceptions of the symbol, which predate contemporary semiotics. Otto Neurath's interest in children's book illustrations, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Baroque emblems, and seventeenth century tableaux suggests a complex and interesting provenance for the Isotype 'picture language' and the broader project (which included public exhibitions, photography, and children's books). This research involves exploring Baroque and Romantic theories of symbolic meaning, their links to the Romantic understanding of perception as a two way process, and theories of symbols and symbolism developed in German and Austrian art history and theory in early twentieth century. It focusses particularly on the early critical writings of Walter Benjamin, whose concept of 'aura' is rooted in Romantic theory, and is key to his understanding of modernity and modern media (which he characterises in terms of a loss of 'aura'). Through a parallel study of the Romantic educationalist and crystallographer, Friedrich Froebel, the project will explore the ways in which rationalised, geometric forms come to embody these notions of symbolism. A combination of archival study (in key European and British archives) and graphic/photographic practice, will be used to analyse the techniques and processes of Isotype. Isotype is considered not only in its relationship to the logical positivist philosophy of Neurath and its immediate historical and social context, but also in relation to these wider ideas about the symbol, which are not necessarily compatible with Neurath's own philosophy. The research methodology is intended to bring theoretical and practical explorations of symbolism into productive dialogue, to contribute towards a materialist understanding of geometric modernisms and to provide a significant historical context for the current turn to materialism in cultural theory (for example, in 'thing theory' and 'actor network theory').