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| As explained before the central
sign of the cabbalist tree of life, or classification of the divine emanation,
is the Tipharet, or Tif'eret, also called with the name Rahamim
(Compassion), the sign of Harmony or Beauty. Beauty and Harmony being
also the inner endeavor of designers, I propose to adopt the Tipharet
as
well as a semiotic center of design language.
I would like to cite, as a short introduction to this Sephirot, the following comments by Daniel Matt: * Before descending to this world, the soul is emanated from the mystery of the highest level. While in this world, she is completed and fulfilled by this lower world. Departing this world, she is filled with the fullness of all the worlds, the world above and the world below. * (note 1)For Cabbalists the Tipharetis a topos of heightened consciousness, both of the Divine, Kether, and Malkhut or Shekinah,the undetermined Earthly Matter and other. (note 3). It is the endeavor of human beings to bring harmony between these extremes. This harmony is felt as bliss, or inspiration. Such is also the state of mind of an artist or for that matter, a designer like Rietveld. Modularity for him is effectively not a mere rational instrument for productive scopes but, like rhythm in music, a means to express universal harmony, the marriage of Tipharet and Shekinah. It is a vibration of probability of events, of the density of happening , such as the placement of structural components of his red blue chair. The void intervals between these events become loaded with 'meaning', the silence of non occurrence.(note 4) It is Rietveld's conviction that in order to achieve perfection one must firstly design his own restrictions, formulate the rules of the game, and only then express yourself within these limits. This apparent partial elimination of personal freedom of expression enhances the intensity of the communicative act, resulting in heightened consciousness. A Friday evening wedding ceremony. Form, production, function are subordinated to the orchestrating power of the modules, whereas symbols, allegories and ultimately, beliefs, are here announced for the first time in the semiotic process. We have taken the red blue chair as an example but any other design could have been focussed to explain the Tipharet - Iconic Legisign - Diagram. It expresses in a schematic way the essential concept behind the design as we can see in the following examples:
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| back to the page on modular design in Rietveld's Red Blue Chair |
| The next sign in our analysis of design language is about the production and distribution |
| note 1 | Moses de Leon XIIIth. cent. in:
Daniel C. Matt, The essential Kabbalah. The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Harper Collins, Paperback,, 1996, p.148 |
| note 2 | Matt, op.cit., p.189 |
| note 3 | the Tipharet corresponds also to the first character of the hebrew
alphabet, YOD, meaning the hand, the virgin, or the spritual will, the
seed or the eye of the hart.
cfr. René Guénén, Simboli della scienza sacra, Milan, 1975, p.375 Gareth Knight, A practical guide to qabalistic symbolism, Part 1, p.103 |
| note 4 | in semiology the meaning of rythm and prosody have been studied by
A.J.Greimas in relation to natural languages in
A.J.Greimas, Du Sens, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1974 http://www.guaraldi.it/fabbri/dizionario.htm |
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