Overtones and Undertones
“There, along with the vibration of a basic dominant tone, comes a whole series of similar vibrations, which are called overtones and undertones. Their impacts against each other, their impacts with the basic tone, and so on, envelop the basic tone in a whole host of secondary vibrations. If in acoustics these collateral vibrations become merely “disturbing” elements, these same vibrations in music-in composition, become one of the most significant means for affect by the experimental composers of our century, such as Debussy and Scriabin.
Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein – The fourth dimension
What do I remember most about a city
The wind, the view, the air quality, the colors, the smell, the streets, the people, the food, the spiritual connection?
The Third Meaning
“The obtuse meaning can be seen as an accent, the very form of an emergence, of a fold (a crease even) marking the heavy layer of information and significations.”
(Roland Barthes – The Third Meaning)
The Fourth Dimension
A gray old man,
A gray old woman,
A white horse,
A snow-covered roof,
we are still far from certain whether this sequence is working towards a dominating indication of “old age” or of “whiteness.” Such a sequence of shots might proceed for some time before we finally discover that guiding-shot which immediately “christens” the whole sequence in one “direction” or another.
(Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein – The fourth dimension – )
The General Line
Perception
“I believe that the obtuse meaning carries a certain emotion. Caught up in the disguise, such emotion is never sticky, it is an emotion which simply designates what one loves, what one wants to defend: an emotion-value, an evaluation.” (Roland Barthes – The Third Meaning)
Abstract
“Obtuse meanings are to be found not everywhere (the signifier is rare, a future figure) but somewhere: in other authors of films (perhaps), in a certain manner of reading ‘life’ and so ‘reality’ itself (the word is simply used here in opposition to the deliberately fictive). “ (Roland Barthes – The Third Meaning)
Suggestive
“First and foremost, obtuse meaning is discontinuous, indifferent to the story and to the obvious meaning (as signification of the story). This dissociation has a de-naturing or at least a distancing effect with regard to the referent (to ‘reality’ as nature, the realist instance). “ (Roland Barthes – The Third Meaning)
