Documentation and Visual Communication

Documentation studies grew out of library science in the 19th century. Traditionallythe paragon of the document was thought to be the book. Paul Otlet, Belgiantheorist, author and lawyer, is considered to be one of the primary fathers ofdocumentation as we know it, through his extensive work Otlet was able to progressour understanding of documentation beyond books so that it encompassed journals,periodicals, bibliographies and maps amongst other things. Otlet theorised thatanything could be a document on condition that we are informed by observing it. (Black, 2016) (Jones, 2010)

Suzanne Briet Madame Documentation, author, librarian and historian expandedon the idea of a document, proposing that even something that was not intended asa document could become one for certain people. “Is a star a document?

Is a pebble rolled by a torrent a document? Is a living animala document? No. But the photographs and the catalogues of stars, the stones in amuseum of mineralogy, and the animals that are catalogued and shown in a zoo, aredocuments.” (Day, 2014)

A common aspect considered to make a document a document is the idea of ithaving ‘productivity’. Briet demonstrated this when she described the various waysdocumentation was catalogued and reproduced in the case of an antelope; theantelope was recorded and presented in films, its details catalogued entering azoological encyclopaedia, when it died it was stuffed and put into a museum wherephotographs of it were taken and its notes analysed and circulated.

With this Brietproposed that countless secondary documents could be produced from a primaryone, hence productivity being an important element that distinguishesdocumentation. (Day, 2008)
This antelope example of reproduction and productivity with documentation couldalso be applied to works of art, including landscape illustrations.

A painter can beinterviewed when creating the landscape, recordings of her voice can be circulatedaround schools, the finished work can be placed into a museum and any sketchesleading up to it stored away by an anthropologist, the landscape painting can beseen by members of the public, discussed and analysed, written about, and it can besketched, copied and reproduced through photography.

Briet also made the association between the document and indexicality in explaining the document to be ‘a symbol or indexical sign, something that points to another thing it references. (Documentacademy.org,n.d.)Index (n.) late 14c., the forefinger, from Latin index (genitive indicis) one who points out, discloser, discoverer, informer; forefinger (because used in pointing);pointer, sign; title, inscription, list, literally anything which points out, from indicareto point out”.

Amerirican philosopher Nelson Goodman theorised that works of art are symbolswithin symbolic systems, creating a synergy between art and information; that science and art equally add to our understanding of the world.“In art – and I think in science too – emotion and cognition are interdependent:feeling without understanding is blind, and understanding without feeling is empty.” (Goodman, 1984) (Goodman, 1987)

“Cultural information conveys knowledge about the codes and conventions thatinform visual images; it focuses not upon the artist but upon the social-culturalconditions under which it is produced. Moreover, it gives clues to the viewer abouthistorical and geographical characteristics; for example, the style of Chinesepaintings guides the viewer into an oriental perspective, while the style of ItalianRenaissance painting suggests a European historical perspective. ” (Jamieson, 2007)

Over time, certain symbols and signs have been developed in our collectiveunderstanding to make reference to something else within a broader system.Ferdinand de Saussure a Swiss linguist and semiotician put forward that there aretwo essentials to the signalling of a sign; the Signifier and the Signified.

The Signifier is described as the sign, for example a symbol, colour or word and the Signified is the object or concept which it refers to.Figure 6 Edwin Butler Bayliss (1874–1950) Blast Furnaces, Night, Date unknown. Oil on canvas, 39.5cm x 54.5 cm. (The Athenaeum, n.d.)

In Edwin Butler Bayliss’ painting, Blast Furnaces, Night, the vivid swipes of glowing orange appear to be fires and, because of their small flame shapes we read the firesas controlled and tamed.

This would signify that they are manmade and maintained,cueing to us the presence of a person or most likely people who populate or frequentthe area. Therefore a narrative and understanding unfolds by reading the visuallanguage we are in turn informed about a moment in human history because of thepresence of little smudges of colour and our interpretation of them.

“To satisfy our doubts it is necessary that a method should be found by which ourbeliefs may be determined by nothing human, but by some external permanency --by something upon which our thinking has no effect. Our external permanencywould not be external, in our sense, if it was restricted in its influence to oneindividual. It must be something which affects, or might affect, every man.

And,though these affections are necessarily as various as are individual conditions, yetthe method must be such that the ultimate conclusion of every man shall be thesame. Such is the method of science. Its fundamental hypothesis, restated in morefamiliar language, is this: There are Real things, whose characters are entirely independent of our opinions about them; those Reals affect our senses according toregular laws, and, though our sensations are as different as are our relations to theobjects, yet, by taking advantage of the laws of perception, we can ascertain by reasoning how things really and truly are; and any man, if he have sufficientexperience and he reason enough about it, will be led to the one

Charles Sanders Peirce, one of the founders of semiotics, considered signs as beingone of three categories: Icon, Index or Symbol. An Icon as something which isphysically similar to the thing it references for example a drawing of a bike to reference a bike, an Index as something which implies through a recognised link forexample smoke as an indicator of fire, and a Symbol as a learned sign for example askull and crossed bones against a yellow background as an indicator of toxicity; an association that would be understood or not understood dependent on the culture,geography and language of the person reading it.

Visual language has emerged just as other languages have – by people creating itand speaking it.” (Jacobson, 2000) In this sense, we could interpret information from art, and here more specificallylandscape art, through the understanding of signs, code and pictorial references asan assumed visual language, whether it is through indexicality, symbolism or icons,informed by our existing understandings about the world around us, internal and external.

While interpreting the visual language in a work of art there will be signs that we readdifferently, some which have immediacy such as a bright ball of white against a blacksky- this could be easily discerned as a moon informing us that the picture is of anight scene, and others, or other aspects, with which there is more of a wondering bythe viewer such as with abstracted landscapes.

Art as Documentation

“Language is not just verbal or written. Speech as a means of communication cannotstrictly be separated from the whole of human communicative activity, which alsoincludes the visual. The word “imagination” definitely suggests that we can also thinkin images. Visual language is defined as a system of communication using visualelements. The term visual language in relation to vision describes the perception,comprehension, and production of visible signs.

Just as people can verbalize their thinking, they can visualize it. A diagram, a map, and a painting are all examples ofses of visual language. Its structural units include line, shape, color, form, motion,texture, pattern, direction, orientation, scale, angle, space, and proportion. Theelements in an image represent concepts in a spatial context, rather than the time- based linear progression used in talking and reading. Speech and visual cmmunication are parallel and often interdependent means by which humans exchange information.” (Co.Design, 2015)

Stanley Spencer’s ‘A Gate, Yorkshire’ is titled and dated in such a way that we aregiven information which lends to a better reading of the imagery we see, we arealso aided with thesearchable information thatSpencer’s painting is of theview from Stock Lane Housegrounds.

The pictorialdepictions of the Yorkshireland make reference to factsin the observable world, the geometrically divided quilt ofdifferent coloured grass, thestyle of brick, are painted directly from the location and all tell us something about the countryside at a specifictime and place, and may even hint at information about the unobservable internalworld of the artist, such as atmosphere and emotion particularly in reference to thegate which is could be viewed as a symbol and metaphor for change, trepidation, journey; the cosy closeness of local land versus the vast beyond, or growth.

We areassisted in our understanding from the given information of date and location, which help us to place it in a historical trajectory; such elements supplement our reading of the information in the painting and are instrumental to the classification and documentation process.

A s a part of Otlet’s work he expanded upon what was deemed to be a document byhelping drive the idea that other resources such as maps and newspapers could beconsidered documentary. If newspapers are an acknowledged form of documentation, what about the reportage illustrations that accompany newspaperarticles, and then what about books with scientific illustration, take botany forexample, books which include biographical data with diagrammatic artworks.

The Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests runs a Botanical Survey of India whichreviews and records a significant national database of Indian plants containing bothbotanical illustrations and paintings even to this today despite the fact that we now have photography. (Moef.gov.in, n.d.)

“During the twentieth century, progress in the of art botanical illustration hascontinued. Both professional and amateur artists have made their contribution. Thequality and accessibility of photography has produced spectacular changes and inmany situations photographs have relocated botanical illustrations. Photographs have the advantage of being an exact record of the living plant in all its detail.

Theyare quick to produce and far easier to replicate.Nevertheless, there are still so many occasions when botanical illustration has theadvantage – for example where one wishes to reconstruct an extinct plant, or to show several stages in the life cycle (for example the bud, flower and the fruit in oneplant) or to emphasise a particular feature of the plant. For all these reasons thereremain many professional botanical artists as well as dedicated amateurs.” (Lazarus,Pardoe and Spillards, 1997)

Prior to the invention of the camera, handmade image making such as drawing andpainting were the well-regarded means of visually recording and capturing the worldaround us. Ever since the beginning of time human beings have been striving tovisually capture the world we perceive in all of its likeness, including to preservehistory and document life and culture; making this pioneering invention all the morerevolutionary and ground-braking, even unsettling.

The relationship between cameraand artist became intertwined with each having influence on the other; and perceivednegative effects for artists such as portraiture artists being less in demand werebalanced by the fact that they were able to use this same tool of displacement tobenefit them in the sense of time management, accuracy and practicality.

Something worth adding with regards to landscape art and photography is that it hasbeen well documented that landscape photographers have and continue to beinfluenced by classical landscape paintings in the execution of their artistry, often resulting in picturesque scenes reflective of romanticised landscape paintings.

If a photograph can aesthetically accurately capture a person or landscape, thenwhat is the need for art depicting a person or place? Perhaps illustrations oflandscape are a deeper in situ study of the landscape, in the sense that a paintermust visit and re-visit their location, looking deeply and regarding every feature of their landscape individually; the colour of a lamppost, its long shadow, the square of light pouring from a block of flats, they pour themselves into the creation, whereas itcould be argued that a photograph is much more instantaneous.

Maybe a landscapepainter is immersed in the environment for longer, whether working on location orfrom a video or photograph, and this immersion lends to an atmosphericdocumentation dissimilar from that of a photograph and therefore valuable in its ownright and just as deserving of recognition in terms of recording the environment.

I think another aspect of landscape painting, if it is to be interpreted asdocumentation that differs from landscape photography, is that a painting tends toreflect the painter. That is, the artist's psyche is caught in the paint. A painting of alandscape is imbued with a mood felt and conveyed by the artist, something whichperhaps does not result from the photograph of the same environment, no matterhow skilled and beautiful the photograph.

To what extent landscape art is a form ofdocumentation depends largely upon to what extent the beholder is driven tointerpret it as such. A landscape painting interpreted as a cultural document details arange of cultural things from the kind of paint in use, the kind of painter using it, tothe cultural interpretation of what constituted a landscape at the time the paintingwas made, and thereby reflecting the painter in the paint.

The desire to conflate art with landscape has been evident since the days of ancient Rome, and intrigue of art and its effect on the landscape, and in turn the landscapeseffects on art, has maintained. In today’s age of information science where there isan increase of documents in everyday life this desire has branched into further analysis, for example, over the course of two days in June, 2010 Tate Britain ran an‘Art and Environment’ conference that concluded the end of five years ofprogrammes sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The purpose of these programmes was to develop understanding about the landscape andenvironment through engagements between visual art and the material environment.The conference made for a scientific approach to art with themes ranging from ideas of globalisation, economic geography, belonging, displacement and militarism of thelandscape. (Tate.org.uk, n.d.)

“The landscape and environment have cultural significance as an area of publicconcern, scholarly research and artistic creativity. This programme was designed toenrich our understanding of both by bringing together researchers from varieddisciplines with a wide range of approaches. In order to know more about the waysthe world has been imagined, experience, designed and managed, we needed toproduce work which is critical and creative, collaborative and communicative.

Whether we are expressing complex ideas and feelings about beauty, belonging,access to resources of our relationship with the past and the future through nature,the landscape and environment are the medium through which we often try to makesense of the world and the people's place in it.” (Programmes et al., n.d.)How is meaning established if landscape art is to be read as documentation, then?Both Briet and Otlet affirmed that documentation should be concerned with allinformative objects not just books, journals and newspapers.

A museum object, likea document, is conserved for the function of providing evidence and referencing.Landscape paintings too reveal traces of human events; they capture and give usdescriptions of environmental and cultural occurrences across place and time.

As landscape illustration and painting is generally purely pictorial it would makesense that one way to interpret understanding would be through interpreting thevisual language using semiotics, the study of meaning-making. Americanphilosopher Charles Sander Pierce described there to be three ways in which wegrasp understanding this way; through sign, object and interpreting.

If we consider the different elements within a landscape painting to be consciouslydecided upon signs, then the artist is intentionally creating informative stimuli whichevoke in each viewer a response guided by the information, involvement andintentions of the creator. (Mounin, 1985)

Conclusion

In one sense landscape illustration and painting should be viewed as a good sourceof cultural documentation perhaps more so than photography of landscape becausefor one reason painting has a tendency to be more revealing about the artist thandoes photography. A painting is full of brush strokes and mixtures of different paints all of which is deliberated upon over considerable time by the artist.

A landscapepainting as a cultural document is like a window capturing a moment in time, awindow you can stand either side of. From one side you can view a depiction of a landscape, from the other side you can view the painter caught in his or her time inquite intimate detail. The same is true of a photograph, but perhaps it can be short ofthe same intimacy as a painting.

If historians require a source of information about the landscape and environment, before the invention of the camera, the closest they can get to evidence akin to thoserovided by photographic evidence is through the paintings and descriptions of the landscape.

If Briet’s characterization of what it requires to be a document is held true then an illustration or painting of a landscape could in fact be accepted as a document in my opinion. On one hand an artist’s paintings are indexical records of their accomplishments and on the other a there is a visual language within the painting that can reference information from outside of itself, further benefited when aided with other classification details such as titles, dates and artist notes.

We cannot see the landscape without seeing and bearing in mind its context, such as historical, cultural, geographical background, so it makes sense for the same to be said of considering landscape painting and illustration.

Our perception and understanding is influenced by internal and external influences and prior experiences, including our developed and ever developing understanding of certain codes and symbols and their meanings relative to a broader system.

Therefore how we look at and behold landscape painting is constantly evolving. When looking at artists of different movements and eras we perceive shared aesthetic styles, themes and similarities which allow us to assume that these similarities indicate a shared understanding and evidence of the landscape of their time.

For example, the recurring presence of olive groves in ancient Roman gardenscapes or the smoke stacks in industrial era paintings reappearing time and again inform us of apparently important and or typical articles of that particular period in time. I think that another element of landscape art as documentation worth noting, and especially if created with the intent to inform and document, is the supplementary written work and sketches that aid classification and information-giving, such as an accurate title, date, research notes, preliminary sketches and other such complementary data.

However I do not believe that this is totally essential to a landscape painting or illustration in being informative. There is clearly a lot of discussion yet to be had in terms of the validity of art as documentation, with considerations to how accurate images can be in the recording of fact, and questions to the authority of depiction over description or description over depiction, resemblance versus representation etc. These considerations should be ongoing and not halt our interpreting landscape painting in an informative way; in fact the two should feed into each other.

In the introduction to this essay I discussed how we now live in an age of myriad forms of documentation and information; more so than ever before. The way in which we have come to learn and discern how to take in the many different forms of information is through a set of established abilities which enable us to: identify, find, evaluate, apply and acknowledge as a skillset.

This behaviour is known as Information Literacy. My hopes are that just as we have been able to evolve a literacy of digital documents such as the email or Instagram post, we could form a similar and agreed upon, however ever evolving, contested and expanding, comprehension of landscape art. (Ala.org, n.d.)