“Open Work” Notes

Taken at the Library on Wed November 9

A summary of “Open Work”

Crow, David. “Open Work.” Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts, 3rd edition. London/New York: Bloomsbury, 2016. 165–187. Print. 

Crow describes and expands on the ideas presented by Umberto Eco in “The Open Work”, first published in 1962. Eco is a significant scholar in the field of semiotics, placing – quote – “…particular emphasis on the role of the reader as an important part of the creative process.” (Crow, 168)

Eco talks about the relationship between author and reader, where a reader uses their past experience to find meaning in a piece of work. Eco uses the term “encyclopaedia” to suggest the numerous readings that can be taken from one sign, that must be navigated through to find meaning.

“Openness” of work is considered in terms of how much information it has, and Eco used Information Theory to illustrate this. The theory states that – quote – “The amount of information contained in a message depends on where it originates and its probability.” (171)

The text considers open work in the context of the visual arts. He places a focus on abstract and expressionist art, with gestural marks that leave open many possibilities of interpretation by the reader. (172)

Crow discusses the concept of underlying intention being the discerning factor between what is ‘art’ and what is mere randomness. He highlights framing as an example of intention – that is, that any “piece of discarded material can become an artefact once it has been framed.” (177)

Crow finally discusses the pleasure implicit for a reader in decoding and assessing open work. He concludes that “openness is pleasure” (178), as the reader engages in a “game of pleasure and surprise, trying to interpret the intentions of the author as they do so.” (178)

(Dee, xii) “In a Mallarme sonnet or a Kandinsky canvas, the substance of words and of colours and forms itself becomes the starting point for constructing new imaginary spaces.”

Reynolds, Dee. Symbolist aesthetics and early abstract art. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. Print.

“Imagination, as I propose to use the term, involves experiencing according to a sensory mode of apprehension, but in a way which surpasses empirical knowledge.”

“…the transformation of the medium itself through the imagination of the receiver.” (4)

[taking a look at different way closed works can give pleasure, find a comic book or something]

“Their [the pioneers of abstract art] goal, which is characteristic of early Modernism, is to elevate the function of the medium itself to a means of transcending the immediately visible, not through subject matter (as in the case of religious iconography, for instance, but by challenging the limits of logic and of experience through new forms of signifying.” (5)