Today I had no responsibilities at the Institute -- a day off! The city is mine! I worked on wedding stuff in Bryant Park in the morning, where I also had lunch with my friend Jay. I read Greek for the dissertation at a nearby Barnes and Noble in the afternoon, and stopped by MoMA on my way to dinner with Tony and his wife, Julie. I was thrilled to see a new exhibit, "Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language."
What could delight a philologist's heart more? In addition, I'm presenting the Greek alphabet to the students first thing on Monday morning, so I've even been practicing my letters and chalksmanship this week. But at first, I was disappointed by the displays: it seemed like a jumble of random pieces with some words on them, or words spoken, or no words at all. Ugh. Thanks, modern art! But then I came upon Paul Elliman's "Found Fount," a portion of which can be seen here:
I guess the idea behind it is that Elliman is using "found objects" as unique symbols to represent letters in an invented, infinite alphabet. Suddenly, I was taken back to my days of middle-school boredom, when I halfheartedly attempted to create my own system of symbols (doodles, really) to serve as a secret alphabet of my own language. Did you try this sort of thing, too? It makes me wonder: what makes an "o" the letter "o"? vs. the exclamation we make in English when surprised? vs. a circle? I guess this is why Semiotics developed, and I should just go re-read Saussure. At any rate, I'll definitely be pondering these issues on Monday morning, as I try to remember all of my Greek alphabet at the board! I don't know much about "orality and literacy," but both of my advisors are experts, and it's always interesting to think about the relationship between speech and the development of writing. Speech, of course, came first. But now that we have both speech and writing, what does it mean to go back to the drawing board with writing itself?
What could delight a philologist's heart more? In addition, I'm presenting the Greek alphabet to the students first thing on Monday morning, so I've even been practicing my letters and chalksmanship this week. But at first, I was disappointed by the displays: it seemed like a jumble of random pieces with some words on them, or words spoken, or no words at all. Ugh. Thanks, modern art! But then I came upon Paul Elliman's "Found Fount," a portion of which can be seen here:
I guess the idea behind it is that Elliman is using "found objects" as unique symbols to represent letters in an invented, infinite alphabet. Suddenly, I was taken back to my days of middle-school boredom, when I halfheartedly attempted to create my own system of symbols (doodles, really) to serve as a secret alphabet of my own language. Did you try this sort of thing, too? It makes me wonder: what makes an "o" the letter "o"? vs. the exclamation we make in English when surprised? vs. a circle? I guess this is why Semiotics developed, and I should just go re-read Saussure. At any rate, I'll definitely be pondering these issues on Monday morning, as I try to remember all of my Greek alphabet at the board! I don't know much about "orality and literacy," but both of my advisors are experts, and it's always interesting to think about the relationship between speech and the development of writing. Speech, of course, came first. But now that we have both speech and writing, what does it mean to go back to the drawing board with writing itself?
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