Text as shape, text as meaning

Text as Shape, Text as Meaning:
Papyrology and Dotremont’s « Logogrammes »
Ségolène M. Tarte
E-Research Centre, University of Oxford
Making Traces Symposium
Univ of Southern Denmark, Odense
19th November 2014

19th November 2014, Odense, DK
S. Tarte  Text as Shape, Text as Meaning:
Dotremont’s « Logogrammes »
In Dotremont’s (1923-
1979) own words,
they are “off-the-cuff”
manuscripts,
characterized by an
extreme spontaneity,
without any concern
for ordinary
proportions and
regularity and thus for
legibility. The idea is
to establish a play as
reciprocal as possible
between poetic
(prosaic, verbal)
imagination, and
graphic
(material)imagination

What do papyrologists* do?
*[resp. epigraphers, assyriologists, palaeographers]
• Papyrology is about producing a transcription and an
interpretation of a textual artefact
[Youtie:1963,1966] [Terras:2006]
• Requires expertise in:
– Ancient language(s)
• Latin, Greek, Coptic
– Palaeography
• Letter shapes and their
evolution through time
– Linguistics
• Occurrences of words, letters,
typical formulae
• Lexical fields, grammar
– Ancient History and Archaeology
• Context of the artefact

Tracing the text to make sense of it

5
Interpretation - reinterpretation
Commonality (strict overlap) between
the 1917 and 2009 tracings of the front
of the tablet. It consists in 45.3% of the
1917 tracing, and in 60.6% of the
2009 tracing.
Tracings of the text on the front of the
tablet; in blue, the 1917 tracing; in
black, the 2009 tracing.
[Vollgraff 1917; Bowman et al. 2009]

6
Levenshtein distance between the two transcripts: 103 (strings of length
respectively 200 and 163, including spaces).
Proportion of characters in common (excluding spaces) consists in 43.6%
of the characters in the 1917 reading and in 55.5% of the characters in
the 2009 reading.
Interpretation - reinterpretation

When shape and meaning seem to disagree
7
?
*D QUEM
*CTUM
QU*DR*TUS
What is this character
“Clues” (images) and “filled in boxes” Hypothesis
Vowel After QU
E • Vowel
• Read so in 1917
A • Vowel
• Makes a known name
Supporting evidence
L Read so in 1917
A Occurs in legal
documents
A Occurs in legal
documents
L Read so in 1917
(although somewhat atypical, the palaeography
is that of a 1st century script)

“Reading” a «Logogramme» vs “reading” a textual artefact
«Logogramme»
• distortions of letter shapes due
to artistic practice (what
are the constraints, if any?)
• there is a given “solution” to
the puzzle [although this can
be discussed – improvisation,
so recollection of the
improvised segments might
not be perfect!]
• poetry
Ancient textual artefact
• distortions of letter shapes
imposed by evolution through
time, repeated practice,
changes of materials (support,
inscribing tool, etc)
• there is no given “solution” to
the puzzle
• Documentary of literary texts in
nature
Differences

“Reading” a «Logogramme» vs “reading” a textual artefact
Similarities
• recognition of traces as writing
– Orderliness (sequence/linearity)
– Visible flow
• letter shapes exhibit variations away from their ideation
• dissociation of shape from sound and from meaning
– prompts an effort to consciously operate a re-association, find the
correspondences
– draws attention to the materiality of the shapes [morphology]
– draws attention to the internal dynamics of the traces [ductus]
• trigger puzzle solving approach
– search for the most recognisable shapes that form a known word
– intuitive strategy = tracing [intimated by the materiality - interesting link with
how the digital also draws attention to materiality via embodiment]
Michaux

Tracing/Drawing texts (kinaesthetic approach)
• Drawing as a way of
knowing
• Trace making as a
sense-making strategy
• Kinaesthetic facilitation
used as treatment for
patients with pure
alexia (aka word-
blindness)
– Valid for alphabetic,
syllabic, and logographic
scripts
• Perceiving dynamics
Motor process
Familiarity as a prerequisite?[Dejerine, 1892]
[Seki et al., 1995]
[Taylor et al., 2012]

What happens for unknown scripts?
• Experiment with
pseudo-letters
– Viewing and recognition
activates pre-motor
cortex area when the
learning of the letters
was made by tracing
their shapes (or by typing
them)
• Assyriologists use the
drawing approach too
Louvre, Sb 15081; Source: http://cdli.ucla.edu/[James & Atwood, 2009]
2- Perceptual processes in Cognition
[Longcamp et al, 2008]

Texts as word puzzles (cruciverbalistic approach)
• As in crosswords,
experts use:
– Clues from already
deciphered words/letters
– The main visual clue,
provided by the textual
artefact
• Cognition and crosswords:
– Word retrieval from semantic
memory is the most facilitated
when a syllabic unit is
available
– Word superiority effect
– Connectionist model of
cognition
Aural process and semantic
memory
Familiarity as a prerequisite
[McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981]
[Goldblum & Frost, 1988]

The Artemidorus papyrus
• Intriguing document
– Greek text, sketches and drawings, map
– Date: 1st cent BC [or 19th cent forgery according to some?]
– Nature: treatise of geography?, collection of texts and
miscellaneous excerpts, “édition de luxe” (possibly
illustrated)?, sketch book?
– Made of 4 segments
[Gallazzi & Kramer, 1998]

The Artemidorus papyrus
Virtual access to the papyrus only
– IR images
– Mirror-images through traces of ink transfers
• Virtually evaluate how the papyrus was rolled
• Virtually compute its length
• Virtually reposition the fragments
– Re-materialization of some aspects of the papyrus
[Tarte, 2012]
[D’Alessio, 2012]
[Latour & Lowe, 2011]

Mirror effect

P. Artemid.: revised ordering of the fragments

Materiality and digital avatars of artefacts
Κροκóττας
An Indian wild beast, hybrid between
wolf and dog – possibly a hyena

Making sense of traces through making traces
• Embodied strategies are often intuitively mobilised:
– Tracing
– Sounding
• Making traces allows:
– To (re)connect shape, sound, and meaning
– To access their “in-between” nature
– To engage with the materiality of the trace-bearing artefact
(whether re-mediated or not)
• By explicitly encouraging those embodied strategies, scholars
are better able to make explicit and teach some of the
epistemological foundations of their praxis

Acknowledgements
Christian Dotremont “En écriture dans le
texte”
Logbook 1974
Prof. A. Bowman, Dr R. Tomlin, Dr C. Crowther (Classics, Oxford)
Prof. Sir M. Brady (Engineering, Oxford),
Prof M. Terras (Information Studies, UCL),
Dr J. Dahl (Oriental Studies, Oxford),
Prof G. D’Alessio (Classics, KCL)
Dr J. Elsner (Classics & History of Art, Oxford)
Prof. D. De Roure (e-Research Centre, Oxford)
AHRC funding [early-career fellowship]
Thank You

Text as shape, text as meaning

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