Practical Iconography...

I heard a very interesting discussion the other day. It concerned iconic objects that we as humans attribute a sort of special essence to that makes us think twice about alternative usage of them.

Apparently there is a section in a film (Flight from Death, not seen it but sounds interesting enough to be on my 'to see' list.) which runs a small experiment in using iconic objects in non-iconic, out of context uses.

For example, participants were given the task of hanging a picture. The only tools they were given were a nail and a crucifix. Essentially the nail had to be hammered in using the crucifix. Another task was to get a marble out of a pot of ink but the only tool they were given was a USA stars and stripes flag with which to use as a filter to get the marble.

With the crucifix, I imagine if you take off just one of the arms and present it as the tool to use as a hammer, nobody would think twice, but with the wood in that iconic crucifix configuration it makes even those with no emotional investment give the alternative usage a slight consideration. It doesn't matter that it's made from some timber and glue bought from B&Q only a couple of hours ago.

Now flag worship is something that's not so pravalent in this country (I live in the UK but then as Mrs TFP pointed out, people have a bit more affinity for their home nation flag (Scotland's St Andrew's cross or England's St George's Cross for instance) as oppossed to the Union Jack.) but in the US, I imagine the marble and ink scenario has the same sort of thing where had it been just an ordinary piece of cloth, you wouldn't think twice about using it to filter the ink to retrieve the marble but the fact that it has those colours printed in that configuration, makes people think slightly more about the implications of the action.

Even thinking about different mediums is quite interesting. Consider the flag to be printed on a cup and you drop the cup, irrepairably breaking it. Is that the same as defacing or destroying an actual flag? Would hammering a nail into a wall with a plastic crucifix feel any different than using a wooden one? Secondly, would the alternative action for the icon make a difference? I think the thought of stirring soup with a crucifix feels very slightly different than hammering the nail due to the force involved.

I think you could conclude that we are essentially bred or evolved as tribal beings for which these ingrained icons represent the collective. It a very interesting the way the human mind deals with these types of icon.