"This Baffling Department of Human Activity": Exploring the Dimensions of Artistic Expression
General semantics scholars often focus their attention specifically on language and the particular ways in which humans use language to represent and reflect on experience. However, language is by no means the only symbolic form available to us, nor is it necessarily the best form for all purposes. As Susanne Langer tells us in Philosophy in a New Key, “Language is a special mode of expression, and not every sort of semantic can be brought under this rubric” (p. 94). For example, Langer argues that language (when used in its discursive/propositional form) "is a very poor medium for expressing our emotional nature. It…fails miserably in any attempt to convey the ever-moving patterns, the ambivalences and intricacies of inner experience, the interplay of feelings with thoughts and impressions, memories and echoes of memories, nameless, emotional stuff” (pp. 100-101).
Luckily, language is only one of a dazzling array of symbolic forms with which we express ourselves. Music, dance, poetry, painting, sculpture, theater, and other forms of creative expression tap into different dimensions of thought and feeling. Artists are aware of the particular strengths of their art forms, and the qualities of these forms that defy translation from one to another. Those who work in multiple forms are particularly thoughtful about the way in which something can be exquisitely conveyed by one type of artistic expression, but might be inexpressible in another.
This event will explore the artistic experience–in Langer’s words, “this baffling department of human activity” (p. 207)--through a panel discussion featuring artists and scholars representing many dimensions of creative expression. What do artists have to say about the symbolic forms in which they work? How do artists who work in multiple forms decide which one best suits a particular creative idea or impulse?
Panelists
Peggy Cassidy, Ph.D. is President of the New York Society for General Semantics and a professor at Adelphi University. She is editor of Explorations in Media Ecology and a past president of the Media Ecology Association and the New York State Communication Association. She also has extensive dance training and performance experience.
Harley Erdman, Ph.D. is a playwright, translator and theater scholar, who is a professor of Theater at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has written librettos for the operas The Scarlet Professor (2017) and The Garden of Martyrs (2013), both with composer Eric Sawyer.He is the author or editor of six books; his Women Playwrights of Early Modern Spain (2016) won the Josephine Roberts Award for best scholarly edition in the field of early modern women and gender.
Michelle Shocked is a singer-wrongrighter and member of the Board of Directors of the New York Society for General Semantics. She received two Grammy nominations, in 1988 and 1992, for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and her song “Quality of Mercy” was featured in the companion soundtrack for the film Dead Man Walking. She is a fierce artists' rights champion, for which the Media Ecology Association awarded her the Jacques Ellul Award for Outstanding Media Ecology Activism.
Lance Strate, Ph.D. is Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, President of the Institute of General Semantics, and one of the founders of the Media Ecology Association. He is the author of ten books, including Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition and Concerning Communication: Epic Quests and Lyrical Excursions Within the Human Lifeworld. He has published three books of poetry, the most recent being First Letter of My Alphabet.
Paul Thaler, Ph.D. is a professor at Adelphi University and the author of The Spectacle: Media and the Making of the OJ Simpson Story. Recently, he has delved into fiction; his latest book, The Maddening, centers around a serial killer who fashions his murderous identity after the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Paul acknowledges that he cannot account for why he has moved from his scholarly pursuits to his imaginings about a psychotic killer.
This event will take place from 6 PM to 9 PM Wednesday, December 11 at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park.
Registration is free, but all attendees must be registered in order to gain admittance to the club. This includes any guests you might want to bring with you.
The program will take place in the Library on the 2nd floor of the club. Please note that, as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, or t-shirts.
