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Emotional reactions

Artist's Book
1981 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

'Emotional reactions' uses as its background a facsimile text taken from a 1923 research paper entitled, 'The measurement of emotional reactions: researches on the psycho-galvanic reflex' by David Weschler. Superimposed onto this text are images of ephemeral objects - a label reading 'Fragile, a dead fledgling, old snapshots, a battered 'Old Maid' playing card juxtaposed with a cinema ticket that reads 'Admit One'. This imagery forms its own narrative that can be read in isolation from the text, or can be taken in conjunction with the information that lies beneath. The interplay of image and text sets up contrasts and juxtapositions - coloured pictures against black and white text, the ambiguity of the images versus precise scientific language, the haphazard placing of objects across ordered columns of typed text, the applied emotions of the apparently autobiographical imagery resting on dry, impersonal research. Through this use of symbolism, Zweig questions the validity of scientifically quantifying 'emotional reactions' in a humourous and though-provoking way.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleEmotional reactions (published title)
Materials and techniques
Prined book with colour images superimposed onto pages
Brief description
Artist's book 'Emotional reactions' by Janet Zweig, Visual Studies Workshop, New York, 1981
Physical description
Artist's book consisting of colour images superimposed onto the facsimile text of 'The measurement of emtional reactions: researches on the psycho-galvanic reflex' by David Weschler.

47 pages.
Dimensions
  • Height: 29cm
Summary
'Emotional reactions' uses as its background a facsimile text taken from a 1923 research paper entitled, 'The measurement of emotional reactions: researches on the psycho-galvanic reflex' by David Weschler. Superimposed onto this text are images of ephemeral objects - a label reading 'Fragile, a dead fledgling, old snapshots, a battered 'Old Maid' playing card juxtaposed with a cinema ticket that reads 'Admit One'. This imagery forms its own narrative that can be read in isolation from the text, or can be taken in conjunction with the information that lies beneath. The interplay of image and text sets up contrasts and juxtapositions - coloured pictures against black and white text, the ambiguity of the images versus precise scientific language, the haphazard placing of objects across ordered columns of typed text, the applied emotions of the apparently autobiographical imagery resting on dry, impersonal research. Through this use of symbolism, Zweig questions the validity of scientifically quantifying 'emotional reactions' in a humourous and though-provoking way.
Other number
X890024 - NAL Pressmark
Collection
Library number
38041989023148

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Record createdFebruary 6, 2014
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