This work is the result of my interdisciplinary research in
the field of semiotics and art, during which it became possible to comprehend
and define a new state of the sign - post-simulacrum - a term that I introduced
back in 2020 and only in 2023 was able to visualize it - www.niyazmamedov.com/art-signs/#12-10-2020.
You may have already noticed a detail that might confuse the
astute observer - the letters 'pb' next to the sign under study, which should
usually be in reverse order - 'bp'. But this is not a mistake at all, but one
of the visual codes woven within the meaning of the work. The abbreviation means ‘post-brand’ - a
phenomenon that I have been researching for a long time in search of an answer
to the question of whether a brand sign (which is essentially a simulacrum) can
exist after the signified disappears or the signifier is disconnected from it.
So still in 2017 I first came to an understanding of the need to introduce a new
concept into semiotics which in many ways could make it possible to explain the
nature of the existence of artificial iconic signs after the disappearance of
the signified. What, in my humble opinion, due to historical progress is
inevitable.
This work is part
of my many years project ‘Semiosis of Meta-Abstract Symbols / Phenomenology of
Freedom’ - https://niyazmamedov.com/category/underground/page/3/ - that ended in 2023. It
has been carried out at the intersection of art and semiotics research, which
resulted in a dozens of artworks and a number of innovations related both to
the formal aspects of art / theory of art and semiotics - Post-Simulacrum,
Signometaphors, Peripheral Meanings-Controlling Signs, Dynamics of the
Development of Meaning, Post-Brand Existence of Signs, Theory of Reverse
Influence of the Sign, etc. - the theories that make it possible to visualize
answers to questions arising from complex modernity.
Much of this research was
carried out in conditions of complete art underground inside the transnational
oil corporation bp where I’d made ‘deep dive’ for the unbiased and unrestricted
studying political/social/environmental aspects of its activity that were the
subject of my interests at intersection of art & semiotics. It was an
unprecedented experience of penetrating the holy of holies of what should be
explored, and when the research was completed, I left the dystopia having sent
preliminarily a letter to bp CEO, substantiating in detail my proposal to
liquidate the oil corporation as axiologically unjustified.
All my observations and
conclusions were described in the theoretical work ‘The Script’ divided in two
parts: 'The Underground' (related to the closed community of the transnational
oil corporation - https://niyazmamedov.com/the-underground/ )
and ‘Art & Signs’ (related to reflections regarding art and semiotics - https://niyazmamedov.com/art-signs/ ).
One of the most significant
achievements (or discoveries) during the project was the Theory of Peripheral
Meanings-Controlling Signs, in which an attempt was made to give the dynamics
of the development of meaning to the static images. The understanding of this
necessity comes from the fact that any image in the picture, being static, is a
priori false in relation to the depicted, since the sign (which is any display
of an object or state), which replaces the referent, always lags in the process
of reflecting the real state of things, and the referent always running away
from us. Any semiotic sign that translates meaning is not a "what",
but a process - the process of conveying meaning - a state that is absolutely
unthinkable in the category of static. Paradoxically, within the framework of
visual art, it is possible to create a conditional effect of the dynamism of
the objects and states under study, revealing in their visuality the process of
developing meaning, which, as it were, has not yet been completed, but brings
us closer to understanding the essence of things, and perhaps still continues.
This is a very visual story.
According to this
theory, such dynamism can be achieved by placing the peripheral meanings-controlling
signs in a pro-semantic zone of gray color, where gray gradations give rise to
a visually perceptible dynamics of the development of meaning - both the
referent of the meanings-controlling signs themselves and the central object
depicted in chromatic colors (placed in the pre-conceptual dynamism of the
background gray zone), supplemented and reinforced by meaningful signs. “In the
shades of gray color of peripheral meanings-controlling signs, the dynamics of
the development of meaning is revealed, although formally residing in the
static nature of what is depicted” - www.niyazmamedov.com/art-signs#17-02-2016.
