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Signifier/Signified
The signifier is a representation for an idea or thought
which is signified. In language, the sound would be
the signifier and the idea the signified, whereas in
architecture, the form would be the signifier and the
content the signified.
Context/Metaphor
There are two basic ways a sign achieves meaning both through its relation to all other signs in a context
or chain, and through the other signs for which it has
become a metaphor by association, or similarity.
The synonyms for context are chain, opposition,
syntagm, metonymy, contiguiity3 relations, contrast: for
metaphor they are association, connotation, similarity,
correlation, paradigmatic or systemic plane.
Langue/Parole
All the signs in a society taken together constitute the
langue or total resource. Each selection from this
totality, each individual act, is the parole. Thus the
langue is collective and not easily modifiable, whereas
the parole is individual and malleable.
System and
Syntagm from
Roland Barthes,
Elements of
Semiology,1964
The new Queen!s Gallery at Buckingham Palace has some fine bronze
tassels hanging from the imitation cords that interlace its staircase. As
conventionalised classical ornaments, they are a metonym not only for the
architectural meaning of the gallery, but also for its position as a kind of richlywrought, attention-drawing tassel at the end of Buckingham Palace. The
project of enhancing the old gallery is tassel-like in its message of "thus far but
no further! in respect of opening up the palace to public view. We are seeing
some of the best bits, on condition that the cord itself does not unravel.
The gallery emphasises the glamour of royalty, drawing us near to its
nourishing and protective breast. The merchandise in the shop draws us
even more intimately into a shared joke, with corgi-themed toys, dog-leads
with crowns and other innocent fun. Like the accoutrements of military dress
uniforms, which include epaulettes (shoulder tassels) and further tassel-work
about the ceremonial sword, the gallery fits into a familiar symbolic system
through which royalty has always been understood. There would be no more
point in having an ornament-free Queen!s Gallery than there would be in
having a non-cermonial monarchy, and for this reason alone, John Simpson!s
design deserves to be hailed as a masterpiece of integrated semiotics, as well
as being a clever piece of planning, an assembly of highly skilled
craftsmanship and an agreeable place in which to view fine works of art.
Of course, the lure that the tassel has for some is for others a signal for
repulsion, very probably as a result of puritanism, but they might consider the
nature of the emotions they are experiencing. Monarchy has always operated
through theatricality, even to the point of self-parody, and it is a mistake to
attribute a love of tassel-work to a condition of decadence. It is of the
essence of the thing, and carries attributes of priestly function, an area in
which the language of textiles has always been important. Both priest and
king are Dionysian by nature and function, not Apollonian, and that means
tassels, both literal and figurative.
The one thing monarchy cannot afford to be is normal, although it may affect
the emotions in almost any other way. Republics can have their tassels too,
but the Queen!s Gallery is clever because it responds to a quintessential
tassel moment, when a sense of carnivalesque exaggeration is appropriate,
something that classical revival architecture in the twentieth century too often
lacked. The effect is enhanced by the miniaturisation of scale, for while
speaking in the traditional language of ceremonial uniform, it creates a perfect
illusion that the monarchy is both getting smaller and coming closer to us.
Pre-modern meaning
Henri Labrouste,
Bibliotheque Ste
Genevive, Paris,
1848
Elevation and
section
Robert Venturi,
Complexity and
Contradiction in
Architecture, 1966
From Venturi, Scott-Brown and Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972
1977
Playing with meaning and history: Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1974
Formal content: Peter Eisenman House III for Robert Miller, Lakeville,
Connecticut, 1971