DOI: 10.24308/iass-2014-123

Pedro Henrique Cremonez Rosa

Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil

pedrocremonez@gmail.com

Dirce Vasconcellos Lopes

Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Brazil

dircevl@sercomtel.com.br

Abstract

The city, in its multifaceted urban space, is the outcome of the relation between man and environment, with a materiality that has specific forms of signification. The worth currently attributed to the human-machine hybridization by reproducing images and visual expression of human feelings like amazement, appreciation of beauty, memory, leads postcards to translate their own constituents into new possibilities for reality and meaning, since the virtual allows so to happen. Finding evidence of this new role is the purpose of this study. The intended contribution is to generate perception of postcards as new medias in which the power of signification, the human sensations and the accessibility of men get right through the new technologies. Material consisting of printed postcards and virtual images collected from the social networks, is gathered and refer to a particular landscape, with time intervals of one decade starting in 1980. The use of Roland Barthes’s approach on connotation as an analytical tool is the procedure to appraise postcards as a source of meaning and signification.

Introduction

Viewing the city as a symbolic space implies a constitutive relation between urban space and language, a move towards the use of various relevant expressions that allow for a broader comprehension and interpretation of the urban space. In this context, language, as a code that deals with the understanding of the world, is the means by which the subject signifies, and thus becomes (re)signified. Among the many possible forms for this process to take place, postcards are instrumental for the human to perceive the world, by finding a privileged form to settle the representations in daily imaginary.

The language of the city is, therefore, in constant construction, (re) construction, alteration, for man acts incessantly in this urban phenomenon, meaning and (re) meaning the urban space, that from this process manifests itself symbolically. The presupposition in this analysis is that the space of the city does not have a representative neutrality, but it is a reflection of subjects and senses. The city is the result of the direct relationship between man and his environment. This relationship is built in and as language, which enables men (subject) mean and be (re) meaning, through the historically materiality constructed. Born of this correlation is the fundamental basis of the production of speech.

Postcards have a strong significant power, and for this reason, among the various ways of representing, put the city as a singular symbolic space, in which the subject develops ways to represent and signify, for himself, the urban environment which is part of or which continually comes into contact. Since the basis of language, meaning production takes shape not only in words but by images, feelings, sounds. This convergence of disclosures in the world can be taken as text, paintings, recordings, films, photographs and any manner which allows the man to express the result of her relationship with the world, in the representative sense of "being here" (Barthes, 1990). Historically attributed to reproduce urban and everyday scenes to fix the collective imagination, the card traps time to create eternal scenarios, a protected reality. (Collective imaginary here is to sense the collective way of representing the same object, regardless of inferences of a collective unconscious.)

In the perception of the image, the first level would be the composition of the denotative image, which is iconic and codifiable. The denoting images are relational character and are in the literal message, resulting in a radically objective, innocent meaning. Are literal assignments to registered scene, undressing the connotation of signs. (Barthes, 1990). The second level of significance would be the very rhetoric of the image, which is not coded. At this level, the signs are discontinuous, separated from each other, but comprise a single aesthetic significance from a cultural code. The connoted meaning has a bigger significant scope that denoted, and the connotation of semes are organized in a paradigmatic way. It is in the phrase denoting the message that there is the "naturalization" of the connoted message system.

The constitutive relation between subject-space-language is established so that language can be both reference, when considering the operation of the space, and the space in the understanding of the subject of the city. The subject, the language and the world are "evident", inseparably, causing the formation of speech, from the evidence, may not be in empty space, but in the material space. (Rodriguez-ALCARA, 2011). The purpose of this study is to identify this phenomenon within the vitality of a non-formal postcard image.

The Photography Worth

Postcards used to be linked to illustrative and photographic reproductions of touristic and historical spots, restricting them to a standstill time, resistant to changes and transformations. Such static time harnessed urban patrimony to eternal scenes of daily life. Postcards, therefore, have become symbolical references entered in medias that constitute the daily imaginary, now changed from printed media to digital, a symbiosis between traditional forms of communication and modern reproduction technology. The main example of this is Instagram, where virtual images taken by mobile devices function as postcards confining the urban space to some sort of perception awaiting for interpretation. This transformation generates changes in the actual sense of time and memory of the postcard, now being replaced by episodic, ephemeral and evanescent moments – that is why they become non-formal, as the ones usually found in newsstands.

The photograph, to capture the moment, imprisons, uniquely, what is seen daily, but will not be repeated existentially. (Barthes, 1984) Therefore, every language that constructive relationship (subject-space-language) is reproduced photographically in a deictic way, freezing the reality on the "here" and "now." (Ferrara, 1993, our transaltion) In this expression of "Look", "Here," the picture does not differ from the reference immediately, taking the value of the existing as time, but not as a thing, immortalizing here the what "was" to contrary to what "is". (Barthes, 1984)

In the notion of "it-was" (Barthes, 1984), photograph creates the eternity of the urban setting, this referent that never ceases to be what it was, that will not change and will not be lost and it is. The man with this power of attorney is now a “personalize your look the world expressing meaning and showing your way.” The world of these custom prints, photography allows for artistic display, a particular look. The producer of meaning (re) means what is seen in an attempt to surprise someone before something. "Given these predilections of landscapes, all spending like I'm sure there have been and should go there" (Barthes, 1984, p. 65)

The photography and the “to have been here!” as a representation of the world, for Barthes is a new category of space-time. He points out that there is an illogical conjunction between the here and the old. It is in the dimension of the denoted message or the message without code, that the photograph will allow this “to have been here” as a precious miracle, a reality of which we are protected. (Barthes, 1990, p. 45)

The image, being totally subjective to manifest (studium) is a way to identify the social space, limiting their reality to what is shown, then replacing the space itself. (Ferrara, 1993, our translation) Thus, there is only that which is observed through the image, within a possible field of reality, causing the "there" photographic to be greater, tangible and concrete in relation to physical existence. Thus, the image creates a qualitative resemblance to the physical object, in this case the urban space, existentially ordering the way of seeing the world, lasting and preventing the change of what "is."

In the case of the city, an image preserves its attractions as an object to be consumed. Union image, urban space and communication, Postcard is a simple replacement and practice of the letter. Its classic form, still found today, comes down to a paper rectangle, having on one side some sort of illustration and the other with spaces for destination address, stamp and posting personal message and does not require envelopes for circulation as a match.

Historically, postcards served as a simple and affective means of correspondence exchange with an elementary form of short message communication, and on its face contained a specific illustration, the ideal being that it was the very place. These illustrations were always linked to everyday scenes in public spaces, especially as sights, landmarks or monuments, invariably characterize the city in question (Eiffel Tower in Paris, Statue of Liberty in New York, a multitude of bridges, among other images). These illustrations had the indented historical time, perennial, resistant to change and transformations. This time motionless, always linked to urban scenes, tends to immortalize images of the city.

The postcards, and historical references of the media, are also constituents of the media popular imagination. They are not always well understood, because their current disuse is given by new technologies. Later, with the ease of technical reproduction, the post came to value the hybridization of man and machine, the mechanical reproduction of images and the intimate expression of feelings. There are scenes and conditions reflected in images that represent and promote symbolization able to allow (re) significance of urban space, and fulfill the same purpose previously assigned to the postcard in their tradition.

The pictures by digital equipment production resources promote the condition to perform such exchange of letters with images that represent the look of your producer. This condition provides customized directions to the environment. That is, each can print a face with the image you want to spread (very likely to be exactly the place in which it is the issuer) and even make it available for use by others. On the back, write messages like: - I'm on this scene - see that splendor! As a result, contributes to broader perspectives than those of traditional postcards.

The customization of messages then allows for the comparison of postcards with their own social media Instagram. On this platform, the images become personal productions messages that were conveyed by postcards. Facing a tourist spot, the individual has the opportunity to portray his moment of passage through the landscape, attribute intentionality to the picture and make the information available to others in the same way that the postcard was, although not involve personal and intentional character image. This reformulation of the postal understanding itself implements the concepts of temporal image portrayed as a souvenir trips. What once was a time-property and perennial, is now present and episodic.

Studium and Punctum

The postcard is no longer a physical being and becomes a form of poetic its function persists, but its form changes. We can think of it with the contributions of image analysis tools, in this case by applying the concepts of studium and punctum proposed by Barthes (1984), noting that both make up the duality that drives interest in the photo.

The first, (studium) is culturally perceived and generates an interpretation of the photo or in this case the postcard from the prior knowledge of the Spectator (Barthes, 1984), who has contact with the image on the world. For example, on a postcard image identifies the scene and its representation of the city. The second, in contrast, is thrown upon the spectator, so insistent. As writes Barthes (1984), "not me I'll pick you up (as I invest with my sovereign consciousness studium field), it is that part of the scene, like an arrow, and comes pierce me", generating almost endless identifying opportunities and (re) signification.

The studium generates a rational interest that predisposes the spectator to reflect and to an analysis, while the punctum creates an emotional state in the recipient as experience. For Barthes, the studium is always observable and the punctum may or may not be realized in a photographic image. Recognize the first is to find the intentions of the captured the moment. Identify the second is a unique experience that reaches the Spectator emotionally, singular, in which individual does not exist the possibility of a generality. Still, according to Barthes (1984), "to realize the punctum no analysis, therefore, I would be useful" and "Studium is, ultimately, always encoded, the punctum not ..."

These two categories are intertwined in the photographic image. The first element allows rational thinking, and analytical organizer. The second, oblivious to verbal and often overlooked by the difficulty of our minds deal with the unspeakable, enables the feeling. The perception that Barthes' punctum that shakes [...] a great grace, almost a tenderness (Barthes, 1984, p.71) reveals as possible seizure of the punctum, after identification by Studium there is a continuity between the express manifestation and the feeling internalized.

 The punctum, for example, is something potentially present in the picture, but that is variable according to previous experiences one who observes the image. A punctum by an observer may be different from each other in a same picture. As Barthes writes (1984, p.69), "[...] give examples of punctum is, in a sense, to give me".

Analysis of Postcards

Reflections are analyzed now two examples of postcards. Images can be printed or digital form but both are representative of urban space. A reflects a city of 460 years and approximately 12 million people (São Paulo). It is the largest city in Latin America, one of the world's largest. The image used is the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP), which in its architectural structure is unique and has a span of 74 meters that also turns into public leisure space.

The other image is the city Londrina, new (80 years) with approximately 700,000 inhabitants and is within the state of Paraná. For its link with agribusiness is a rich and promising city and also a major center of research, culture and education. The chosen card shows a historical aspect of it with a set of buildings (the first to be built) and Acoustic Shell, public space for concerts and exhibitions and other cultural events.

These references are essential so that we can identify the Studium the images proposals.

As referred to it earlier, the building of MASP is the financial and cultural center of Sao Paulo and is one of the most published images as postcard of the city and it reflects, to some extent explains the synthesis of these qualities: uniqueness, grandeur, privileged aesthetic. These characteristics that impact the look of the Spectator designate the studium.

This same spectator will be affected (punctum) by a sense that reflect their personal characteristics training and its connection with the depicted scene. This impact will be scaled by the feeling generated and the identification provided by the image, being personal, non-transferable and there, at a single time, at a specific time such that the moment the image was captured. It is striking that arrow wound, Barthes conceives.

To take the subjective character reflected by the punctum concept is to take the Barthes's teachings in order to allow us, as researchers, integrate and interact with the corpus selected for analysis, although a risk.

This second image reflects the scenario of another urban environment completely different from São Paulo. This includes traditional building (commerce center), a mixture of residential and commercial building in the city of Londrina. In the foreground we have the space Acoustic Shell, events held in the city environment. The sun reflection shows its privileged geographical location with good weather almost all year round. These are some of the descriptive elements corresponding to the notion of Studium, noting that the previous references designating the place are necessary for identification.

As for the punctum, knowing that the affective and emotional references of each spectator will be essential for the memories may materialize and indicate a close relationship with the meaning of the image.

This theme allows to still remembering the connection we have with the postcards. The request "send me a postcard" done before or as we say today, "put on the face or calls" the question remains this eternal form and imagery representation of the cities but also the (re) signified by them – the city and the image – generated.

The second image of Londrina, captured in Instagran reveals another symbolic aspect of it as the "Little London" has, in various public spaces replicas of famous London phone booths (it's supposed to be a pun same). The studium is revealed by the compositional characteristics of the image and reflects the city, very wooded and sunny. In the foreground we see the red cabin jumping while looking out the resemblance to the original. For a pioneer of colonization of the city (yes, many are still living) this aspect will certainly attain the affective memory and memories built along with the city. For the visitor who identifies the reference to the original, the landscape allows for comparison and perhaps curiosity motivates the search for more information. There are different faces of the punctum that is revealed.

Final remarks

Within the possibilities of representation, the postcard is always linked to urban space. This environment is a product and producer in its direct relationship with man. Urban space would then be the physical environment in which they permeate the relationship between man and the environment, linking the present and the past at the same time, creating a sense of historicity to the place.

The very visual of the city, created from a mosaic of representations, takes shape as a specific form of language. This language, which connects present and past, awakens the perception of man through sounds, traffic, the verticality of the buildings, the rush of passers-by, an atmosphere always capable of telling something else, a topic inviting for permanent deciphering of meanings, when placed in a photograph. So postcards have their perennial role enhanced, although constantly changing in format.

Referências

BARTHES, Roland. Câmara Clara: nota sobre a fotografia. Rio de Janeiro Nova Fronteira, 1984.

BARTHES, Roland. O óbvio e o obtuso: ensaios críticos III. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira, 1990.

FERRARA, Lucrecia D’Alessio. Olhar periférico: informação, linguagem, percepção ambiental. São Paulo: Edusp, 1993.

RODRIGUEZ-ALCARÁ, Carolina. Discurso e Cidade: A Linguagem e a construção da “evidência do mundo”, In: BRANCO, Luiza Kátia Andrade Castello; Rodrigues, Eduardo Alves; SANTOS, Gabriel Leopoldino dos (orgs.) Análise do Discurso no Brasil: Pensando o impensado sempre, uma homenagem a Eni Orlandi. Campinas: Editora RG, 2011.