Image of Jesus in My Maple Tree and Iconic Realism

I took this photo this past Thursday. 

If you look at the very bottom center, you will also see a natural, etched cross. 

Each morning, as I sip my cup of coffee and look out my living room window, I am blessed with this image of Jesus, pointing upward, divinely etched in the trunk of a maple tree. Sometimes, He is more difficult to see at first, but His appearance always comes through eventually. Isn't that just like Him, though? Whenever we struggle through life, we don't always feel the presence of our Lord until we step back, ponder, and realize that He has been with us all along, guiding, sharing, and comforting. 

How does this reveal the semiotic theory of iconic realism? 

1. We have an iconic, etched image of Jesus, the Christ.

2. His image has been etched by God (or Nature if you like) on the trunk of a maple tree, not the usual placement of such an image. 

3. He is present there to remind my family, friends, and me that He is always with us, even when our troubled, bewildered minds fail to recognize His beloved, peaceful presence. 

"Don't Stop Believing" and Iconic Realism

Photo of a lake in New England

Any song that speaks of south Detroit draws my attention, and the classic song, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey is no exception. How does this song demonstrate the semiotic theory of iconic realism? 

1.  The song reveals iconic images of the human struggle with emotions.

2.  They are juxtaposed with light and enlightenment.

3. This placement brings the audience of this song in tune with the perpetual dilemma of humanity's search for meaning. "It goes on and on and on and on."

Don't Stop Believing

by Journey

Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit

He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

A singer in a smokey room

A smell of wine and cheap perfume

For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on

Chorus:

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching in the night

Streetlights people, living just to find emotion

Hiding, somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill,

Everybody wants a thrill

Payin' anything to roll the dice,

just one more time

Some will win, some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

(chorus)

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to the feelin'

Streetlight people

Dante Alighieri's "Paradiso" and Iconic Realism

Photo from Google Images

http://kidslink.bo.cnr.it/ic6-bo/scuolainospedale/num6-2/divcom/Image8.jpg

Dante Alighieri's final book of The Divine Comedy is Paradiso. In this book, he demonstrates the theory of iconic realism in this way:  

1.  He aligns the spirit of the beloved Beatrice with the true wisdom of God.

2.  He simultaneously illustrates the need for humanity to acknowledge the glorious virtues found within the parameters of human interaction. 

3.  He illustrates that by the human being choosing right action, he could experience a form of Paradiso.

In CANTO IV, lines 28-39: The souls exist as projections of their truest light, the light that shines directly from God, which is their 'true home' whereas in lines 72-81, what the Pilgrim cannot learn directly must be taught him through a suffering analogy involving the senses, human physiological experience. This contradicts the earlier lines that indicate truth as intangible and experienced only through one's own enlightenment from God. 

The human's personal will can enjoy freedom to move of his own accord; he can act in response to the intensity of individual motivation. When perfect, Divine balance exists between two motives, and the will could feel deprived of its power to move. It could thus become paralyzed. A paradox that remains is humanity needs to interact with others; however, some may resist the positive risk of relying on God to help us take the right and effective action. The result could be either apathy or right action. We must decide. Paradise could exist anywhere, even on a mountaintop. 

CANTO IV

Lines 28-39:

Choose the most God-like of the Seraphim---     

    take Moses, or Samuel, or take either John, 

    or even Mary--- not one is nearer Him,                 30

nor holds his seat atop the blessed spheres

    in any heaven apart from those you saw; 

    nor has his being more or fewer years.

All add their beauty to the Highest Wheat, 

    share the sweet life, and vary n it only                   35

    by how much of the Eternal Breath they feel.

They showed themselves here not because this post

    has been assigned them, but to symbolize

    that they stand lowest in the Heavenly host.

Lines 72-81: 

" --If violence, to begin,

     occurs when those who suffer its abuse

     contribute nothing to what forces them, 

     then these should have no claim to that excuse.   75

For the will, if it will not, cannot be spent,

     but does as nature does within a flame

     a thousand or ten thousand winds have bent.       

If it yields of itself, even in the least, 

     Then it assists the violence -- as did these            80

     who could have gone back to their holy feast. 

from: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Translated by John Ciardi 

New American Library, 2003

Celt and Magyar and Iconic Realism: Part Three (Jewelry and Weaponry)

An audience interprets visual and tactile arts by incorporating the artistic components of color, form, line and texture. Each of these elements could be an iconic representation in that a community establishes a specific association with the art component. Over time, this component represents an aspect of the culture, which establishes the association. An iconic figure originally part of the mindset of a community can be placed in a new reality that the community does not accept as the normal setting for this iconic figure. This placement brings awareness to the community’s consciousness of an aspect within its culture that may need some attention. 

For instance, recent evidence has been unearthed which contains common signs and symbols in the weaponry and jewelry found in archaeological sites from both the Celtic and the Magyar regions of ancient Europe. The visual arrangements of these commonplace associations within the framework of jewelry and weaponry comprise iconic figures within a new reality, thus creating an example of iconic realism.

Below, you will see images of a few archaeological finds from these regions that contain similar artistic configurations. (See images below.) 

Jewelry and Weaponry found at the Celtic Cemetery at Ménfőcsanak, Hungary

For more information, see the article below:

https://akjournals.com/view/journals/072/71/2/article-p443.xml

To wrap up this three-part series, through the use of the semiotic theory of iconic realism, artists shape the consciousness of various aspects of culture, including education, history, business, and aesthetics whereby their works of art combine an iconic figure with a realistic setting that communicates an incompatibility with the accepted environment in which the audience commonly associates the iconic figure. Understanding the language presented through the art form, be it literary, visual or aural, the audience may even respond with an emotional resistance, as it perceives the iconic representation in this new realistic setting. Once this resistance occurs, the opportunity exists for the audience to consider a change of thought that may need to take place.

 

Celt and Magyar Connection and Iconic Realism: Part Two (Music)

       

                                        Celtic Uillean Pipes                                               Hungarian Duda
                                                                      (Both photos from 'Duck Duck Go' images)

A piece of music can contain iconic structures within the two variables of musical arrangement, dynamics and instrumentation. A melody contains structure in the form of rhythm, meter and pitch, arranged in various degrees of intensity.  Often, a particular arrangement will reflect the culture of a community, for example, an Irish jig or a Hungarian czardas. Eventually, this becomes an iconic structure, representing the entire culture. When one hears an Irish jig or Hungarian czardas, usually an image of the corresponding culture comes to mind, making this musical piece iconic. Both the czardas and the jig are forms of folk dances. Personally, I learned how to do the czardas as a child, attending many a wedding celebration. 

The Hungarian pitches and frequencies follow the same structure as the songs associated with the Celtic musical experience, which later had become the Hungarian czardas and Irish jig. Another common musical link between the Irish and the Hungarian is the bagpipe. In Hungary, it’s called the duda, the bag is made from goat’s skin and the instrument usually has a carved goat’s head as the chanter; in Ireland, it is the Uilleann pipes. According to historian, Winnie Czulinski: 

The Hungarian bagpipe…was rescued from near distinction by classical composers Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók. Look for bagpipes, too, in just about any of the other lands the ancient Celts deflowered and defamed, from Poland to Macedonia to Sicily. The most multicultural pipes of all may be the Eryri pipes, made by Goat Industries in North Wales, that manage to combine Scottish, Irish, Hungarian and Bulgarian ideas.[1]

                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq3m_R3Lnu4 

                            (Irish Uilleann pipes) 

                            https://youtu.be/PITLPH-Yq3E?feature=shared 

                            (Hungarian duda)

The realism aspect of this example rests in the physical nature of the sound production. The sound waves of the bagpipe produce high frequencies similar to those interpreted by the human ear to emanate the human voice, singing in a specific tone. Not only do these sound waves vibrate at the same or similar frequency, but also the audience often associates the timbre of the sound source in the bagpipe with that of a strong, human voice; whereas sound waves associated with the flute symbolize either a frail human or a bird and provides the semiotic structures for realistic interpretation. 

Composers arrange musical configurations and assign instruments containing the pitch and timbre that the audience will associate with specific elements of its culture. In this way, the audience forms the association of sound to memory and interpretation ensues. This not only occurs with instrumentation, but appears in the retelling of oral stories passed down through generations of all cultures.

Therefore, to illustrate iconic realism within the musical compositions of Irish and Hungarian folksongs, we hear the same pentatonic scales, situated in similar formats, with similar meanings, yet from two cultures that many would not associate as having these elements in common.

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[1] Czulinski, Winnie. Drone On! The High History of Celtic Music. Sound and Vision, 2004.