2) Syntax / Semantics / Pragmatics
The result of the last step shows in many examples how difficult it is to concentrate on the pure form, i.e. the syntax. The syntax is to be understood as a kind of frozen or congealed movement without any reference to semantics or pragmatics.
By the way, one of the appropriate ways to understand how it works is to make mistakes on the practical side and use them as coordinates of understanding on the theoretical side. So a mistake is not a bad thing, but rather the entrance to a deeper knowledge!
The question of what syntax, semantics and pragmatics are is the regular teaching material from the first secondary level, i.e. during the 9th or 10th year of school. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to repeat it here in the basic studies. In order to develop one's own methods and tonalities of design, it is inevitable to acquire this knowledge.
Here we take a broader view of how something we can read is constructed. It is not just about written language, to which syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are usually assigned. It is about any kind of language: text, music, image, dance, film, sculpture, and so on.
Each of these languages is fundamentally based on a structure of dots and lines, the construction of each letter as well as the notes in a musical composition or the sequence of steps in a choreography or performance, and if we deconstruct the formatted combination (of a movie sequence or parts of a picture) we find the same basis for every movie or image. This basic construction, already a formation of dots and lines (hence the title of this lecture, Formative Design), but without any meaning, is called syntax, which in turn is made up of even smaller elements, the formatives.
A formatted combination (a construction of formatives) tends to take on a semantic dimension, i.e. it can be identified as a word or an object. Ultimately, it is the relationship of the words or objects that become a combination that tells something.
Schematically, we can say that we have tree levels:
1st, the level of dots and lines, called the syntax level,
2nd, the level of formatted combinations that can be read as a single word or object, called the semantic level,
3rd, the level of sequences of formatted combinations that can be read in terms of meaning, called the pragmatic level.
The three levels, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, correspond directly to the three main questions of communication: what, why and how.
As we have said before, here we concentrate entirely on the how in order to experience how the how involuntarily leads to the what and from the what to the why.
Again, from a schematic point of view, we can say:
The first level, the syntax, is directly related to the how; how we have to design, i.e., work with the very basis of any design (points and lines), so that the designed is taken from the immediate impulses on our perception.
The second level, that of semantics, refers to what is to be identified (or read) through the perception of a formatted combination, such as the combination of letters that make up a word, or the combination of formal elements that make up an object.
The third level, that of pragmatics, is related to why; why something happens in terms of physical or psychological reasons. As soon as a sequence of words or a series (in space or time) of objects appears, we are involuntarily forced to clarify the why.
1st assignment:
Go through the task of the 1st step again. Make sure that you focus on identifying and tracing the syntax as a basis for further elaboration:
Cut up the re-drawings you made.
Create a form catalog from the cut-ups. The catalog should contain a minimum of twelve and a maximum of 24 syntax elements. Use a vector program (Illustrator) to create the catalog.
Note that each element remains in syntax mode, i.e. it cannot be directly identified with an object.When you are finished, save your results.
Examples of how to develop a vocabulary of signs or figurations based on the "formative elements":