Percevoir et reconnaître des symboles. La théorie de la représentation iconique de Dominic Lopes.

Perceiving and recognizing symbols.
Dominic Lopes’ theory of iconic representation.

In his works on the epistemological value of images (Understanding Pictures - 1996), Dominic Lopes (Department of Philosophy - University of British Columbia) develops an analytical aesthetics primarily concerned with iconic representation. His analysis distinguishes two models of iconic representation comprehension. In the first model, inspired by perceptual approaches like that of Richard Wollheim, the process of image recognition is rooted in perception (to sum it up: perceptualism embraces the idea of « likeness » between the image and what it represents). One of this model’s shortcomings, however, is that it too readily assumes that perception can be a natural, straightforward process. Indeed, iconic representation can not be understood through perception alone, as vision is of course influenced by cultural and, most of all, cognitive processes. A representative model thus needs to account for the ways in which iconic recognition differs from ordinary visual recognition. In the second model, which build off of symbolic approaches like that of Nelson Goodman, iconic representation works the same way as other types of symbols, particularly linguistic ones. Thus, this approach considers the similarities between images and language (representations which are both affected by processes of denotation and predication). However, we all know how strongly image theoreticians have been resisting the linguistic paradigm (iconic turn topic): some worry about overlooking the image’s semantic density in favor of its « simple » descriptive quality. Lopes finds a path between these two models by developing a « theory of aspect recognition », which incorporates perceptive elements into a symbolic structure. According to Lopes, if we agree that images belong to symbolic systems of denotation, then « they might be symbols for which the reference is dependent on the carrying out of perceptive aptitudes », a claim which my talk will explore. I will also discuss how Lopes’ theory accounts for skills acquisition (the capacity to recognize) through images, and shows how images help these skills progressively develop.