![[monologue]](http://blog.graydesign.com/wp-content/themes/franklloydwright/images/header_title.gif){kind=small}
a brief update
Things have been quite busy this quarter thus far, and I’m finally able to come up for a bit of a breather. I had a major test in Mesoamerican and a paper due in Semiotics this week, so I’m finally able to post a bit of work from the topics I’ve been studying. In the context of Mesoamerican art, I am working on a paper exploring a the concepts of power and religious authority within the scope of a minor Maya site in the Yucatan called Río Bec. I wrote a five page introductory paper using a material culture method of exploration (the [Jules] Prown material culture method). The resulting pre-paper allows exploration into the object itself, and associated cultural connotations without significant research. I have since developed an extensive bibliography, and am now working on a final fifteen-page version due later this quarter.
In the realm of semiotics, lecture has been fascinating, and the paper that I recently completed ties many of the concepts we have discussed into an analytic framework that allows a semiotic analysis of a specific object or movement. I have chosen to work within the graphic design and traditional art movement of the De Stijl in the Netherlands (1917-1928), analyzing the sign functioning of complex gestalts and anti-naturalist features within the style. Further, I briefly explored the movement from introduced complex gestalts to the eventual recognition or comprehension of these complex gestalts as simple, or natural gestalts. This transformation of sign denotatum in the universal context allowed the perpetuation of universal signs, primary as logos and graphic symbols, later in the twentieth century. I’ll be writing a revision and expansion of this paper later in the quarter, hopefully using a more significant portion of my extensive bibliography in my citations.
Political and Religious Symbology at Río Bec B: Power as Symbol in Temple A
Things have been quite busy this quarter thus far, and I’m finally able to come up for a bit of a breather. I had a major test in Mesoamerican and a paper due in Semiotics this week, so I’m finally able to post a bit of work from the topics I’ve been studying. In the context of Mesoamerican art, I am working on a paper exploring a the concepts of power and religious authority within the scope of a minor Maya site in the Yucatan called Río Bec. I wrote a five page introductory paper using a material culture method of exploration (the [Jules] Prown material culture method). The resulting pre-paper allows exploration into the object itself, and associated cultural connotations without significant research. I have since developed an extensive bibliography, and am now working on a final fifteen-page version due later this quarter.
In the realm of semiotics, lecture has been fascinating, and the paper that I recently completed ties many of the concepts we have discussed into an analytic framework that allows a semiotic analysis of a specific object or movement. I have chosen to work within the graphic design and traditional art movement of the De Stijl in the Netherlands (1917-1928), analyzing the sign functioning of complex gestalts and anti-naturalist features within the style. Further, I briefly explored the movement from introduced complex gestalts to the eventual recognition or comprehension of these complex gestalts as simple, or natural gestalts. This transformation of sign denotatum in the universal context allowed the perpetuation of universal signs, primary as logos and graphic symbols, later in the twentieth century. I’ll be writing a revision and expansion of this paper later in the quarter, hopefully using a more significant portion of my extensive bibliography in my citations.
Political and Religious Symbology at Río Bec B: Power as Symbol in Temple A