Abstracts
Abstract
The paper aims at a pragmatist clarification of imaging and imagining. Using Peirce’s doctrine of the three grades of conceptual clarification (tacit familiarity, abstract definition, and pragmatic elucidation), the author tries to clarify our processes and practices of imaging and imagining by considering them in light of these distinct levels. Above all, he endeavors to push the discussion from the level of abstract definition to that of pragmatic clarification, thereby focusing on the habits of agents in situ, not simply verbal formulations offered in the abstract. Borrowing from Barbara Bolt, he uses as one of his examples that of an artist “working hot”. A process wherein conscious intentions and unconscious drives, cognitive designs and thick materiality, conspire to embody themselves in perceptible media is one especially worthy of examination. Hence, from an overview of Peirce’s general theory of signs, the author turns to some of the specific uses of that theory, uses not central to Peirce’s own interests. Artistic production and performance are foremost among these uses. These are, after all, ones in which the dynamics of imaging and imagining are often more vividly on display than elsewhere.
Résumé
Cet article a pour objectif une élucidation pragmatiste des concepts d’imagerie (imaging) et d’imaginer (imagining). Faisant appel à la doctrine peircéenne des trois grades de clarté conceptuelle (familiarité tacite, définition abstraite, élucidation pragmatique), l’auteur vise à rendre clairs les processus d’imagerie et d’imagination pour chaque grade. Plus précisément, il s’engage à déplacer l’enquête de la définition abstraite vers la clarification pragmatique de manière à mettre l’emphase sur les habitudes d’agents in situ plutôt que sur des formulations verbales considérées dans l’abstrait. Pour ce faire, et à titre d’exemple, il emprunte à Barbara Holt la notion d’artiste “travaillant à chaud” (working hot). Il s’agit d’un processus digne d’un examen sémiotique sérieux, où les intentions conscientes, les pulsions inconscientes, les visées cognitives et la matérialité dense (thick materiality) concourent pour prendre corps dans un medium perceptible. Aussi, à partir d’un survol de la théorie générale des signes de Peirce, l’auteur considère-t-il certains usages spécifiques de cette dernière malgré qu’ils n’étaient pas au coeur des préoccupations de Peirce : la production et la performance artistiques. C’est là, tout simplement, que sont mis en évidence avec le plus d’éclat les dynamiques propres à l’imagerie et à l’imagination.
Appendices
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