This part of the Schemata Game is intended for those less fearful of pedantry, as it requires a seriousness of approach in the pursuit of a very difficult problem: exactly how it is that art works transmit their meanings to the viewers.

As the answer to this problem will only be solved through the editing and compilation of answers through which the general consensus is formed, as such is the tradition of not only democracy but opinion formation in general, (to paraphrase Quine's words, we build the boat while we are in it) it is hoped that each person will carefully contemplate and rigorously form the answers to each question.

The underlying assumption of course is that even if visual art could endlessly tolerate the empty demands of stylistic revolution tied to the sentimental belief in progress, or even its more current camouflage in the insatiable demands of market-driven fashion changes exuding love for profit married to the nipple pinching thrill associated with rapidly rising and/or disappearing artists, (whew) it is nevertheless championing the obvious to point out that this flaccid version of historical materialism cannot provide an analysis of exactly, precisely, how it is that artworks gain meaning for their viewers. These epistemological demands, alas, fall onto you.

Another and more serious issue is how it comes about that certain symbols – and I use that term in the broadest possible way to include not only subject-matter referred to, but also use of color, texture, negation of image, shape, brushwork, opacity, etc. - come to have meaning for us. Is this all a system that we construct or are there certain innate structures in place to which we are merely conforming? This debate – whether we have imbedded within us platonic universals and natural kinds or whether we get to completely make it up as we go – is an old and unresolved debate. The fact that it exists in aesthetics and not merely in metaphysics is often unrecognized. It is that to which this game points.

The Game is figuring out: How Do Symbols Symbolize? Or: How Do We See When We Look? Or: Just How the Hell Art Means Something, Anything.Art is about transmitting meaning but exactly how that is done is somewhat unclear. This is a game that tries, through interactive and shared responses, to figure just that thing out.For example, when we see a square, what meaning is transmitted in that? If it is imbued with a sense of solidity does that also symbolize perfection? Or stagnation? Or impenetrability? For a more complete version of the author/artist's provisional opinion about the references for each of these symbols, click here.

RULES OF THE GAME:
THERE ARE THREE LEVELS.

LEVEL 1. THE BODY.
These are the Red 1 and Black 1 cards.

The aim of this level of the game is to understand the basic level of visual apperception; a bodily function. It's just using the eyes. From insects' compound eyes, whose ommitidium must give more complex and less univocal information, to mammalian frontal eyes, which take in the world in an automatically unified cognate, the act of looking can't really be that complicated - really. What's it mean to recognize a photograph? So art uses that rarified function and identifies the thing in front of it.

Begin with either the Red or the Black 1, and drag cursor over image. Follow the instructions that follow. Please read the listed component symbols and figure out the meaning carried by each circumscribed section of information. Once both the Black 1 and Red 1 are answered congratulations are in order: You have two of a kind!

You can go to:

LEVEL 2. THE MIND.
These are the Red 2 and Black 2 cards.

It is a more human kind of image seeing and is based in metaphor. Metaphor is more than looking and recognizing a familiar object. It is seeing something as though it were something else. One thing is not just one thing; it is something else as well. It is the this-is-really-that or this-is-also-that form of seeing. Symbolism is a higher level of seeing than the object recognition, which humans share with all other animals. If the participant can articulate the symbolic meaning embedded in the Black 2 and Red 2, then: You have two (2) examples of two of a kind! AND You also have two (2) partial straights!

So:
you can go to:

LEVEL 3. THE SPIRIT.
The Red 3 is the final level for both the red and the black.

This is not just navel gazing; it is not withdrawal. It is the transcendental.

At this level the participant ponders the meaning of transparency, as that is the final symbol in the additional third square.

Democracy takes over at this point and supercedes subjectivity. Each participant is asked to read others' entries and then to vote on the best entry. The participant receiving the most votes at the end of the exhibition will receive the accolade of "Winner" at the closing party, Sept. 9, 2008, and a choice of first prize: either two tickets on the Coney Island Cyclone and the Flea Circus (if it's still there), or a bottle of good whiskey (antidotes for philosophical difficulties).

But, as is the case with most intellectual and artistic endeavors, financial rewards are unsure. We'll just have to see what happens. Good luck.

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