Metaphor and Art    The linguistics and embodiment of metaphor and visual art.

Welcome!

Mark Staff Brandl

What am I interested in here? Metaphor and art! I am an artist and art historian with a major interest in cognitive metaphor theory. I wrote my PhD dissertation on an original theory of metaphor in visual art.

My book, titled Metaphor(m): Engaging a Theory of Central Trope in Art, presents and embodies my thesis that the formal, technical and stylistic aspects of artists’ approaches concretely manifest content in culturally and historically antithetical ways through a uniquely discovered trope. My philosophy, termed metaphor(m) or the theory of central trope, is grounded in conceptual metaphor and cognitive science, particularly that of George Lakoff (with Mark Turner and Mark Johnson) as well as Harold Bloom's idea of poetic misprision. This concept is applied to painting, installation art, electronic media, the expanded text concept, art history timeline models, comics, and artistic cultural inheritance. This dissertation is in the traditional form of a book, but with the addition of paintings and sections in sequential comic form as well as an actual installation comprised largely of paintings. The title logo of the cover of my dissertation is the image above.

A wee pat on my own back: my supervising professors, art historian Dr Philip Ursprung and cognitive scientist Dr Andreas Langlotz also awarded me the honor of magna cum laude, praising the work in particular for its exceptional originality. My PhD from the University of Zürich Switzerland was awarded on 20 May 2011.

The famed philosopher Arthur Danto says of my dissertation that “there cannot be many dissertations that are quite that creative and colorful.” Art historian James Elkins concurs, saying “it is the most colorful dissertation ever!”

My dissertation is now in the process of being expanded and translated into an art exhibition and painting-installation with the curatorial advice of Markus Landert, Director of the Art Museum of Thurgovia Switzerland. It will be shown first in Zürich.

In this site I, with my friend and metaphor and art colleague Mark G. Taber, wish to discuss and apply our ideas in this direction. We think this area of thought is very important and inspirational. As Mark T says, "I believe that ideas have real consequences in the world." Hopefully, through this site we will be creating discussion with many fellow artists as well as metaphor researchers, art and literature theorists, those interested in the arts and more, particularly on our Facebook page.

Talk to and with you soon! — MSB

Mark G. Taber

Not too long ago I had the opportunity to try a trans visual substitution system (TVSS) developed by Eye++ at my local center for blind adults. This technology takes input from a camera mounted on the head and outputs it to a patch placed on the forehead. The patch produces a low resolution image from the camera that the wearer experiences as a tingling sensation. At the demonstration blind adults were equipped with the technology for the first time and they adapted to it with only a few minutes of practice. The technology turns a patch of skin into a retina of sorts. I watched in amazement while they walked through the room unaided with the help of their new vision.

Technology such as this has become part of a growing body of evidence for a philosophy called Embodied Cognition. Cutting edge work in robotics and artificial intelligence is stimulating new ways of thinking about the relationship between mind and body and a growing number of thinkers and writers are taking up Embodied Cognition and developing it in varied and surprising ways. My interest in this field has led me to ask how this conversation may be expressed in the context of contemporary art.

I hope you’ll add your voice to the conversation on our Facebook page. We can also be reached directly via email. — MGT