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Idea
Generally refers to cognitive activity of any degree of seriousness or triviality, ther term is commonly used to represent
processes considered more important or elaborate than a notion.
e.g.
Notion
Suggests a fleeting, vague, or imperfect thought.
e.g. The teacher had no notion of how to use the brayer in the printing process.
Thought
Reflects a primary emphasis on processes of inquiry and typically denotes less weighty and elaborate forms of representation
than an idea.
e.g. While talking on the phone, a thought occurred to her about ...
Conception
Indicates a thought that seems more complete and complex.
e.g.
When is an idea at issue?
When an idea is contested through social relations, the idea is at issue. An idea at issue reflects multiple perspectives
about the meanings associated with the concept. Different people interpret the meanings and values of ideas in different ways.
Webster's Dictionary states that an idea is "at issue" when it is in a state of controversy, in disagreement, under
discussion, or in dispute.
How do artists address ideas and issues through their art?
Michael Ray Charles studied advertising design and illustration. His artwork examines racial stereotypes in American advertising
from product packaging and billboards to radio jingles and television commercials. Charles compares Sambo, Mammy, and minstrel
images with contemporary mass media portrayals of black youths, celebrities, and athletes. "Im trying to deal with .
. . present and past stereotypes in the context of todays society," noted Charles. "Aunt Jemima is just an image,
but it almost automatically becomes a real person for many people in their minds."
Maya Lin submitted the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in Washington, D.C. Writing about the memorial,
a black granite wedge that emerges from and disappears into the ground, she said it "does not force or dictate how you
should think. In that sense its very Eastern. . . . It reflects me and my parents." Her father was the dean of fine arts
at Ohio State University, and her mother, Julia Chang Lin, is a professor of literature at Ohio University. "As the child
of immigrants you have that sense of Where are you? Wheres home?" noted Lin, "and of trying to make a home."
Metaphors are a way of seeing one thing as if it were something else. Theories associated with metaphors make relationships
apparent that were not otherwise obvious. Metaphor is a fundamental vehicle of human understanding. Metaphor is one of the
ways people make sense of their everyday experiences. They provide us with ways to examine complex issues in a more comprehensible
way. People use metaphors to express the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar.
However, metaphors are anything but a perfect instrument for understanding. They can emphasize some aspects of communication
and minimize, hide, or suppress others.
Metaphors establish a direct relationship between antecedent conditions that we have experienced. Additionally, some theories
have the power to encourage people to create meanings that did not exist before. In this way metaphors actually can create
thoughts or ideas. They are like lenses between our eyes that filter what we are looking at in our life-world. Metaphors have
the potential to distort as well as to clarify.
Taken from Don Krug,
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