"Images and Words"　画像と言葉

“The Madonna of the Carnation”, Leonardo da Vinci

July 11, 2020 ·

The world surrounding us contains an infinite amount of information.

However, understanding it all is beyond the limits of our cognitive abilities.It's like a three-dimensional world with infinite depth and a continuous stream of colors.It can be called a world of chaos.

By dividing it and simplifying it, we can somehow understand a part of it. To understand is to separate.

The separated items are given names and classified.By doing so, we can finally maintain stability in our lives.

Since ancient times, people have continued to classify and name things. The evolution of civilization and the number of names for things are proportional.

Photographs helped us match objects and names accurately.Photography has replaced the three-dimensional world with a two-dimensional one.When we learned that we use the visual system objectively through cameras, we were reminded once again of the ambiguity of our innate sense of vision.

One photo is enough to convince people, rather than a thousand explanations. Ambiguity will be eliminated and a world where absolute 1=1 will appear.

Based on this, science advances dramatically.

Since then, it can be said that we have been capturing the world through photography.

It is easy to understand a world where movement has stopped.This is because it is easier to separate the objects one by one.Even when drawing a picture, it is easier to look at a photo and copy it than to draw while looking at the actual scenery.

Many painters such as Velázquez and Vermeer were able to capture the objective world in two dimensions through a dark box. They used the image that appeared through the pinhole as a model of reality.

Just as a photograph accurately depicts the world, the language supported by the photograph also accurately depicts reality as an icon.Now that anyone can easily take photographs, the world seems to be covered by a language that has become a logical form.

But there are things that cannot be expressed. It is something mysterious that emanates from statues and images. It is something that cannot be captured in an image and therefore cannot be expressed in words.

We may suddenly come across a startling scene, leaving us breathless and speechless.At that moment, we feel as if the world has appeared for the first time, and we feel a sense of wonder and mystery.

Classical paintings up until the Renaissance period have many meanings hidden beneath their outstanding descriptive power and beauty. The big challenge for painters at that time was not to realistically depict the world as it appeared, but to depict existence that could not be visualized or put into words.

For example, how they tried to portray the figure of Christ as completely human and completely divine at the same time.

Suppose there is a carnation drawn in the picture. Carnations smell like cloves, and cloves look like nails. Because Christ was nailed to the cross, carnations become a symbol of God's love and Christ's passion.

We may laugh at it as old superstition or ignorance.

This is because we modern people live in a world where images and words have an unwavering ``one-to-one correspondence.''At least they lived in a world where they could open up their five senses and let their imaginations fly freely.

2020年7月11日 ·

“The Madonna of the Carnation”, Leonardo da Vinci

私たちを取り巻く世界は無限の情報量を含んでいる。

しかしそれを全て理解することは私たちの認識能力の限界を超えている。

それは無限の奥行きと、絶え間なく色面が続く三次元の世界のようなものだ。

カオスの世界と言ってよい。

それを分断し単純にしていくことで、なんとか私たちはその一部分を理解することが出来る。分かるとは分けることだろう。

分けられたモノには名前が付けられ、分類されていく。

そうすることでやっと私たちは生活に安定が保てる。

古来から、モノを分類して名前を付ける作業を延々と続けてきた。文明の進化とモノの名前の数は比例する。

私達がモノと名前を正確に一致させるのに一役買ったのが写真である。

写真は三次元の世界を二次元に置き換えてくれた。