No hobo!

I endured a rather painful exercise in academic posturing in college while attending a class called visual culture. It was taught by an intellectual heavyweight who was saddled with the regrettable task of teaching a bunch of computer art, illustration, graphic design, fashion, et al., majors (and me, an art history major) about semiotics and other post-modern philosophies. The problem was that we had signed up for the class thinking that we would be dissecting advertisements' subliminal messages and other forms of corporate evil. Sadly no. Instead, we had to sit through lectures on Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Baudrillard, and other people who had spent so much time sequestered in the ivory tower that they actually think that their theories make sense.

The reason I bring this up is because a friend of mine needed to ship some things, but he did not have a suitable box. I volunteered to bring him some from home. However, as I do not have a car I was required to carry them with me on my way to work.

The items he was shipping were rather large and bulky, requiring boxes of substantial size as well. The boxes I selected were mroe cumbersome than heavy, but I'm sure that I was a sight to see.

I'm sure several of the people that drove past me thought that I was a crazy person declaring that the end is near, or homeless with a will-work-for-food sign. This is a rather silly postulation as I was walking with my ear buds from my ipod crammed firmly in my ears and the distinctive white power cord was sticking out. I also had on a nice scarf and a well tailored blazer. The last time I checked most bums were unable to have luxuries like mp3 players.

My point is that "signs" are flawed. Not signs like, stop, yield, etc., Those are quite good and useful too. But to say that we can interpret so-called "signs" and semiotics embedded in our culture is silly as meaning can vary based on context. Yes, I was carrying a large piece of cardboard, which is often interpreted in our culture as an end-time prophet or homeless person. But like many things in life I choose the subversive route and prefer that not everything is as it seems.

So, the next time you see some one walking down the street with what looks like a giant piece of cardboard, don't automatically homeless person. It may be me, lugging another box to her job site. I know I'll probably catch hell from "real" academics decrying that I don't truly grasp the true purpose of semiotics, and based on my knowledge from my class I'd say that's a fair assessment. But as my experience demonstrates, not everything in the world is as it seems. Just another rumination from the road.