Text as shape, text as meaning

Text as Shape, Text as Meaning:Papyrology and Dotremont’s « Logogrammes »

Ségolène M. Tarte

E-Research Centre, University of Oxford

Making Traces SymposiumUniv of Southern Denmark, Odense19th November 2014

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Making Traces Symposium19th November 2014, Odense, DKS. Tarte – Text as Shape, Text as Meaning: Papyrology and Dotremont’s «Logogrammes»

Dotremont’s « Logogrammes »

In Dotremont’s (1923-1979) own words, they are “off-the-cuff” manuscripts, characterized by an extreme spontaneity, without any concern for ordinary proportions and regularity and thus for legibility. The idea is to establish a play as reciprocal as possible between poetic (prosaic, verbal) imagination, and graphic (material)imagination

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What do papyrologists* do? *[resp. epigraphers, assyriologists, palaeographers]

• Papyrology is about producing a transcription and an interpretation of a textual artefact

[Youtie:1963,1966] [Terras:2006]

• Requires expertise in:– Ancient language(s)

• Latin, Greek, Coptic– Palaeography

• Letter shapes and their evolution through time

– Linguistics• Occurrences of words, letters,

typical formulae• Lexical fields, grammar

– Ancient History and Archaeology• Context of the artefact

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Tracing the text to make sense of it

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Interpretation - reinterpretation

Commonality (strict overlap) between the 1917 and 2009 tracings of the front of the tablet. It consists in 45.3% of the 1917 tracing, and in 60.6% of the 2009 tracing.

Tracings of the text on the front of the tablet; in blue, the 1917 tracing; in black, the 2009 tracing.

[Vollgraff 1917; Bowman et al. 2009]

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Levenshtein distance between the two transcripts: 103 (strings of length respectively 200 and 163, including spaces).

Proportion of characters in common (excluding spaces) consists in 43.6% of the characters in the 1917 reading and in 55.5% of the characters in the 2009 reading.

Interpretation - reinterpretation

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When shape and meaning seem to disagree

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?

*D QUEM

*CTUM

QU*DR*TUS

What is this character

“Clues” (images) and “filled in boxes” Hypothesis

Vowel After QUE • Vowel

• Read so in 1917

A • Vowel• Makes a known name

Supporting evidence

L Read so in 1917

A Occurs in legal documents

A Occurs in legal documents

L Read so in 1917

(although somewhat atypical, the palaeography is that of a 1st century script)

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“Reading” a «Logogramme» vs “reading” a textual artefact

«Logogramme»

• distortions of letter shapes due to artistic practice (what are the constraints, if any?)

• there is a given “solution” to the puzzle [although this can be discussed – improvisation, so recollection of the improvised segments might not be perfect!]

• poetry

Ancient textual artefact

• distortions of letter shapes imposed by evolution through time, repeated practice, changes of materials (support, inscribing tool, etc)

• there is no given “solution” to the puzzle

• Documentary of literary texts in nature

Differences

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“Reading” a «Logogramme» vs “reading” a textual artefact

Similarities• recognition of traces as writing

– Orderliness (sequence/linearity)– Visible flow

• letter shapes exhibit variations away from their ideation• dissociation of shape from sound and from meaning

– prompts an effort to consciously operate a re-association, find the correspondences

– draws attention to the materiality of the shapes [morphology]– draws attention to the internal dynamics of the traces [ductus]

• trigger puzzle solving approach– search for the most recognisable shapes that form a known word– intuitive strategy = tracing [intimated by the materiality - interesting link with

how the digital also draws attention to materiality via embodiment]

Michaux

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Tracing/Drawing texts (kinaesthetic approach)

• Drawing as a way of knowing

• Trace making as a sense-making strategy

• Kinaesthetic facilitation used as treatment for patients with pure alexia (aka word-blindness)– Valid for alphabetic,

syllabic, and logographic scripts

• Perceiving dynamics

Motor process

Familiarity as a prerequisite?[Dejerine, 1892] [Seki et al., 1995]

[Taylor et al., 2012]

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What happens for unknown scripts?

• Experiment with pseudo-letters– Viewing and recognition

activates pre-motor cortex area when the learning of the letters was made by tracing their shapes (or by typing them)

• Assyriologists use the drawing approach too

Louvre, Sb 15081; Source: http://cdli.ucla.edu/ [James & Atwood, 2009]

2- Perceptual processes in Cognition

[Longcamp et al, 2008]

http://cdli.ucla.edu/

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Texts as word puzzles (cruciverbalistic approach)

• As in crosswords, experts use:– Clues from already

deciphered words/letters– The main visual clue,

provided by the textual artefact

• Cognition and crosswords:– Word retrieval from semantic

memory is the most facilitated when a syllabic unit is available

– Word superiority effect– Connectionist model of

cognition

Aural process and semantic memory

Familiarity as a prerequisite[McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981]

[Goldblum & Frost, 1988]

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The Artemidorus papyrus

• Intriguing document– Greek text, sketches and drawings, map– Date: 1st cent BC [or 19th cent forgery according to some?]– Nature: treatise of geography?, collection of texts and

miscellaneous excerpts, “édition de luxe” (possibly illustrated)?, sketch book?

– Made of 4 segments

[Gallazzi & Kramer, 1998]

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The Artemidorus papyrus

Virtual access to the papyrus only– IR images – Mirror-images through traces of ink transfers

• Virtually evaluate how the papyrus was rolled• Virtually compute its length• Virtually reposition the fragments

– Re-materialization of some aspects of the papyrus

[Tarte, 2012][D’Alessio, 2012]

[Latour & Lowe, 2011]

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Mirror effect

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P. Artemid.: revised ordering of the fragments

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Materiality and digital avatars of artefacts

ΚροκóτταςAn Indian wild beast, hybrid between wolf and dog – possibly a hyena

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Making sense of traces through making traces

• Embodied strategies are often intuitively mobilised:– Tracing– Sounding

• Making traces allows:– To (re)connect shape, sound, and meaning– To access their “in-between” nature– To engage with the materiality of the trace-bearing artefact

(whether re-mediated or not)

• By explicitly encouraging those embodied strategies, scholars are better able to make explicit and teach some of the epistemological foundations of their praxis

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Acknowledgements

Christian Dotremont “En écriture dans le texte”Logbook 1974

Prof. A. Bowman, Dr R. Tomlin, Dr C. Crowther (Classics, Oxford)Prof. Sir M. Brady (Engineering, Oxford), Prof M. Terras (Information Studies, UCL), Dr J. Dahl (Oriental Studies, Oxford), Prof G. D’Alessio (Classics, KCL)Dr J. Elsner (Classics & History of Art, Oxford)Prof. D. De Roure (e-Research Centre, Oxford)

AHRC funding [early-career fellowship]

Thank You

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Text as shape, text as meaning

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