Groupe µ and “the system of plastic form” -for an evaluation-

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 For a sociological definition of the term “art worlds”, see for example H. S. Becker, Art worlds, Berkeley 1984.

At its best, plastic semiotics can provide a coherent and terminologically valid theory of the communicative import of visual composition – taking into account not only planar images but also patterns and other elements and objects that surround us in our daily life and daily activities. With this objective in mind, it would make no sense to focus solely on artistic images (i.e. images produced within the confines of various “art worlds”) or risk any confusion with formalist aesthetics.1 What we need, in this research, are comprehensive models of how forms, colors and textures can carry meaning and evoke associations. On a second level, we also need straight, empirical data on how certain visual phenomena are received and interpreted in various environments, groups and cultures. Thus, plastic semiotics can also defend its position as a part of cultural semiotics at large.

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 On German ground, the programs for Bildwissenschaft (roughly “Image Science”) by Horst Bredekamp, Klaus Sachs-Hombach and others provide an equivalent to the Anglo-American Visual Studies trend.

As for the first level — the model level — Groupe µ has offered the hitherto most complete definition of the plastic sign (“le signe plastique”) in its seminal work Traité du signe visuel (Treatise on the visual sign, 1992). In its account of the plastic dimension as precisely a sign, Groupe µ aims at a synthesis between what it calls the provincialisms of methods (“provincialisme méthodologique”) in disciplines such as perceptual psychology and aesthetics. As for the second level — the empirical one — the findings of Lindekens in the Seventies and of Espe and Krampen in the Eighties could provide a platform for further investigations. One could hope that such investigations can take place within a truly interdisciplinary field of ”visual research” — a field in which problems and hypotheses could be formulated quite independently from the temporary conjunctures of the fields of art. At present, the emerging university subject Visual Studies (theorized as a more open-ended alternative to the sociologically informed Visual Culture subject) seems to carry some promises in this respect – even though the term Visual Studies appears to be at least as ill-defined as the age-old term Form.2

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 I refer to Groupe µ, Traité… (1992). This work has been translated into Spanish as Tratato del signo visuel (Madrid 1993). The German translation of the passages concerning “the system of plastic form” I refer to as: Groupe µ, “Das system…” (1988).

In relation to such wide prospects, my aims with the present text are quite modest. I wish to give a brief summary of some parts of Groupe µ‘s theory of the plastic sign — parts that hitherto have been directly available only to those familiar with French, German or Spanish.3 In addition to the plain and simple presentation of the theory, I shall also suggest some interpretations of laconic or unclear passages, and present some reservations.

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 Groupe µ, Traité…, p. 97. My translation: “it’s not a matter of raw empirical reality, independent of any structuration: [types] are theoretical models. Between the typical form and the perceived form, the typical color and the perceived color, the typical object (which will later be defined as icon) and the perceived object, there is consequently a relation similar to that between the phoneme and all the sounds that might be associated with it […]”.

 “[…] il ne s’agit de réalités empiriques brutes, antérieures à toute structuration : ce sont des modèles théoriques. Entre une forme type et la forme perçue, la couleur type et la couleur perçue, l’objet type (qui sera plus loin défini comme icône) et l’objet perçu, il y a donc le même rapport qu’entre le phonème et tous le sons qui peuvent lui être associés […]”.4

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 Groupe µ, Traité…, p. 97.

So for Groupe  types are at the root of the very order that makes it possible to fit the objects of our everyday world into kinds and categories, and thus to attend to the content of iconic signs. But even the expression plane of such signs — i.e. colors and plastic forms — is said to be a matter of types and of typifying. From this, the valid conclusion would be that there are plastic types of the plastic sign as well as iconic types of the iconic sign. This is also in agreement with the definitions in the Traité, even if iconic types (“types iconiques”) and plastic types (“types plastiques”) are for the most part subsumed under the common term “Types”, plain and simple. And “Types” in this general sense are in several passages defined as semiotic form — i.e. as form in Hjelmslev’s sense (“au sens hjelmslévien du terme”).5

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 See the link http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00005/00010/34_1.jpg

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 Groupe µ, “Iconism”, p. 34.

A quite useful example of the dynamics of transformation is the painting reproduced in illustration 3 : Victor Brauners Small Morphology of 19346. This is actually a piece of applied semiotics, just like the work of so many other surrealist painters. The reason that the last “man” in the upper row could still be seen as at least “human”, in spite of the fact that he has now become a tower, is that there is still enough left of the type “human” in this image of a tower. But the only way to trace an analogue or “motivated” connection to the referents of real humans is through the preceding variants — i.e. along the axis of transformation. The signifier-type relation is, on the contrary, claimed to be “arbitrary”. Because, as Groupe  writes: “many different objects can fit one type (whether as signifiers or as referents)”.7 The difference between the heads of the “women” in the lower row could be seen as an example of this relation. However, the fact that many different objects fit the same type doesn’t necessarily mean that there can’t as well be some likeness between the elements. This is certainly the case in this example, and the relation between the heads could hardly be regarded as “arbitrary” in a strong sense.

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 Groupe µ, “Toward…”, p. 584.

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 This must amount to the same thing as Peirce’s definition of icons as the only signs in which “the Interpretant may be the Object”. See Peirce, The Essential…, p. 277.

The plastic sign, by contrast, “has no referent by definition”.8 This statement of Groupe  could be modified, if we say that the plastic sign must be a sign in which the referent is identical to the type (like in an “exemplification”).9But there could be no axis of transformation here, and the reason is obvious even if I can’t see that Groupe  spells it out anywhere. Think of a circle again: if it was to be deformed in a way similar to how the man and the woman are deformed in Brauner’s picture, the plastic type “circle” would no longer be there. With a more moderate deformation it would however still be present, because even imperfect circles are in fact seen as circles. But once again, it wouldn’t be possible to separate the plastic type from any hypothetical “plastic referent”, and consequently there would still be no axis of transformation.

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 The “type” here equals the “gestalt” of mainstream perceptual psychology.

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 Groupe µ, “Toward…”, p. 584.

By contrast, the signifier-type relation of the plastic sign cannot be dramatically different from that of the iconic sign, because even in the plastic sign different objects can fit one type.10 I give an example of this in illustration 4. And this obvious constancy in pattern recognition must be the main reason that Groupe , today and in the Traité, considers the plastic sign to be an utterance (“énoncé”) whose semiotic form could in fact be separated from its substance.11

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 Groupe µ, “Iconique et…”, p. 180.

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 Hjelmslev, Omkring…, p. 104. Here, Hjelmslev draws a clear distinction between connotations (“konnotationer”) and signals (“signaler”). Groupe µ’s examples must be defined as signals.

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 G. Sonesson, Pictorial…, pp. 119-23 and 150-51. Sonesson here uses the term “stylistic connotation” in a sense close to Hjelmslev’s “signal”.

This later theory of the Traité is however very different from Groupe ’s first systematic account of the iconic/plastic distinction, in an article of 1979. Here, it actually chose the circle as example.12 If the circle might stand for such things as “head” or “balloon” on the iconic level, the group argued, it would then on the plastic level stand for the concept of “circularity”. By the same token, the group defined both the iconic and the plastic associations as signs in a strong sense, i.e. as “denotations”. It then stated that both kinds of denotations, respectively, are connected on a secondary level to “connotations”. As a possible connotation to the iconic content “balloon” they suggested for example “joy”, and for the plastic content “circularity” they suggested “God” and “formal perfection”. But if we read Groupe ‘s master Hjelmslev closely in his original Danish, it becomes obvious that the mentioned “connotations” cannot be connotations in his sense.13 This is one of the main points of Göran Sonesson’s critique in Pictorial Concepts.14

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Groupe µ, “Iconique et…”, p. 182. My translation: “A ‘form’ would be, for example, an opposition between standard blue colors, standardized as a lexical code that invests fixed values (not necessarily semantic) into each and every one of its units”. Note that the term “fixed values” here implies both phonetic (“not necessarily semantic”) and lexical values.

“Une ‘forme’ serait, par exemple, une opposition de bleus reçue comme un lexique établi, investie de valeurs fixes (non nécessairement sémantiques) pour chacune de ses unités”.15

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 Hjelmslev, Omkring…, p. 101 ff.

But the necessary condition for there to be a denotation is, still “in Hjelmslev’s sense”, semiotic form. So if there is no such form on the plastic level, there could be no denotations either — and consequently no connotations, as long as we stick to Hjelmslev’s definition of the connotation as a function in which the denotation itself is a functive (“funktiv”).16 As a consequence of this, the definition simply turns out to be contradictory. And from such conditions it would come as no surprise that the concepts of “denotation” and “connotation” are almost absent in the later Traité.

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 See Felix Thürlemann’s definitions of “plastic” and “topological” categories (“catégories”) in: Greimas & Courtés (red.), Sémiotique…, pp. 239 and 168.

Another debatable topic on this level concerns what might be called “linguisticisms”. Why does Groupe  speak of texturemes, coloremes and formemes ? These neologisms surely have strong connections to linguistics, and to the notion of the phonemes of spoken language. But Groupe ’s categories are hardly comparable to phonemes. The distinction between position, dimension/size and orientation is an absolute distinction — in fact a distinction between “dimensions” in a more abstract sense. In the realm of speech and phonology, they would be comparable to such dimensions as tone and duration. A phoneme is another thing altogether — solely determined by the articulation of language structure. It is, as Groupe  itself remarks in one of the passages quoted above, a “theoretical object” of language analysis. Evidently it would simplify matters and give rise to less misunderstanding if we choose to speak of “dimensions” or “categories” (for example topological ones) rather than “formemes”.17

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, p. 220.

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 An analogy of sound would be increasing or decreasing intensity as a function of intensity and “position in time”.

In the system of plastic form, there is a hierarchic relation between two of the “formemes” in relation to the third — because position and dimension must be determining factors for orientation.18 As an example: consider a rectangular figure, composed as it is from two long and two short lines. If the short lines are posited at the bottom and the top of the figure, it will be vertically oriented. If the lines are, on the contrary, posited at the left and the right, the figure will be horizontally oriented. So the orientation of the rectangle, or of any figure, is a function of the dimension of its different parts in relation to the position of them.19

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, pp. 218-19.

• The basic opposition is that of figure versus ground

• The second opposition: figure and ground could be seen as if they were at the same plane (as in “planar geometry”) or as if they were at different planes (in which case enclosed shapes are seen as either massive objects or holes)

• The third opposition: if seen as a different plane, the figure could be seen as either in front or behind

• The fourth opposition: the figure could be central or marginal in relation to the center

• The fifth opposition: if marginal, the figure could be above or under the center (opposition of verticality)

• The sixth opposition: if marginal, the figure could be to the left or to the right of the center (opposition of horizontality)20

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”p. 220.

The group also gives an opposite example: think of a miniature portrait with a stain on it. Here, the stain is gigantic in relation to the picture plane, but very tiny in relation to the spectator (i.e. in relation to the point of focus).21 This is illustrated in the diagram of illustration 5, in which the arrows indicate decreasing size in relation to the picture plane (vertical) and increasing distance in relation to the spectator (horizontal). The coordinates A and A´ stand, respectively, for the stain on the table and the stain on the miniature.

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, pp. 220-21.

• Given: that there is a figure that is experienced as having a position either within the picture plane or behind/in front of it.

• First opposition of orientation: that the figure is oriented either within the plane or beyond it (this separates fronto-parallel styles from more realistic ones)

• Second opposition: if oriented beyond the plane, the figure could be oriented either outwards or inwards in relation to the plane

• Third opposition: either if oriented within or beyond the plane (either if fronto-parallel or receding effect), the figure could be oriented either outwards or inwards in relation to the center (opposition of the centrifugal and the centripetal)

• Fourth opposition: if oriented outwards in relation to the center, the figure could be oriented either vertically or horizontally

• Fifth opposition: if oriented vertically, the figure could be oriented either upwards or downwards (opposition of verticality)

• Sixth opposition: if oriented horizontally, the figure could be oriented either leftwards or rightwards (opposition of horizontality)22

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, p. 220.

But this turns out to be an incomplete analysis of orientation, Groupe  contends, because it only does justice to orientation experienced as direction — i.e. as “vectorality”. Orientation and direction are, however, not synonymous. As the group remarks, even a circle could be said to have an orientation, namely the inwards orientation of all the positions of the periphery in relation to the center.23 But of course it has no direction. And when we say that openings and cavities are “oriented” in certain ways (as in “the entrance is oriented to the South”), this is certainly not a question of direction either. Groupe  therefore adds the following oppositions:

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, p. 222.

• Seventh opposition of orientation: a figure could be concentric (i.e. absence of direction) or not

• Eighth opposition of orientation: a figure could be open or closed24

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”,  p. 223 f.

However, this whole analysis only concerns the signifiers of the system (”les signifiants”), i.e. the expression plane of the plastic sign. The signifieds (”les signifiées”), i.e. the content plane, correspond to the signifiers in the following manner according to Groupe : position to attraction, dimension to dominance, orientation to balance.25 This is merely taken for granted by the group, and the examples provided are quite obscure. However, the theory can be validated as follows.

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 Arnheim, Art and…, p. 14 f.

Lines or plastic forms that are identical in all other respects could be experienced as different as regards either attraction, dominance or balance. As an example of the first alternative: consider the experiments of Goude and Hjortzberg (referred to by Rudolf Arnheim) in which a circular black magnet was moved on a quadratic, white metal plate. Experimental subjects were told to indicate whether they experienced any variation in attraction at the various positions. It turned out that the positions at which the subjects experienced the greatest variation in attraction coincided with the structural skeleton of the picture plane (i.e. its medians including the diagonals).26 The variation could then be regarded as a plastic content that has nothing to do with the object as such, but only with its position in the picture plane.

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, p. 224 ff.

According to the theory, a second level of plastic content is manifest when various positions, dimensions and orientations coincide to give the impression of distinct plastic forms or constellations.27 It must be remarked that such plastic forms and constellations can conform to plastic types to a higher or lower degree — see illustration 7. According to linguistic analogy, they are of course the morphemes (from Greek: “morphes”) of the system of plastic form. As Groupe  remarks, plastic forms (and thus plastic types) are in themselves carriers of values of position, dimension and orientation — and thus of attraction, dominance and balance. Here, the group provides the example of triangles — being experienced as balanced if oriented upwards, but as unbalanced if the opposite is the case.

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 Groupe µ, “Das System…”, pp. 226-30.

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It should be admitted that in ascribing the status of plastic signs to such perceptual effects, we run the risk of ending up in a theory that neglects all distinctions between higher and lower functions of visual cognition. Current findings in vision science can provide material for corrections and revisions on this point, and they should therefore be incorporated into visual semiotics. As evidenced by earlier contributions to Nouveaux Actes Sémiotiques, this important work has already begun in the research of Francois Edeline (one of the founding members of Groupe µ) and others.

The third level of content is said to be that of relations between plastic forms, and between the position, dimension and orientation of such forms. The latter relations constitute the structure of ornaments, and as Groupe  remarks ornaments are basically variations of the positions, dimensions and orientations of identical, repeated plastic forms.28 My examples in illustration 8 could be details from simple ornaments. They show how attraction, dominance and balance can result from combinations of separate plastic forms. The constellation in example (a) is basically the same as in illustration 4, and in both cases the dots can be regarded as plastic forms in their own right. Example (b), the famous Ebbinghaus illusion, shows how far removed plastic content can sometimes be from objective facts (as in many other illusions involving dimension and orientation).29

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 Groupe µ, Traité…, p. 194 f.

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 Groupe µ, “Iconique et…”, pp. 187-88.

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 See also Groupe µ, “Toward…”, pp. 586-91

Maybe the most significant application of the theory so far is the one that Groupe  performs itself, in its theory of visual rhetoric. According to the group, there are three levels of meaning (“sémantisme”) in which plastic features are involved, namely the purely plastic level, the mixed icono-plastic level and finally the “extra-visual” level (“sémantisme extra-visuel”). The last one is the level of arbitrary symbolism: such as the colors that symbolize different sacraments within the Catholic Church.30 The purely plastic level includes what the group defines as plastic rhetoric — for example certain positions, sizes and orientations that unexpectedly break the continuity of certain patterns. As for icono-plastic meaning, it has been at the heart of Groupe ‘s theory ever since the 1979 article. There, the group referred to the simple example of a Japanese print in which a heron and a weeping willow had the same downward curvature (“même courbure”) that was said to express the same sadness (“même tristesse”).31 In this manner, icono-plastic analysis basically shows that plastic features can be endowed with a striking and even rhetorical meaning at the background of iconic content. In the Traité, Groupe  assures that there must also be rhetorical effects of unexpected iconic content at the background of the “plastic order” (“l’ordre plastique”).32

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 Baudrillard, ”Photography…”

In the pragmatic context of visual teaching subjects, this will certainly prove to be a great pedagogical gain. To teach the skills of image description and interpretation is much easier with the aid of a coherent terminology into which the “provincialisms” of various theorists and schools (for example gestalt psychology) can be translated. Moreover: to let students perform systematic image description on the plastic level, and to make them connect this activity to the notions of plastic content as visual rhetoric, would provide a powerful counterexample to the contention of most newcomers that the impact of images has to do solely with their capacity to faithfully copy reality. A resistance to what the late cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard once called “the surrender of the image to the real”.33