Material Construction of Textuality

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    Florence Margaret Paisey

    Professor E. Treharne

    December 2011

    The Material Construction of Textuality

    Textuality and materiality are indivisible. Material forms or materiality and its

    textuality inhere meaning and hermeneutics, creating a substrate of textuality that is both

    enacted and performed through technologies, whether in digital objects and artifacts or

    physical artifacts. Inscription or textuality creates materiality. My argument, therefore,

    rests on the notion that the substrate of textuality and its materiality are interwoven and

    occur as sociotechnical performances, so that the construction of text, as McKenzie has

    stated, embodies its materiality or the material construction or textuality (McKenzie 14).

    This constructed materiality or substrate of a text unites with textual forms to produce

    a mise-en-page, interacting with its elements, such as typography, producing textual

    interpretive potentialities greater than the sum of their separate or discrete parts.

    Durkheim (1895) viewed the whole as greater than the sum of its parts so it is with

    materiality and textuality. Each inheres embedded, self-evident meaning and rhetoric that

    contributes to a holistic sense of communication.

    Greetham (11) holds that any medium of communication technology graffiti,

    painting, fresco, architectural space, musical composition or book is the purview of the

    textual scholar. He maintains that it is for the textual scholar to grasp the sense of these

    forms, their function, and their sense or ontology and content. Material forms or

    materiality and the informational content contained within, textuality, inhere meaning and

    hermeneutics.

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    Textuality, then constructs materiality in all forms and characterizes the technologies

    deployed such as the architecture of the mise-en-page. This page, so often taken for

    granted, is not simply a receptacle for the transmission of ideas (Mak 9). The page, in

    itself, together with inscribed traces, such as typography, communicates sense or meaning

    and often influences ones thought. This relationship between the materiality of the page

    and its elements is of consequence. Materiality and the material construction of textuality

    have been reciprocal from the origins of recorded messages in antiquity, such as clay

    tables to current digital media. The historical passage of the material constructions of

    textuality and the mise-en-page form a dynamic relationship with a historical progression

    of material constructions and textuality or the organization of information on a page.

    However, what exactly constitutes the mise-en-page? As stated previously, the mise-

    en-page is the material construction of texts words, graphics, markers, memorials,

    symphonies, paintings or artefacts that are inclusive of all communication technologies

    from papyrus prayer scrolls, scripts, Roman lapidary letterforms to digital media and the

    typography allied with digital media. Each form of a mise-en-page organizes information

    differently, yet each forms a material, if invisible or intangible, construction of textuality

    and how that textuality is displayed.

    However, before addressing the importance of the technology of the mise-en-page and

    the effects of the technology of letterforms or typography on the transmission of

    messages or communication, let us turn to the factors that underpin continued growth and

    sustainability of textual technologies, in general. How did the mise-en-page evolve; what

    factors led to its continued growth and sustenance?

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    The notion of what factors determine the success or failure of a technology lies at

    the heart of the growth and sustenance of textual technologies in general and the mise-en-

    page together with specific letterforms, specifically. In recognizing the social dimension

    of textual technologies, one is also acknowledging that the social as well as the technical

    are collaborative in shaping what technologies develop and how they are purposed. This

    relates as much to textual technologies as it does to a bicycle, mailbox or spoon.

    The sociotechnical theorists, Pinch & Bijker stated, If [technologies] evolve or

    change, it is because they have been pressed into that shape (13). In this sense, the social

    can be viewed as a path of associations between unstable heterogeneous elements.

    What processes and associations influence the shape and direction of technologies? Why

    do technologies develop in one direction, rather than another? What pressed the mise-en-

    page of the clay tablet into papyrus, and papyrus into parchment, vellum, paper, and all

    materiality that undergirds textuality? What moved letterforms from cuneiform to

    Hebrew forms, Greek, and Latin, which, ultimately, became identified as the Roman

    alphabet and the basis on which variations of Western letterforms or typefaces evolved?

    Textual technologies have taken on many forms from monuments to scrolls to tattoos

    and digital media. Clearly each textual technology and the materiality on which it is

    constructed carry variant meanings, functions and content. They are sociotechnical

    communication technologies. How have textual technologies, in particular the mise-en-

    page and letterforms, been shaped or constructed by social dimensions? What social,

    economic, historical and technical negotiations have directed their innovation, evolution

    and their diversity? What motivates an individual or groups to appropriate a particular

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    technology or artifact, enlarge (cultural norms) while discarding another? These issues

    are at the heart of a sociotechnical perspective.

    The sociotechnical point of view maintains that the social and the technical do not

    develop as mutually exclusive entities, propelled by separate systems of internal logic or

    determinism. They develop in counterpoint, seamlessly, within heterogeneous

    contingencies that societal, economic, political, scientific, professional and psychological

    dimensions impress. This sociotechnical perspective maintains the perspective (and

    assumption) that technology, the social world, and the course of history should all be

    treated as messy contingencies (Bijker & Law 8).

    One of the seminal papers that sets forth principles aimed at explaining the dynamics

    of sociotechnical innovation is Pinch & Bijkers The Social Construction of Facts and

    Artefacts or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit

    Each Other. They state, science and technology are both socially constructed

    cultures and bring to bear whatever cultural resources are appropriate for the purposes at

    hand (Pinch & Bijker 404).

    Pinch & Bijker emphasize that elaborate social, scientific, and technological shaping

    occurs owing to discourse and negotiations within social and technical environments.

    The organizing principles encompassed in this discourse open the black box of

    technological development by identifying the actors and agents involved in technological

    innovation, its perceived applications, utilization, advancement, and integral social

    applications. Pinch & Bijker refer to this unit of organizing principles, framework, or

    theory as the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT). I will argue that SCOT does,

    indeed, offer a logical set of propositions that, when applied as a unit, will offer an

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    empirical means of understanding how textual technologies are parlayed, applied, and

    directed as part of a cohesive, yet fluid, social fabric and construction.

    While Pinch & Bijker focused on sociotechnical innovations such as the bicycle,

    aircraft, and household appliances, their perspective addressed what factors move or

    drive any technology this would include textual technologies. And, from a

    sociotechnical perspective, textual technologies of all forms and functions need to be

    relevant to a social need or interest, be economically advantageous and politically

    valuable certainly as a means of disseminating information whether as affirmation or

    protest. The central precepts that arise from this proposition include relevant social

    groups, interpretive flexibility, the technological frame, inclusion,

    controversies, stabilization and closure.

    In terms of SCOT, each relevant social group is characterized by particular variables

    and each group holds a stake in a particular technology or feature of a technology,

    including textual technologies. Were movable type irrelevant to the interests of

    significant social groups, another textual technology would have developed as

    negotiations among stakeholders altered the artifact and reached stabilization or

    resolution. Aldus Manutius script, lettera antica, became a model for many engravers

    (Jean 98). Manutiuss octavo format supplanted the quarto as a portable, inexpensive

    codex. University students needed a less expensive, portable, book. In turn, as the

    octavos size required smaller pages, the composition, organization and layout of the

    page evolved while also ushering in letterforms suitable to a smaller format.

    Sociotechnical factors moved and directed the flow the innovation both for the mise-en-

    page and the inscribed letterforms.

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    The key principles in sociotechnical construction and potential technological success

    are the interpretive flexibility, the amount of inclusion or perceived meaning that a

    technology offers, and relevant social groups within a technological frame. This

    social constructivist perspective on technology identifies, conceptualizes, describes, and

    explains technological progression and the significant factors in play during its social

    construction. That is to say, SCOT views technological development as a dialectical

    sociotechnical construction enacted between innovators and stakeholders or relevant

    social groups (Pinch & Bijker 406). As a theory, SCOT furnishes an explanation for an

    applied area of inquiry it aims to explain the success [or failure] of an artefact.

    Having briefly discussed a few precepts of SCOT and the rationale it offers for the

    stabilization of technological innovations, it is now appropriate to turn to the textual

    technologies of the mise-en-page and letterforms each of which complements the other.

    Bringhurst states, A page like a building or a room can be of any size and proportion,

    but some are more pleasing than others, and some have quite specific connotations

    (143). The design of a page, or mise-en-page, consists of lines or forms and the

    relationships among those elements. The functions of such design are manifold and may

    include imparting information or knowledge, influencing beliefs, attitudes, impressions,

    or behavior, entertaining, achieving an aesthetic quality that is compelling to readers.

    Any one of these notions describes a function of the mise-en-page, although any one text

    can include all of the above. Consider the following image, recently published in the New

    Yorker magazine. This image without letterforms imparts information, aims to

    influence attitudes, achieves an aesthetic quality and dignity that elevates its message

    and, clearly, opens views to its message.

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    JRs Mise-en-Page of Protest in a Brazilian favela -- The New Yorker Magazine,

    November 28, 2011

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    This is a text of protest. As depicted, the shanties in the Brazilian slum are painted

    clearly, the most flagrant images are the eyes and their positioning as they look out and

    over the slum. This mural followed a Brazilian military raid, thought to be connected to

    the Brazilian mafia. Three young men of the favela were killed. Afterward, the generally

    quiet and socially isolated community rioted in protest. Although many were injured

    during the riot, no medical aid was called or administered. Following the riot, the painted

    eyes throughout the favela began to appear. The painter responsible for the images is JR,

    a French painter who heard of the killings, traveled to Rio, introduced himself to

    residents of the community and began painting. The residents said they wanted dignity

    JR sought to attract attention to the plight of this community (Khatchadourian 56).

    This mural lacks letterforms, yet it is a mise-en-page and it is an unambiguous

    example of how materiality restricts or constrains textuality, compelling the artist to

    innovate and find a means of depicting a narrative within the constraints of the

    materiality. The favela emerges as a conceptual structure that directed the organization or

    composition of the information or images. The proportions of the mural are balanced and

    linked to individuals like a printed page, this mural evokes certain responses in the

    reader, independently of the discrete elements in the mural or text on a printed page.

    Materiality and textuality are linked their meanings conflated, content and function

    fused.

    Text or letterforms on a page have values, social, individual, cultural, and phonetic.

    They are representations of thought and speech that express rhythmic meter and, like

    poetry, that rhythmic meter embraces meaning, communication, and functionality. The

    combination of the printed mise-en-page and letterform (including punctuation, paratext,

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    rubrics, rubrication, running titles, and marginalia) all offer the reader interpretative

    potentialities and performances. Mak states, ...structures for arranging these letterforms

    in manuscripts and printed books are graphic indications of how graphic designers

    visualized ideas and organized them for themselves and others (16).

    Early page designers divided the page to aid reading and understanding. One of the

    most influential Protestant bibles was the Geneva Bible; its influence and popularity

    related strongly to the interpretive aids provided. These aid included study features such

    as illustrations, maps, annotations, marginalia, and the Roman letterforms that facilitated

    reading. A few editions of this bible were issued with Gothic blacklettering, but what

    became the household bible for nearly a century, just preceding the King James Bible,

    was lettered with a clear, legible, serious Roman Textura letterform and Robert

    Estiennes numbered verses. These reading aids, as identified above, contextualized the

    reading experience in elemental ways.

    The mise-en-page and typography are expressive features of materiality and textuality;

    they are cultural artefacts and technological innovations. Each innovation has developed

    and been negotiated socially as well as economically until the most stable form was

    attained. The great typographers, Aldine, Grippo, Jensen, Estienne, Garamond, Gill,

    Morris all achieved a balance between art and sociotechnical variables. Jenson, however,

    is noted particularly for his contribution to the mise-en-page, which became a model of

    composition and arrangement on the page. Jensen succeeded in translating the humanistic

    script from manuscript to type where legibility of forms and spacing of letters, so that

    they provide a match between counters (Chappell 79).

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    The variety of typefaces developed since the 15th century, when the printing press

    was invented, has given mise-en-page an immense range of possibilities. Yet, despite this

    range, generally letterforms may be traced back to scribal origins. Although many

    computers, for example, make available more than 100 fonts, with options for lightface,

    boldface or italic; for black and white or a variety of colors; and for a wide range of type

    sizes, all of these options, ultimately, derive from scribal forms or early letterforms and

    typography.

    The mise-en-page done well depends not just on the prudent use of letterforms and

    organization, but also on the application of basic design principles. Among them are

    balance, contrast, proportion, and unity. Among these principles are balance, contrast,

    proportion, and unity. Jensen, again, was a master of this perspective. The concept of

    page or mise-en-page has expanded with the advance of technology. Clay, papyrus,

    parchment, and vellum were early materials, as were the walls of caves such as Lascaux

    and other topographical features. (The carvings of historical faces on Mount Rushmore

    are modern extensions of this, as are graffiti and murals on the walls of buildings.)

    In conclusion, it is apropos to mention de Saussure and the post-structuralists such as

    Derrida, Barthes, Foucault, and Eco. These semiotic linguists have enlarged and

    deepened our understanding of materiality and textuality what one views as a conflation

    of messages embedded in the mise-en-page and the placement of its letterforms together

    with the letterform, itself, can be further understood in light of de Saussures sign and

    Strauss floating signifier. Each form of materiality and textual inscription conveys a

    message, a communication. These messages reach the reader as signs that ones culture

    and society have established with specific connotations. Although the sense of signs

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    existed from antiquity, an awareness of what triggers the messaging in textual, material

    constructions extends our understanding of technological textuality and role that

    materiality plays in its multi-layered communication.

    The shaping and direction of textual technologies rests on sociotechnical factors where

    social and economic issues play into the direction innovation moves and attains stability.

    Neither technical achievement nor technological innovation proceeds along a detached,

    linear, deterministic path. Rather, scientific anomalies and social factors influence the

    discovery, construction, design, and production of knowledge and technology, textual

    technologies. One of the many theories on how the social shapes technology is the social

    construction of technology (SCOT). This theoretical framework offers a means of

    analyzing how social factors shape innovations and how the process of innovation, in

    turn, provides insight into how technological innovations develop. AJs mural on the

    shanties in Brazil is an artistic innovation, moved by injustice as a performance,

    inscription, and sign of social protest. The mural or textuality is constrained by the

    materiality of shanties rising up a hillside. The mise-en-page and its counterpoint

    typography are shaped by the material construction of the page and produce a

    personality that functions through its content as a performance for readers.

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    Works Cited

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    Jean, Georges. Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts. New York: Abrams, 1987.

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    Loeb, Marguerite H. "A Collection for the Study of Typography."Bulletin of the

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    Mak, Bonnie.How the Page Matters. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.

    Martin, Michael. "Geertz and the Interpretive Approach in Anthropology." Synthese 97.2

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    McKenzie, D. F.Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts. Cambridge: Cambridge

    University Press, 1984.

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    Wilby E. Bijker, T. Hughes and T. Pinch. Bijker. The Social Construction of Technical

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    Samuel, Raphael. "Reading the Signs."History Workshop 32 (1991): 88-109. Print.

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