“Open Work” Notes

Typed up from my notebook.

Umberto Eco – philosopher and semiotician. Italian, b. 1932.

“Encyclopaedia” – the transfer of meaning through signs.

Eco sees art as a performance because each reader finds a new interpretation.

Information theory. The amount of information contained in a message depends on the probability of the reader’s already knowing the content of the message before it is received.

Contemporary art dismisses semantic convention, less predictable, therefore contains more information. Not necessarily more meaning.

Conventional signs carry more distinct meanings, e.g. a stop sign.

Info also changes depending on the probability of the source, e.g. an xmas card from family vs an xmas card from the secret police.

The amount of information contained in a message depends on where it originates and on its probability.

Is the work legible – how do we stop it descending into a chaotic visual noise or a complete communicative silence?

Anything can become an artefact once it has been framed.

Underlying intention distinguishes art from randomness.

Open work in the visual arts is a guarantee of communication with added pleasure.

Openness is pleasure. World of possibilities.