John Lee
Dept. of Architecture and Human Communication Research Centre
University of Edinburgh
Scotland, UK
J.Lee@ed.ac.uk
I have been involved for a long time in work on trying to understand the nature of graphics as a communication system and medium for supporting activities such as design and reasoning. This has included attempts to formalise fragments of graphics and give them a clear semantics, and to build computer-based tools for analysing or performing graphical reasoning (cf. Wang and Lee, 1994; Wang et al 1995).
More recently, I recognised that a somewhat similar enterprise has been going on in aesthetics. The pages of e.g. the British Journal of Aesthetics are often host to discussions of closely related issues.
Attempting to bring these two perspectives together, I was drawn to the seminal work of the late Nelson Goodman (1969). His notion of a symbol system, quite different from e.g. that of Peirce, seemed well positioned for an approach from both directions. A number of his concepts, especially that of "exemplification", turned out to be very useful. A feature of Goodman's discussions, however, is a very strong emphasis on syntax, which I propose (Lee 1998) should be tempered by a fuller realisation of the central role of semantics in determining the nature of a symbol system.
In graphics, perhaps even more clearly than in language, it is evident that semantics is best seen as emerging from the use of the medium in particular ways in particular contexts. An ongoing study of graphics in communication (Lee 2002) reveals that some kind of dialogical framework involving a feedback loop is crucial to this emergence. It seems fair to conjecture that what happens on a small scale in dialogues and group usage is implicated, if not mirrored, at the larger scale where e.g. aesthetic judgements emerge as culturally conditioned responses.
Working with colleagues to develop a framework in cognitive theory within which to address these issues, I am keen to develop discussion on the possible application of computational concepts in this area.
Goodman, N (1969) Languages of Art, Oxford university Press.
Lee, J (1999) Words and pictures -- Goodman revisited. In Paton, R. and Neilson, I, eds, Visual Representations and Interpretations, pp. 21-31.
London: Springer-Verlag.
Lee, J (2002) Modes of representation in graphical communication. To be presented at Visual Representations and Interpretations 2002, Liverpool.
Wang, D and Lee, J (1993) Visual reasoning: its formal semantics and applications. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 4, pp. 327-356.
Wang, D, Lee, J and Zeevat, H (1995) Reasoning with diagrammatic representations. In J. Glasgow, N. H. Narayanan & B. Chandrasekaran, eds, Diagrammatic Reasoning: Cognitive and Computational Perspectives, pp.
339-393. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.