Image or Word?
June 11, 2008
Everyday on my way to work during the primaries, I would pass this t-shirt in the window…
and each day, because I am already by nature open to the wiles of momentary dyslexic interpretations, would think, ‘This design is betting either on its general audience being more trustful of IMAGE to speak intention, or of WORD’… which would be a fascinating study. Do we think the word we see is the one intended…or the image as bearer of truth? Or to what degree does our own preference of the outcome play the predominant role in what we believe the image to mean?
Of course my chosen personal interpretation was as a wish, in that I want both to be on the ticket together to lead this country in BOTH image and word, in whatever configuration that must take to make it happen. As usual, I am pretty sure I was not on the same wavelength as the t-shirt designer in that interpretation, but walking by that image daily, suggestive of both together in one moment, increased my sense that only with both together does America have a perfect candidate to shift world opinion of this country, whose chasm between word & image has never been further divided.
