Metaphor in Art and Design
1
The ‘Interanimation’ of Worlds:
Creative Metaphors in Art and Design1
Gerald C. Cupchik
University of Toronto
Correspondence:
Dr. Gerald C. Cupchik
University of Toronto at Scarborough
Life Sciences Division
1265 Military Trail
Scarborough, ON,
Canada M1C 1A4
cupchik@utsc.utoronto.ca
ABSTRACT
Creative metaphors in language juxtapose two words which appear quite different on the
surface but share an underlying similarity, given a particular context. In the metaphor ‘Life is a
river,’ the vehicle ‘river’ modifies the tenor ‘life’ thereby drawing our attention to life’s
Metaphor in Art and Design
2
meandering quality and the constant flow of time. Scholars have emphasized a dynamic tension
between tenor and vehicle and that the vehicle (‘river’) is always salient, modifying the tenor
(‘life’) and never vice-versa. A central argument of this paper is that: (1) the vehicle is salient
because it is always more concrete than the tenor on the sensory-verbal-symbolic continuum and
(2) the vehicle always modifies the tenor implicitly and spontaneously so that they are
experienced as a unity. These ideas are examined in this paper in terms of internal relations
between subject matter and style or function and form in successful art, design, and architectural
metaphors. Accordingly, the internal surface difference is between the
denotative (i.e.,
symbolic) subject matter or function and the connotative (i.e., expressive) style or form. The
underlying similarity reflects the influence of concrete sensory style or form properties which
resonate with subject matter or function, thereby creating an implicit experience of fit. This
unified experience establishes a bridge between the viewer/user and the work that is the
foundation for a personal attachment to it.
Metaphor in Art and Design
3
The ‘Interanimation’ of Worlds:
Creative Metaphors in Art and Design
The possibility of metaphor springs from the infinite elasticity of the human mind; it
testifies to its capacity to perceive and assimilate new experiences as modifications of
earlier ones, of finding equivalences in the most disparate phenomena and of substituting
one for another. Without this constant process of substitution neither language nor art,
nor indeed civilized life would be possible.
Sir Ernst Gombrich (1963)
Content and Act Oriented Approaches to Metaphor
This paper is about metaphors in the visual and applied arts, in and of itself a challenging
problem because metaphors are usually discussed in the context of language and sometimes in
relation to pictures. But regardless of whether a discussion of metaphors is centred in the domain
of language or is extended to the worlds of painting, design, or architecture, there is a need for a
working theory, an account of processes underlying their generation and reception. Aristotle
stated in his Poetics that ‘The greatest thing by far is to have a command of metaphor....for to
make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblances’ (cited in Richards, 1965, p. 89).
Metaphors are not merely artifacts of culture but also the products of complex mental acts of
noticing similarities in the face of obvious differences and using them to emphasize a point.
However, there are radically different accounts of metaphors and their role in language and
meaning. One approach treats metaphors as contents which underlie the very structure of
language in the conventional everyday world, whereas for another, metaphorization is an act
bringing fresh perspectives on the world.
The content oriented tradition micro-analyzes established (i.e., conventional) metaphors
as qualified noun phrases within a strict linguistic framework. It reflects Darwinian pragmatism
and a concern for action, both behavioural and cognitive, in adapting to the demands of the
physical and social worlds. Ideas and objects are categorized and linked pragmatically by the
logic of action. Thus, Searle’s (1993) comparison theory addressed the meaning of words and
Metaphor in Art and Design
4
sentences in relation to a speaker’s intention or utterance meaning. The presence of a ‘defective
utterance,’ if it is taken literally, signals that the listener should ‘look for an utterance meaning
that differs from the sentence meaning’ (p. 103).
Lakoff ‘s (1993) contemporary theory of metaphor goes a cognitive step further by
asserting that ‘The generalizations governing poetic metaphorical expressions are not in
language, but in thought: they are general mappings across conceptual schemas’ (p. 203). In fact,
‘as soon as one gets away from concrete physical experience and starts talking about abstractions
or emotions, metaphorical understanding is the norm’ (p. 205). In the end, ‘one generation’s
realization of a metaphor can become part of the next generation’s experiential basis for that
metaphor’ (p. 244). Thus, Lakoff’s theory of metaphor is constructionist at its foundation,
concerned ultimately with the process of learning and the roots (or routes) of conventional
knowledge. From Glucksberg’s (2001) perspective, ‘Lakoff couples..[a].. hyperliteral model of
metaphor understanding to a hypermetaphoric construal of literal language’ (p. 106).
There is a basic assumption underlying this approach that ‘from the earliest moments of
processing, figurative language comprehension does not differ in kind from understanding literal
language’ (Gibbs, 1994, p. 118). Metaphors can express complex ideas that would be difficult to
convey using literal language in a compact and vivid manner (Gibbs, 1994). The processing of
metaphors unfolds temporally through stages involving comprehension, the moment-to-moment
creation of meaning for utterances, recognition of the products of this analysis as literal or
metaphoric, interpretation of the specific products of comprehension, and appreciation or
aesthetic judgment of the product (Gibbs, 1990). In addition, comprehension may be timelimited, as when a metaphor is encountered in the theatre or conversation, or leisurely and selfpaced (Gerrig, 1989). Once the act of comprehension is complete, the metaphor may be taken as
a sign which expresses the particular viewpoint of the speaker (Steen, 1994).
This emphasis on the content of metaphors can be contrasted with another approach
which stresses acts and experiences involved in the generation and reception of metaphors. In
Metaphor in Art and Design
5
The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Richards (1965) addressed the ‘interanimation’ or mutual influence
of words, reminding us that differences create the power of the metaphor to draw attention and
have its effect. He introduced the distinction between tenor and vehicle so that in the metaphor,
‘life is a winding river,’ ‘life’ is the tenor and ‘river’ is the vehicle (these traditional terms will be
used throughout the paper rather than the more modern, target and source). The potency of the
metaphor ‘is even more the work of their unlikenesses than of their likenesses’ (p. 127) and ‘As
the two things put together are more remote, the tension created is, of course, greater’ (p. 125).
Richards explored the implications of ‘what happens in the mind when we put together - in a
sudden and striking fashion - two things belonging to very different orders of experience. The
most important happening - in addition to a general confused reverberation and strain - are the
mind’s efforts to connect them’ (p. 124-125). Thus, tension is initiated by the surface differences
between tenor and vehicle, while an effort to find underlying similarity offers the possibility of
reconciliation.
Ricoeur (1975) explored three applications of the tension idea. There exists ‘(a) tension
within the statement: between tenor and vehicle....(b) tension between two interpretations:
between a literal interpretation that perishes at the hands of semantic impertinence and a
metaphorical interpretation whose sense emerges through non-sense; (c) tension in the relational
function of the copula: between identity and difference in the interplay of resemblance’ (p. 247).
The tension between surface difference and underlying similarity helps to emphatically express a
statement of truth about some aspect of the world.
Psychologists have also had much to say about the dynamics surrounding tension
between the tenor and vehicle. Richard’s analysis implies that arousal can stimulate the process
of interpreting or resolving metaphors. As experimental evidence for this, Paivio and Walsh
(1993) cite the work of Anderson (1964) who applied Berlyne’s (1960) theory of arousal
induction and reduction to account for the effects of novel metaphors. Incongruity produces
arousal (Richard’s ‘tension’) which is reduced through a ‘conceptual resolution’ of the disparate
Metaphor in Art and Design
6
elements. Berlyne (1971) himself picked up on the role of incongruity in poetry but he got the
idea from Martindale’s (1969) as yet unpublished Ph.D. dissertation which discussed the issue of
‘arousal distance’ later described as ‘the remoteness of the things compared in a metaphor or
simile’ (Martindale, 1990, p. 82). The balance between similarities and differences, or relative
incongruity creates a tension which stimulates an effort at synthesis.
This balance between similarities and differences in language and images was examined
by Tversky (1977) in relation to the theme of asymmetric similarities. As an example of a
simile, he chose ‘Turks fight like tigers’ with the word ‘tiger’ serving as referent because of its
renown as a fighting spirit. Again, in the simile ‘my love is as deep as the ocean,’ the word
‘ocean’ serves as the referent because ‘the ocean epitomizes depth’ (p. 328). The focus would
appear to be on the ‘tiger’ and ‘ocean’ referents because of their relative salience or potency and
this is the cause of the asymmetry. In geometric figures, relative salience is governed by
goodness of form, a gestalt quality pertaining to orderliness. Generally speaking, one can
conceive of relations between two objects based on proximity, such as prototypicality and
representativeness. ‘One characteristic of good metaphors is the contrast between the prior,
literal interpretation, and the posterior, metaphoric interpretation. Metaphors that are too
transparent are uninteresting; obscure metaphors are uninterpretable’ (p. 349). The central point
for our purposes is that the salient quality of the referent (Richard’s ‘vehicle’) is applied to the
subject, and not vice-versa, in the process of bringing coherence to the related items at an
‘optimal level of abstraction’ (p. 348). This helps explain why metaphors are nonreversible in
their application; the vehicle always modifies the tenor which comes first and not vice-versa.
Tversky’s article stimulated other attempts to account for the effects of vehicles on tenors.
Ortony (1979), for example, stressed salience imbalance to explain the effects of metaphors and
their non-reversibility. In a successful metaphor, the salient qualities of the vehicle becomes
attached to the non-salient properties of the tenor.
According
to
Glucksberg’s
(2001)
‘interactive
property’
view
of
metaphor
Metaphor in Art and Design
7
comprehension, a ‘metaphor topic provides dimensions for attribution, while a metaphor vehicle
provides properties to be attributed to the topic’ (p. 53). In addition, the metaphor vehicle
functions at two levels of abstraction, implying the literal object as well as the more abstract
attributive quality that the concept prototypically exemplifies. The metaphor comprehension
process will be more successful: (1) the more constraining the topic (implying fewer relevant
dimensions), (2) the more prototypical (i.e., less ambiguous) the properties of the vehicle, and (3)
the greater a person’s world knowledge regarding each domain. This latter point cannot be
sufficiently underscored. The understanding of metaphors requires some appreciation of the
context within which they are meaningfully presented. This is what primes the person to bring to
bear relevant cognitions that help resolve the seemingly paradoxical nature of a metaphor.
Black (1962, 1993) contributed in an important way to the interactive approach by
examining ‘how strong metaphorical statements work’ (Black, 1993, p. 27). Such emphatic
metaphors are unique in that the ‘”focus,” the salient word or expression, whose occurrence in
the literal frame invested the utterance with metaphorical force’ is indispensable and is ‘dwelt
upon for the sake of [its] unstated implications’ (Black, 1993, p. 26). The receiver cooperates ‘in
perceiving what lies behind the words used’ (p. 26). Black argued that resonant metaphors
possess ‘a high degree of implicative elaboration’ (p. 26) and, accordingly, the ‘secondary
subject’ (Richard’s ‘tenor’) should be viewed as a system. The metaphor works, given a ‘context
of metaphorical use’ (p. 28), because the maker of the statement selects and organizes features of
the primary subject (Richard’s ‘vehicle’) that are part of its set of ‘associated implications’ and
these awaken us to the relevant qualities of the secondary subject in a manner akin to what
Richards called the ‘interanimation of words.’ The suggestiveness of the primary subject, and the
ambiance shared by both primary and secondary subjects, impresses, strikes, or seizes ‘the state
of mind of somebody who affirms a metaphorical statement’ (p. 31). Of special relevance to
creative artists and designers is Black’s ‘strong creativity thesis’ which holds that ‘some
metaphors are what might be called “cognitive instruments,” indispensable for perceiving
Metaphor in Art and Design
8
connections that, once perceived, are then truly present...’ (p. 37). Accordingly, strong
metaphors ‘enable us to see aspects of reality that the metaphor’s production helps to constitute’
(Black, 1993, p. 38).
Hausman (1989) argued along the same lines as Max Black that ‘metaphors create
integrated wholes’ (p. 45) and ‘help constitute what may be called the world’ (p. 83) by
providing ‘intelligibility to that on which attention focuses’ (p. 121). It is spontaneity and
freedom that enables creative people to generate meaningful metaphors which can modify
worlds. In relation to art, ‘a metaphor modifies a medium in that it gives another use to a
medium, whose usual function in everyday experience is practical’ (p. 136). Hausman showed
how an interaction between the subject matter of a painting and its formal-expressive qualities
(i.e., its style) ‘generates and sustains tensions’ (p. 180). Thus, in the painting, Young Woman
with a Water Jug, by Vermeer, there is a dynamic interaction between the young woman who is
its major focus and the expressive sense of space created by his treatment of light.
Schön (1993) applied the interactive approach to industrial design (e.g., improving the
simple paintbrush) and social policy (e.g., housing for the poor) problems. The act of ‘frame
restructuring’ in the resolution of technical and social problems is seen as analogous to the
production of generative metaphors. Thus, seeing a paintbrush as a kind of pump represents a
scientific version of a generative metaphor that leads to a variety of meaningful inventions (see
Schön, pp. 139-143). In a further move toward an experiential account of metaphor, Schön
emphasized the process of seeing A as B (seeing a paintbrush as a pump), even though they were
initially perceived ‘as very different things’ (p. 141). This ‘restructuring of perception’...
‘occurred because the researchers were immersed in experience of the phenomena’ (pp. 141142). These industrial researchers mapped their descriptions of pumps and pumping onto earlier
accounts of paintbrushes and painting. As a result, the paint brush was reconceptualized in terms
of new features which are regrouped and renamed on the road to the redevelopment of a more
efficient tool. In accordance with the developmental aspects of generative metaphor, ‘the
Metaphor in Art and Design
9
researchers were able to see painting as similar to pumping before they were able to say “similar
with respect to what”’ (p. 142). Of great importance is the fact that ‘The cognitive work of
restructuring draws upon the richness of features and relations which are to be found in the
concrete situation’ (p. 158). Thus, ‘immersion in the concrete experience of the phenomena of
the situation’ (p. 160) permits choices about the features to be mapped from one domain to the
other with the resulting frame restructuring and coordination.
Relational Thinking in the Generation and Reception of Metaphors
The act orientation stresses relational thinking which is required when words or images
are to be experienced and understood as part of a unified event in a particular context. It is
stimulated by the paradoxical co-presence of surface differences and underlying similarities
which modify the perception of individual objects (Aldrich, 1968). Metaphors therefore
represent a case of conjunctive ambiguity wherein ‘several fields are connected though remaining
intact’ (Kris, 1952, p. 248). From the perspective of Gestalt psychology, people have a natural
disposition to resolve this ambiguity and the resulting tension energizes the process. For
Arnheim (1971), ‘expression is an inherent characteristic of perceptual patterns’ (p. 433) and
metaphor can ‘make the reader penetrate the concrete shell of the world of things by combination
of objects that have little in common but the underlying pattern’ (p. 435-436). Kris (1952) stated
that poetic ‘Metaphor serves as a stimulus to functional regression because the primary process
itself is metaphoric and imagistic’ (Kris, 1952, p. 258). Verbal and visual metaphors possess
physiognomic (i.e., spontaneously expressive) sensory qualities that resonate with personal
meanings (Straus, 1958). Thus, the co-presence of novelty and familiarity are a source of tension
and absorption which stimulates a broad range of cognitive processes, both conscious and
unconscious, in an effort to resolve ambiguity.
But modern scholars all too readily forget that metaphors are part of a communicative act
linking author and reader. As Abercrombie (1926) has said: “Language in poetry is a
transmission of energy rather than of substance... It urges us for a time to live in a particular style
Metaphor in Art and Design
10
of imagination - the style of the poet’s imagination; ....the symbolic nature of language in
poetry....is a stimulus for our minds, though a stimulus of a very determining character” (p. 8283). Original metaphors are generated through intentional acts and presume a point of view on
the part of their creators, prompting readers to adopt a perspective in their ‘effort after meaning’
(Bartlett, 1932). Like ‘impeded texts,’ (Iser, 1978), metaphors stimulate readers and listeners to
adduce the appropriate context which resolves the ambiguity and promotes coherence between
the seemingly paradoxical terms. All this is meant to imply that the reader or listener who brings
to bear an appropriate context
will spontaneously experience the unity of the metaphor
(spontaneous experience hypothesis). Since we cannot be both inside and outside of experience
at the same moment, reflective awareness of the full meaning of the metaphor requires that the
person step outside the experience thereby pausing in the interpretive flow (reflective awareness
hypothesis).
Why can’t the recipient spontaneously experience the implicit relationship between tenor
and vehicle and in the same moment reflect upon or articulate its meaning? There are a number
of possible answers. One has to do with the fact that acts of experiencing and acts of reflection
are fundamentally different and, hence, incommensurate in the same psychological moment. You
cannot be inside and outside of an experience at one and the same moment! A second possibility
pertains to the delicate balance between surface differences and deep similarities which produce
a complex and distracting figure/ground relationship, especially when decisions regarding
whether differences (as in irony) or similarities (as in metaphor) should have the upper hand.
This is reminiscent of the apparent conflict between manifest (i.e., salient) and latent (i.e.,
relevant) meanings. A third potential answer has to do with the relative status of tenor and
vehicle in terms of whole/part relations. While the whole object represents the tenor in a
metaphor, the vehicle characterizes only a part of it. Thus, the mixing of surface wholes and
deeper parts cannot be readily realized in the same moment. However, once an optimum level of
abstraction is achieved and a meaningful link established, then the two terms are perceived as a
Metaphor in Art and Design
11
unified complex and pass into the domain of hybrid concepts (e.g., life-as-river). This is part of
the developmental history of a metaphor when it transforms from the generative to a
conventional stage of understanding.
When wholes and parts are discussed in terms of asymmetry and hierarchy, the problem
of metaphor as process becomes particularly interesting. As Tversky (1977) has pointed out,
asymmetry reflects the differential salience of the tenor (i.e., the whole) and the vehicle (i.e., the
part), favouring the latter. This is seemingly paradoxical because when we state that ‘life is a
river’ presumably our central focus is on the nature of ‘life’. But, according to the asymmetry
principle, the relative salience of the tenor (in this case ‘the river’) is what governs the direction
of influence. Salience, according to Tversky, can reflect goodness of form in geometrical shapes
or prototypicality in concepts. An application of Schön’s (1993) analysis would suggest that
diagnostic relevance of the context (e.g., pump image for a paintbrush which is to apply paint
smoothly) is crucial for determining differential influence. Glucksberg (2001) would address the
problem in terms of the relative constraints placed by the tenor and the prototypicality of the
properties of the vehicle.
In hierarchical terms this implies that the properties of the vehicle are not just
prototypical but they are also more concrete and accordingly have an implicit and dynamic
impact on the more abstract term. Rothenberg’s (1990) discussion of the homospatial process in
the creative generation of metaphors in literature, art, and science underscores the importance of
integrating basic components into larger wholes. Following Rothenberg (1988), the metaphor
can be understood as a kind of articulation in which the ‘joining of an element with another one
produces both a coming together and a separation at the same time’ (p. 127). The ‘creative
person separates out critical aspects of the material he works with, and he fuses or brings these
separated elements together’ (p. 128). It was this interplay of concrete material elements that so
engaged highly creative authors and artists interviewed by Rothenberg.2
If we extend this analysis to a hierarchy of meanings that runs upward along the
Metaphor in Art and Design
12
continuum, sensory/perceptual - verbal/cognitive - formal/symbolic, then the metaphorical
impact should be from the lower to the higher term, in other words, sensory-to-verbal and verbalto-symbolic. The first instance, sensory-to-verbal, refers to the typical influence of connotatively
rich adjectives on unsuspecting nouns (Cupchik, Leonard, Axelrad, and Kalin, 1998) and this
encompasses the kinds of synaesthetic metaphors that were central to Osgood’s (1953) analysis.
The verbal-symbolic link is directly relevant to the creative problem solving described by Schön
and to the formalization of scientific concepts regarding, for example, black wholes and other
physical phenomena. Handelman (1982) reminds us that “Metaphorical predication is based on
relation” (p. 24), and following Derrida, emphasizes the concrete nature of the metaphor and its
basic role in relational thought. According to the asymmetry hypothesis: salient concrete
qualities become spontaneously attached to more abstract categories with which they share some
element of resemblance, while surface differences mask this bottom-up process.
The etiology of this kind of bottom-up process can be found both in child development
trends and in the evolution of culture. When it comes to metaphorical phrases, the child must
possess some kind of metalinguistic awareness to distinguish the literal from the non-literal
(between what is said and what it meant) and this occurs around the ages of six or seven (Winner
and Gardner, 1993). Children appear to understand perceptual metaphors (e.g., ‘her cheeks were
roses’) before nonperceptual ones (Winner, 1988). Consistent with this, Kogan et al., (1980)
found, using a pictorial representation task, that children (around nine and a half years old) ‘who
spontaneously generated metaphorically appropriate labels did not grasp the metaphoric
similarity any better than children who offered irrelevant or distracting labels’ (p. 59). We should
not forget that Piaget’s preoperational stage (ages two to seven) is characterized by the child’s
responsiveness and possible fixation on salient perceptual features of objects (see Flavell, 1963).
Thus, attention to salient perceptual features, and a syncretic style of thinking in which they can
become arbitrarily associated with objects, provides a basis for asymmetric dynamics in the
shaping of metaphors. The same pattern can be found in the evolution of human culture where
Metaphor in Art and Design
13
visual thinking, characteristic of early tool makers and cave painters, is followed, through
increased connectivity and abstraction, by verbal, formal, and structural thinking (Avital, 2003).
‘Interanimations’ Between Subject Matter and Style or Function and Form
Examining the metaphorical foundations of artworks, industrial and graphic design
objects, and architecture requires attention to the mutual interaction or interanimation between
subject matter and style or function and form. Arnheim’s (1969) relational analysis of metaphors
in literature can readily be extended to visual thinking that shapes this interanimation. In
literature, “the pairing of two images throws into relief a common quality and thereby
accomplishes a perceptual abstraction without relinquishing the contexts from which the singleout quality draws its life” (Arnheim, 1969, p. 62). Art history teachers place two paintings with
different subject matter side-by-side on a screen in order to make salient a stylistic quality (i.e., a
perceptual abstraction) that they share. John Kennedy (1982) has explored the role of metaphoric
depiction which becomes quite conventional by involving ‘intended violations of standard modes
of depiction that are universally recognizable’ (p. 589).
Can one speak of a metaphorical relationship between subject matter and style within an
individual painting? On the surface, so to speak, they represent contrasting or different domains
in art; subject matter has semantic (i.e., symbolic) or denotative reference and style possesses
only sensory structure. But the essence of a metaphor lies in the fact that, in spite of surface
differences between subject matter and style (i.e., denotation versus connotation), a salient
underlying relationship creates a meaningful experience that elevates our consciousness about
the world. According to the principle of asymmetry derived from Tversky (1977), the salient
concrete qualities of style can implicitly shape our perception of the subject matter, thereby
generating a unique experience and meaning not present separately in either of them. The
qualities of style that shape experience can resonate with the meanings associated with the
subject matter to produce a distinctive experience that could not result from encountering the
semantic information in isolation. Thus, dark and foreboding colours can reinforce the theme of
Metaphor in Art and Design
14
sadness or isolation depicted in an artwork. In the successful metaphorical treatment of a theme
in a painting, the subject matter becomes nested within the style such that the two are
experienced in harmony, thereby shaping a unified aesthetic experience. Consonance between
the hedonic quality of style and subject matter in a painting is key to metaphoric coherence and
the ‘interanimation’ of the symbolic and sensory worlds.
_______________________
Insert Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 about here
_______________________
ART
We can see the effects of style on subject matter in a comparison between the photograph
of a bandana used in a painting (Figure 1a) and a painterly treatment of this motif (Figure 1b).
The artist, Lanny Shereck, says about the paintings:
‘To my mind, the painting titled AMERIKA is a metaphor by being an act of
representation. As an assemblage of colours and shapes, I am creating sculptural forms with the
cloth, modeling it by folding, turning, and shaping the material into triangulations. This contrasts
with the photocopied image of the bandana which lacks any shape. The shaping of the material
draws people into the picture plane because they move through the image three-dimensionally,
imagining the other side of the piece of material and feeling the depth. This is the opposite of the
graphic shape which has no depth. The work is metaphorical in that the form, the colours, the
textures, and tones bring it to life and resonate with the central image, the bandana. The “k” in
the title Amerika is meant to imply that the bandana might be part of an American counterculture scene. I am not showing the American flag but, rather, by being represented as a bandana,
the flag becomes metaphorically something else. At a symbolic level, I am being ironic and at an
experiential level I am being metaphorical. The ironic thing has to do with the fact the American
flag is transformed into a mere counter culture garment; this emphasizes the differences between
the actual bandana and the flag image. The metaphorical aspect of the piece has to do with the
creation of an experience of that garment as an object of our attention that is shaped by the
colours, composition, and atmosphere.’
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Metaphor in Art and Design
15
In the case of graphic design, the notion of subject matter extends beyond recognizable
images to include letters, words, and phrases. The verbal and image content stimulate thoughts
and feelings regarding what is represented in a CD cover (Figure 2a) and a poster announcing a
comedian’s performance (Figure 2b). The semantic material is seen in a stylistic context which
includes both qualities appropriate to painting as well as type fonts which give expressive form
to the lettering. According to the argument developed here: A graphic design piece will be
successful to the extent that the semantic message becomes embedded in the stylistic treatment of
the image so that they merge, with the style evoking an experience that brings the meaning of the
message to life.
DESIGNER’S STATEMENT: Jeroen van Erp
2a. The Watchman / Peaceful Artillery (cover designed by Pieter Aarts, John van der Maat and
Jeroen van Erp - Fabrique [design, communications and new media] ).
‘In general when we start with the design of a cover there are roughly three ways to
approach the problem. The first way is to express something of the intrinsic quality of the music.
It's often a problem that it's hard to differentiate between albums. But now and then it's a nice
way to approach the design especially when there are very explicit choices made for a particular
album. This approach is often used by artists and bands that act within a strict genre. There is the
danger that form that is developed from an intrinsic value is used over and over again and
becomes an icon for the genre (e.g. heavy metal logo's). By then the development of the form
stops and it makes us designers sad. But new genres come with new styles.
A second approach is to focus on what we call “the communication value”. What does
the artist want to tell you about himself (is he sad, happy, hooked?) or about the music. By the
way, in most cases it's about the artist and not about the music. When he decides to change the
world, it's easy to express. Sometimes the artist identifies with another artist and would like to
have that expressed in the cover. The third approach is the one where we are looking for a
meaning to express. This meaning can be linked to the music, artist or context. An interesting
case is the white album of the Beatles. It came after Sgt. Peppers, which was the first gatefold
cover ever, and with an extraordinary picture on it. It was a sensation at that time. The only way
to beat this cover was the “non-cover” of the white album, which isn't the official title but
everybody calls it that way now.
For the Watchman, the inspiration came from the title song. The chestnut was copied
from a schoolbook. You see the same chestnut nine times but every chestnut is turned around a
little and deliberately put in strict order. Only the chestnut in the middle is shown completely. By
cutting off the other ones, the picture gives you the idea that there are many more than these
nine. For the typeface we chose an atypical style for pop music. This style is formal and mostly
Metaphor in Art and Design
16
used for books. The singer of the band, Ad van Meurs really liked the cover instantly. He's also
the writer of the songs. The record company, although, at first thought it was too colourful. They
suggested that people might think it was a dance album. We convinced them by arguing that
there would be no mistakes because of the choice for typography and the fact that a chestnut is
pretty daft and does not appeal to people who like techno music.’
In terms of metaphor, the paradoxical image of ‘peaceful-artillery’ is repeated in the
pairing of the tasty and beautiful European chestnut with its bristly case. The chestnuts,
presented in an orderly array, appear like Pacman images ready to consume each other. It is a
very punchy piece in part because of the tonal contrast between the dark centre of the chestnut
and the rest. The green and yellow are quite close in value and resonate with one another, more
so because of the dark centres. While the chestnuts are modeled, the background is flat and this
makes the picture appear decorative. The choice of colour and tone also make the chestnuts
appear to be compressed into the front plane. So without illusion the surface is modernist and
becomes the flat plane upon which the words are written. In essence, the visual surface becomes
a wallpaper upon which words are written. By relating in the same terms, graphic and flat, we
find a basic similarity beneath surface differences that is the essence of metaphor.
2b. Poster for: Het Laatste Oordeel [The Last Judgement]/ Freek de Jonge (designed by Paul
Roos,
Eelko Groenewegen and Micha de Bie - Fabrique [design, communications and new media] )
‘Freek de Jonge is a stand up comedian. His father was a vicar and one way or another
Freek acts like his father. He often makes gestures with his index finger. When the design
process was started there was the intention to make a drawing with one finger. And by making
the drawing in a kind of Japanese manga style it would look a little special and strange. Japanese
manga style is the mainstream style for comic books in Japan. It's characterized by clear lines,
forms as simple as possible, and the basic use of color (most of the times black and white). In
recent years this was a hip style for music and youth related flyers and posters. Freek de Jonge
isn't hip at all so adapting this style and combining it with more classical oriented type gave the
poster a kind of undefined surrealistic flavor.
The one finger also referred to the title of the show which means The Last Judgement.
After 9/11 (i.e, the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2002)
we changed the one finger into a peace sign and from that it was a small step to cutting the tops
off. It's hard to recall the exact process. The typography is big but delicate. It has a theatre feel.
And let me repeat: the biggest problem is that a lot of design decisions aren't that pure in a sense
that they are a perfect example of using a metaphor. Most of the time the final decision to
Metaphor in Art and Design
“freeze” the design is based on a complex structure of decisions.’
17
This poster provides an excellent example of the way that a visual image can provide a
salient context within which verbal content can become embedded so as to achieve maximum
metaphorical resonance. It especially highlights the importance of interpretive context because
The Last Judgement poster is seen in relation to the bombing of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2002. The bloody cartoon treatment of the cut off fingers brings home all too
poignantly the cruel ironies of the show’s title. In fact, this paper is being written in February of
2003 while we await an immanent war between the United States and Iraq. With this context in
mind, the painting Amerika and The Last Judgement poster take on fresh meaning. It is a special
quality of successful metaphor that it reawakens meaningful experience, but always in an
appropriate context (Forceville, 1996).
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
The industrial design process focuses on the development of useful items but at the same
time considers the interaction between commodities and users both in relation to self image and
emotional experience. A person’s attachment to a particular design object will reflect the extent
to which a bridge has been created between the two. According to the model developed here, the
unified and meaningful experience of a design object will reflect the extent to which the function
of the object becomes embedded in its form. In other words, when a person looks at a successful
design piece, there will be an immediate and spontaneous experience of unity; the sensory
experience (visual, tactile, auditory, taste, and so on) gives a direct meaning to the function of
the work thereby providing a basis for product attachment.
DESIGNER’S STATEMENT: Matthijs van Dijk (extracted from Hekkert and van Dijk, 2001)
3a and 3b. Link
‘The Belgium company Durlet develops luxury, leather sitting furniture for more
expensive market segments. In 1999, they approached the Dutch design agency KVD to design a
concept seating element for 2005. The agency emphasized two context factors. With respect to
the status that so often surrounds the high-quality products of Durlet, KVD selected the
development that status more and more results from the relationship with products. Instead of it
Metaphor in Art and Design
18
being an intrinsic property, the meaning of status emanates from a personal and convincing
interaction. Next, they highlighted the trend that people start to recognize the importance of
emotions in human behaviour and thinking. Therefore, KVD wanted to seduce people and let
them feel the space to show their emotions. From the status factor, they derived that status can be
obtained when you involve other people in your interaction with products.
These two positions resulted in the design of Link (see Figure 3A), a sitting element
constructed of three interconnected hassocks that invite to be used in many different ways. You
can either expose yourself completely by facing the centre, or hide your vulnerability by turning
your back to the other two bulges. The quality of the fabrics, patterns, and stitches, the
monolithic and organic shape, and the fact that Link can be used by more people at the same
time, ensure that users cannot avoid interacting with the product. The naturalness of their
interaction will eventually determine the amount of status Link can provide.
The metaphor is, in my opinion, about “connection”. This product emphasizes the
connection between the different users which will result in their behaviour (see Figure 3B). Their
behaviour will tell something about their social capabilities, their social status. This artificial
human connection is literally accomplished by the physical connection of the three hassocks. The
metaphor thus expresses the relationship between the psychological domain and the physical,
structural, domain and can both be described as “being connected”.’
This sofa-chair provides an excellent example of how metaphor is realized in the
successful industrial design product: the function of the successful design object disappears into
its visual form.
In other words, the purpose of this sofa-chair, which is to bring people together, is expressed in
its very configuration. It looks like what it is at a metaphorical level and, hence, the piece speaks
for itself at many levels encompassing the function, the visual, and the social.
ARCHITECTURE
4. L’institut du Monde Arabe [Prof. Dr. Paul Hekkert]
‘When you approach L’institut du Monde Arabe, the overall view of the building appears
as a carefully designed composition that makes a reference to carpets we know from Islamic
cultures. In this way, the architect, Jean Nouvel, has succeeded in making a connection between
the function of the building - a center for Arabic cultures - and its design. [This fact is already a
metaphor in that the experience of the whole is shaped by the building's facade] Getting closer to
the building, you discover that the various circular elements constituting the overall design, are
in fact diaphragms that could open up and stop down and in this way regulate the amount of
sunlight entering the building. Thus, at a local level the view of the building is different from the
view at the global level, but both views make sense and do not exclude each other. To the
contrary, the fact that the same circular elements have a different (and relevant) function at the
local and global level enhances the experience at both levels and contributes highly to the overall
experience of the building.’
Metaphor in Art and Design
19
This building provides an example of conjunctive ambiguity and its resolution through
the linking of parts and wholes.
CONCLUSIONS
There have been many different treatments of the problem of metaphor in visual images.
Some scholars have examined the ‘interanimation’ of two or more pictorial images that are copresent (Rothenberg, 1980) and layered one upon the other (i.e., homospatially), or in Surrealist
painting (Forceville, 2002), in which case the emphasis is on semantic interplay. Another
approach might emphasize symbolic metaphors in Christian visual art of the medieval period or
metaphoric illustrations in novels (V. Kennedy, 1994). The focus in this paper was on the
‘interanimation’ of qualitatively different domains: subject matter and style in art and graphic
design, as well as function and form in industrial design and architecture.
The theoretical position proposed here is consistent with the interactive approach to
verbal (Black, 1962, 1993), visual (Hausman, 1989), and functional (Schön, 1993) metaphors.
The central point of my argument, as an extension of Tversky’s (1977) concept of asymmetric
similarities, is that vehicles shape the unified metaphoric experience of tenors, and not viceversa, because they are relatively more concrete on the continuum upward from sensory to
verbal and then symbolic information. This tacit, implicit, and spontaneous influence of the
vehicle on the tenor takes place when a non-literal intention is signaled or understood in an
appropriate context. One might say that the salient and concrete qualities of the vehicle feedforward to merge with the tenor in a unified psychological moment termed the metaphorical
experience.
In relation to art, graphic and industrial design, and architecture, the attendant hierarchy
begins at the physical/sensory level from which meaningful experience emerges and moves
upward to the domains of subject matter and function. The qualities of the underlying sensory
and stylistic structure in successful art and design artefacts stimulate resonances with the
Metaphor in Art and Design
20
intended meanings of the subject matter or the object’s function. As a result, the subject matter or
function merge with the underlying structure or form. This harmony builds bridges across the
vast gulf of differences that contrast the mere sensory domain with the verbal or functional level
of organization thereby bringing coherence to our engagement or absorption in the work or
object.
Metaphor in Art and Design
21
References
Abercrombie, L. (1926). Theory of poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Aldrich, V.C. (1968). Visual metaphor, Journal of aesthetic education. 2, 73-80/
Anderson, C.C. (1964). The psychology of the metaphor. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 105,
53-73.
Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual thinking. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Arnheim, R. (1971). Art and visual perception: A psychology of the creative eye. Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
Avital, T. (2003). Art versus nonart: Art out of mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Berlyne, D.E. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Berlyne, D. E. (1971). Aesthetics and psychobiology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts
Black, M. (1962 ). Models and metaphors. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Black, M. (1993). More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 19-41).
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Cupchik, G.C., Leonard, G., Axelrad, E., & Kalin, J. (1998). The landscape of emotion in
literary reception: Generating and receiving interpretations of James Joyce.
Cognition and Emotion, 12(6), 825-847.
Flavell, J.H. (1963). The developmental psychology of Jean Piaget. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold.
Forceville, C. (1996). Pictorial metaphor in advertising. London: Routledge.
Forceville, C. (2002). The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors. Journal of
pragmatics. 34, 1-14.
Gerrig, R.J. (1989). Empirical constraints on computational theories of metaphor: comments on
Metaphor in Art and Design
22
Indurkhya. Cognitive Science, 13, 235-241.
Gibbs, R.W. (1990). The process of understanding literary metaphor. Journal of literary
semantics,
XIX, 65-79.
Gibbs, R.W. (1994). The poetic of mind: Figurative thought, language, and understanding. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Glucksberg, S. (2001). Understanding figurative language: From metaphors to idioms. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Gombrich, E. (1963). Meditations on a hobby horse and other essays on the theory of art.
London: Phaidon Press.
Handelman, S. A. (1982). The slayers of Moses: The emergence of rabbinic interpretation in
modern literary theory. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Hausman, C. R. (1989). Metaphor and art. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hekkert, P. and van Dijk, M.B. (2001). Designing from context: Foundations and applications of
the ViP approach. In P. Lloyd and H. Christiaans (Eds.), Designing in context:
Proceedings of Design Thinking Research Symposium 5 (pp. 383-394). Delft: DUP
Science.
Iser, W. (1978). The act of reading. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
Kennedy, J.M. (1982). Metaphor in pictures. Perception, 11, 589-605.
Kennedy, V. (1994). Pictures as metaphors in Tackeray’s illustrated novels. Metaphor and
symbolic activity. 9(2), 135-147.
Kogan, N., Connor, K., Gross, A., & Fava, D. (1980). Understanding visual metaphor:
Developmental and individual differences. Monographs of the Society for Research in
Child Development, 45(1, Serial No. 183).
Kris, E. (1952). Psychoanalytic explorations in art. New York: Schocken.
Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and
thought
(pp. 202-251). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Metaphor in Art and Design
23
Martindale, C. (1969). The psychology of literary change. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
Harvard University.
Martindale. C. (1990). The clockwork muse: The predictability of artistic change. New York:
Basic Books.
Ortony, A. (1979). Beyond literal similarity. Psychological Review, 86, 161-180.
Osgood, C. (1953). Method and theory in experimental psychology. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Paivio, A. & Walsh, M. (1993). Psychological processes in metaphor comprehension and
memory. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 307-328). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Richards, I.A. (1965). The philosophy of rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press. (Original
work published in 1936)
Ricoeur, P. (1975). The rule of metaphor: Multidisciplinary studies of the creation of meaning in
language. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (Trans. By R. Czerny with K.
McLaughlin and J. Costello).
Rothenberg, A. (1980). Homospatial thinking in creative process. Leonardo, 13, 17-27.
Rothenberg, A. (1988). The creative process of psychotherapy. New York: Norton.
Rothenberg, A. (1990). Creativity and madness: New findings and old stereotypes. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Schön, D.A. (1993). Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy. In
A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 137-163). New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Searle, J.R. (1993). Metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 83-111). New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Steen, G. (1994). Understanding metaphor in literature. New York: Longman.
Straus, E.W. (1958). Aesthesiology and hallucination. In R. May,E. Angel, and Henri F.
Metaphor in Art and Design
24
Ellenberger (Eds.), Existence (pp. 139-169). New York: Basic Books. (Trans. by E.W.
Straus and B. Morgan)
Tversky, A. (1977). Features of similarity. Psychological Review, 84, 327-352.
Winner, E. (1988). The point of words: Children’s understanding of metaphor and irony.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Winner, E., & Gardner, H. (1993). Metaphor and irony: Two levels of understanding. In A.
Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 425-443). New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Metaphor in Art and Design
25
Author Notes
1. A special thanks to Lanny Shereck, Jeroen van Erp, and Matthijs van Dijk for preparing and
sharing commentaries on their own creative work, and to Paul Hekkert for his commentary on
the architectural work, L’institut du Monde Arabe.
The author would like to thank colleagues and friends who read an initial draft of this paper
and offered helpful comments, criticisms, and suggestions. They include: Tsion Avital, Paul
Hekkert, Keith Oatley, Krista Phillips, Constantine Poulos, Albert Rothenberg, and Gerard
Steen.
2. Personal communication from Albert Rothenberg.
Metaphor in Art and Design
26
Figure Captions
Figure 1. Photograph of the bandana (1a) used as a motif in the painting Amerika (1b) by Lanny
Shereck.
Figure 2a. Cover for The Watchman / Peaceful Artillery CD (designed by Pieter Aarts, John van
der Maat and Jeroen van Erp - Fabrique [design, communications and new media]) .
Figure 2b. Poster for Het Laatste Oordeel [The Last Judgement]/ Freek de Jonge (designed by
Paul Roos, Eelko Groenewegen and Micha de Bie - Fabrique [design, communications
and new media]).
Figure 3. Leather sofa chair, Link (a) (designed by Matthijs van Dijk of the Dutch design agency
KVD for the Belgian furniture design company Durlet) with two possible seating
configurations (b).
Figure 4. L’institut du Monde Arabe, Paris [Center for Arabic cultures], Jean Nouvel, Architect.