Entrance : Interpretation and Paradigms

Abstract

When we try to understand our surroundings - places, systems, situations, behaviors - we interpret the stimuli we receive. Starting with a clue, shaped by our memories and our knowledge, we construct a narrative, linking together familiar forms, and an interpretation emerges… we understand, more or less. This complex process, never completely explicit, leaves a particular impression: there is meaning. It does not matter here if this meaning is right, if we have grasped the true significance of the situation; that is another question. But already there is a first great distinction between that which shouts at us and that which says nothing to us. When we do not understand, i.e., we do not recognize anything and cannot guess what is there, the stimuli do nothing to us. Just like certain times in school!