Autocommunication and Perceptual Markers in Landsc

Authors: Kati Lindström

Publish Date: 2010/04/23

Volume: 3, Issue: 3, Pages: 359-373

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Abstract

Juri Lotman distinguishes between two main types of communication In addition to the classical IYOU communication he speaks about II communication where both the addresser and the addressee are one and the same person Contrary to how it sounds autocommunication is not selfsufficient musing inside one’s self it is remodelling oneself through a code from an entity outside oneself be it animate or inanimate According to Lotman it is often the rhythmical phenomena like poetry the rhythm of waves etc that lend themselves for the act of autocommunication as external codes After having received the message one is not identical to the original oneself anymore Perceptual markers of landscape—specific rhythms ephemera the rhythm of human everyday activities bodily movement—can be considered as a secondary code leading to autocommunication in the person who contemplates the landscape Looking at the landscape—which also implies the rhythmical movement of the eyes—one uses it as a code to reconstitute oneself A person who has confronted a landscape does not leave it as the same person The present article poses a definition of autocommunication in landscapes and discusses the way in which other sensorial information apart from the visual—smell movement rhythms etc—are used culturally to reinforce autocommunication with oneself It can be said that several institutionalised religious and cultural practices expect the subject to reconstitute him or herself mainly through the bodily landscape experience

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