Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

The plastic thought of Pro-Posições covers 1 1 This text is a part of “Dossier: 30 years of Pro-Posições”, organized by Prof. Dr. André Luiz Paulilo; responsible editor: Prof. Dr. André Luiz Paulilo. 2 2 The author thanks Espaço da Escrita – Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa – UNICAMP - for the language services provided.

Abstract 4 4 Abstract Copy editor: José Pereira Queiroz (ze.pereira.queiroz@gmail.com)

This article proposes a reading of the covers of the journal Pro-Posições from a methodological point of view provided by Pierre Francastel’s Historical Sociology of Art based on his key concept of plastic thought. The analysis considered the images, the fonts, and the colors present in the covers, as well as the social history of the agents involved in its elaboration, especially the plastic artists. As a conclusion it is noticed that, over time, the journal has lost its visual characteristics, given the contemporary editorial tendency according to which electronic platforms, such as Scielo, provide a standardized way to edit and publish scientific information. Within this online universe, covers seem to become outdated, which should be problematized. After all, does the notion of cover make sense in the present world of digital scientific journals?

Keywords
Pro-Posições; scientific journal covers; Sociology of Art; Cultural History; Plastic thought (Pensée plastique); Pierre Francastel

Resumo

Este artigo propõe uma leitura das capas da revista Pro-Posições a partir de um caminho metodológico oferecido pela sociologia histórica de arte de Pierre Francastel, com base em seu conceito-chave de pensamento plástico. A análise levou em conta as imagens, as fontes e as cores presentes nas capas, bem como a história social dos agentes envolvidos em sua elaboração, especialmente os artistas plásticos. Como conclusão, percebeu-se que, ao longo do tempo, a revista foi perdendo sua característica visual, atendendo à tendência contemporânea editorial, em que plataformas eletrônicas como a SciELO oferecem um modo padronizado de editar e publicizar informações científicas. Nesse universo on-line, as capas parecem se tornar algo ultrapassado, o que convém ser problematizado. Afinal, faz sentido a noção de capa no mundo do periódico científico digital hoje?

Palavras-chave
Pro-Posições; capas de periódicos científicos; Sociologia da Arte; História cultural; pensamento plástico; Pierre Francastel

Introduction: paths of plastic thought

In short, there is a plastic thought as there is a mathematical thought or a political thought, and this is a form of thought that has been poorly studied until nowadays.

(Pierre Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 03, free translated)

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” says the popular motto. Surely, we must not do this, if we assume that the essential is what is written, the information converted into words. However, how many times have we decided between one edition or another of the same book because of the images we see before even opening it? Moreover: how many times have we started reading a book bearing in mind the illustration of the cover, its colors and lines, its position in relation to the title, the typography fonts that, within their multiple possibilities, outweigh its most obvious function, which is giving a name to what we are about to read in a supposedly objective way, and which start adding meanings to reading? Naivety is believing that all this visuality preceding the very acquisition of the printed material, whether it is a book or a magazine, does not interfere in the reading of the so-called verbal thought6 6 Discuto a questão da relação entre texto e imagem na investigação sociológica em Trevisan (2010). that fills it.

Images constitute a special category of language, a tool of humanity to inform the universe of its values – and such information cannot be found elsewhere; it is the figurative function, as we perceive in the Sociology of Art by Pierre Francastel:

[...] The figurative function is a category of thought as complete as others, and very susceptible to lead to the direct elaboration based on what is perceived in works that comprise its reality and meaning, its logic and structure, without the need for transference and relationships with verbal systems. The figurative function constitutes a category of operative thought or verbal thought, but complementary and generating objects of civilization that testify other aspects, otherwise inaccessible, of the life of current and past societies.

(Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., pp. 67-68, free translated)

Our vision is never exempt from assumptions, everything we see refers to a previous reference, to values of culture: “Our understanding of what we see depends on our ability to perceive what is incorporated in the structure of an image, its concepts, its references – anyway, its dialogue – in order to perceive the depth of its implications.” (Menezes, 1997Menezes, P. (1997). A trama das imagens. São Paulo: Edusp., p 26)

Similarly, in literacy, in which the learning process is gradual and “has no natural aspect” (Menezes, 1997Menezes, P. (1997). A trama das imagens. São Paulo: Edusp., p 25), our way of seeing things also results from the successive accumulation of references. However, “it is not immediate the perception that, to the extent we learn to read, we must also learn to see” (Menezes, 1997Menezes, P. (1997). A trama das imagens. São Paulo: Edusp., p 25).

According to Francastel, the epistemological relevance of figurative documents never equates to written documents as a research material, and this is an issue we must address. In most cases, written documents have absolute values, whereas figurative documents, whenever used, have the function of illustrating truths established by the former (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 01). Another issue is seeking the raison d’être of works of art beyond the works themselves (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 02) – something that would be the result of a careless Sociology of Art, which presupposes prior knowledge of social structures, making art a mere “ornament, an accessory, a social superstructure, instead of questioning and analyzing it as a fundamental function” (Francastel, 1990Francastel, P. (1990). Pintura e sociedade. São Paulo: Martins Fontes., p. 91), disregarding the idea that image can have its own meaning, irreducible to other languages (Francastel, 1970Francastel, P. (1970). Études de Sociologie de L’art. Paris: Denoël/Gönthier., p. 09). This is because it is a form of thought that is not verbal, but visual, plastic, as announced by the epigraph of this article and with which I must agree. But we must be careful. As Jean-Claude Passeron (1991, p. 5Passeron, J.-C. (1991, janeiro/dezembro). Prazeres e saberes do olho: confissões de um sociólogo que gosta de pintura. Tempo Social, 3(1-2), 55. Recuperado em 05 de outubro de 2019, de https://doi.org/10.1590/ts.v3i1/2.84816.
https://doi.org/10.1590/ts.v3i1/2.84816...
) reminds us, of our senses, the sight perhaps is that which owes the most to culture and education. Therefore, it is imperative to learn to read the images, to understand possibilities of meanings suggested by them, in order to obtain elements to work with issues that instigate us from them.

At the beginning of the article I pointed out that the images of covers may influence the reading of the verbal information of a printed material. But, likewise, these images can assume different values based on the way they appear. John Berger warns us of this question:

The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it by or what one sees immediately after it. Such authority as it retains, is distributed over the whole context in which it appears.

(Berger, 1977Berger, J. (1999). Modos de ver. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1999., p. 29)

It is not the case to seek a hierarchy between these two forms of communication, since, as Foucault points out, the relationship between spoken language and images is infinite, being two things irreducible one in relation to the other, and “no matter how much you try to say what you see , what is seen is never comprised in what is said” (1981, p. 25, free translated).7 7 Recuperado em 12de setembro de 2019.

When we talk about covers of books or magazines, we should think of a combination of texts and images that necessarily generates a third product, a kind of synthesis that can be called “iconotext,” a concept created by Peter Wagner to analyze the engravings of the British painter William Hogarth (1697-1764). This artist, in his satiric works, combined texts and images in the same framework, creating something similar to what we now know as comic books (Wagner, 1997Wagner, P. (1997). Reading Iconotexts: From Swift to the French Revolution (Picturing History) Londres: Reaktion Books., p. 30).

Thus, while I conceive the images of the covers of the Pro-Posições journal as a constituent part of plastic thought, the iconotext concept assists in thinking of the meaning(s) that this thought assumes when associated with other contents of the journal, and I shall present this reading proposition next.

1. Analysis of the covers

The history of the covers of the Pro-Posições journal can be divided into three great moments, marked by the establishment of a graphic and aesthetic pattern that remained over time. These three phases are marked as follows: 1) from issue 4 (v. 2 i. 1) to 22 (v. 8 i. 1), with covers and graphic arts by Carlos Clémen; 2) from issue 25 (v. 9 i. 1) to 68 (v. 23 i. 2), with covers by Milton José de Almeida; and 3) from issue 69 (v. 23 i. 3) onwards, until the present day, when the journal has no longer a printed version, and its covers are limited to thumbnails in the journal catalog of Unicamp – in the first issues of this phase, however, there were still printed versions of the journal. There was, in this history, experiments that were not developed, as we can see in the first three issues, in 1990, or between 1998 and 1999, in which two issues were published without images on the covers. But it is worth noting that there was a movement to create a visuality for the journal, with successful recipes that remained over the years, creating a visual identity for the journal, as we shall see in the following analyses.

1.1 - First phase (1990 – 1998)

The first three issues of the journal had covers designed from the same abstract image, with different colors throughout the three issues (Figure 1):

Figure 1
First covers of the journal, respectively v. 1 i. 1 (1), v. 1 i. 2 (2), v. 1 i. 3 (3).

The covers were created by Carlos Clémen, and I shall discuss this artist, his work, and how much his work can be seen for almost ten years on the covers of the journal.

In its early years, Pro-Posições did not limit the use of images to their covers. Engravings, made by various artists, could be seen in its interior, either in the first pages (Figure 2), shortly after the masthead, either as a table of contents (Figure 4), or even inside the journal, between one article and another (Figure 5), indicating the importance that editors attributed to the visual aspect of the journal, in this sense, extrapolating the verbal thought and plunging into the possibilities of plastic or visual thought:

Figure 2
Example of an illustration inside the magazine, before the table of contents. Engraving by Milton Almeida.
Figure 4
Example of an engraving illustrating the table of contents, in 1993. Engraving by Cézar Landucci.
Figure 5
Example of an engraving placed at the end of an article, supposedly without the author’s intention (1992).

As for the covers, after this first trilogy, a new visual pattern emerged and remained for several years (from 1990 to 1998), being signed by Carlos Clémen.

A plastic artist from Buenos Aires who was born in 1942, Clémen studied drawing, engraving, painting, and sculpture from 1955 to l963 at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, in the atelier of J. C. Castagnino, and at the Sociedad Estímulo de Bellas Artes. He was also pupil of Raúl Sciarreta, with whom he conducted studies on art aesthetics and theory. He has been working in Brazil since the 1970s, working in newspapers and magazines in São Paulo as an illustrator, designer, and typographer,8 8 Segundo Pierre Francastel (1993), tanto o projeto do artista quanto aquilo que ele de fato realiza podem ser matéria para a Sociologia da Arte, pois isso permite evidenciar o caráter simbólico da arte (p. 33). Annateresa Fabris aponta que esse intervalo entre projeto e realização é muito importante para a reflexão artística, na medida em que nele residiriam traços tanto do pensamento visual quanto das várias etapas do processo criador, que deve ser pensado a partir de uma tensão entre o projeto e a realização concreta (Fabris, 2003, p.24). which explains his role in Pro-Posições.

His first exhibition in Brazil was in 1978, at the 15th Bienal de Arte de São Paulo [Biennial Art Exposition of São Paulo] (Clémen, 2012), and he designed the poster of this exposition’s edition.9 9 Ele faleceu em outubro de 2011. Em 2012 aconteceu o Colóquio Imagens e Palavras, em homenagem a Milton, realizado em múltiplas atividades (palestras, exposições de obras e apresentações coreográficas). O evento foi registrado em livro (Faria, Rigotti, & Oliveira Jr., 2014b), que traz também um DVD com uma versão do livro em formato digital, além de imagens e apresentações coreográficas realizadas na ocasião (Faria, Rigotti, & Oliveira Jr., 2014c). Throughout his stay in the country, he performed considerable work on the covers of books, journals, and posters for events. From an aesthetic point of view, his works are basically abstract, dialoguing with figurative art in a cross-sectional way. We can observe that most of the works are created from geometric forms that are “simple, intuitive, without previous design. According to the artist, although a constructive intention guides the work, the surface, the stain, and the line are organized and reorganized within this irregular field.”10 10 No caso, Gombrich (1999, pp. 86-94) criticava especificamente a relação imediata que autores como Arnold Hauser (1995) faziam entre a criação artística e as condições materiais de existência.

Between 1974 and 2012, he created the Comics11 11 O sociólogo Paulo Menezes (1996, p.91) diz isso em relação aos cineastas, mas o mesmo vale para qualquer artista plástico. series, which was exhibited in 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, resulting from a work carried out during almost 40 years and encompassing the period in which the artist designed the cover and was responsible for the graphic work of Pro-Posições . According to the curator of the exhibition, Daniele Mattos, this series is composed of images that inspire us certain familiarity, perhaps for referring to the universe of comic books and, although in a non-linear way; it is as if such images tell us a story, which would be told based on our perception – i.e., there is a visual discourse (Mattos, 2012Mattos, D. (2012). Ecos de uma silenciosa narrativa. Recuperado em 15 de novembro de 2018, de http://carlosclemen.blogspot.com/2013/02/exposicao-comics.html?view=magazine.
http://carlosclemen.blogspot.com/2013/02...
).

The author himself gives some clues about the work he has accomplished:

In the COMICS Series I work with graphic/signic resources, universally used by designers, without referring to the sequence of stories. It’s about drawings produced before the computer resources of effects. From the time of color printing. By isolating the graphic signs, structured in another configuration, we can establish a language in which unpublished scriptures reverberate. Color and design with material density and silent narrativity.12 12 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Federico_Zuccaro_(Italian_-_Taddeo_in_the_Sistine_Chapel_Drawing_Michelangelo%27s_%27Last_Judgement%27_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg. Recuperado em 11 de fevereiro de 2019.

Although what artists say about their work themselves is not something to be innocently used, because there is always a distance between what is said and what is done in artistic terms,13 13 “Traço ou barra que remata cada haste de certas letras, de um ou de ambos os lados; cerifa, filete, rabisco, remate” (Dicionário Houaiss Eletrônico da Língua Portuguesa, 2009). it is worth realizing that there is an appreciation of the artisanal , the handmade, without the use of computer graphics resources, being inserted into a tradition of cartoonists. The images, somehow, express this simplicity, this freedom to narrate through lines and colors, without attaching themselves to figuration. This also emerges as a concept in Pro-Posições covers of the aforementioned period (from March to December 1992) (Figure 3):

Figure 3
Pro-Posições covers, v. 3 i. 1 (7), v. 3 i. 2 (8), v. 3 i. 3 (9), respectively.

Here we see examples of covers that were created at this phase. As we can observe, the conception is the same: a formal structure consisting of lines that intersect in several diagonals, with a frame in the center, which works as a screen where the titles of articles that can be found in the pages of the journal are inserted. What changes, at every issue, is the color used with its varied tones. This conception, which is widely used nowadays in scientific journals, at the same time it creates a visual identity, it avoids lacking focus of what is considered essential, which would be the articles available there. However, it is worth remembering that images, at that time, were not limited to the covers, but were part of the content of the journal, as aforementioned. Without intending to “steal” the space from the texts, they composed a picture in which texts and images mingled, as an iconotext, mentioning Peter Wagner’s term, which I presented in the introduction.

Hence, there were the covers and the graphic design of Pro-Posições from 1990 to 1998. At that time, Editora Cortez (a publisher company), which was responsible for the journal’s production, ceased to provide this service, which was undertook by the School of Education – Unicamp, institution that has been managing the journal since the beginning, but from then on has also been responsible for the editorial work.

In the first two issues of this phase, we see covers without any graphic element, only plain colors, which were designed by Luciana Rodrigues (Figure 6).

Figure 6
Covers with no graphic elements, issues 23 (v. 8 i. 2) and 24 (v. 8 i. 3) of the journal, in 1999.

In fact, only in the next issues a new phase in the covers of the journal began, henceforth designed by Milton José de Almeida, professor at the School of Education – Unicamp. There were more than 40 issues edited in this period, from 1998 to 2012, when Milton was no longer alive.14 14 Recuperado em 07 de junho de 2019, de https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/dp/original/DP810340.jpg.

1.2 - Second phase (1998 – 2012)

Artists create, and by creating they think as much as the mathematician or the philosopher, but they use, in order to manifest conducts and the product of their intuition, instruments different than those of the others.

(Pierre Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 05, free translated)

In the analysis of the first phase of the journal’s covers, we mentioned the success of a simple model to characterize the scientific journal, alternating colors on a visual basis of geometric shapes. The second phase will be marked by its opposite: the pattern would be precisely in bringing a different cover to each number, based on the work of the artist and professor Milton José de Almeida, a striking figure in the lives of students and colleagues and an imperative character in the history of Pro-Posições.

Professor of the School of Education – Unicamp and founder of the Olho – Laboratório de Estudos Audiovisuais [Laboratory of Audiovisual Studies], Milton believed that aesthetics allowed thinking of education, childhood, and life, always considering that all aesthetic choice is also a political choice (Faria; Rigotti Oliveira Jr., 2014aFaria, A. L. G, Rigotti, G. F., & Oliveira Jr., W. M. (2014a). Estrangeiridade e criação. In A. L. G. Faria, G. F. Rigotti, & W. M. Oliveira Jr. (Orgs.), Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida (pp. xi-xviii). Campinas: Editores Associados., pp. xii-xv). He did not like sociology, politics, or communications, but he was interested in all the arts as well as in philosophy and history (Bittencourt, 2014Bittencourt, A. B. (2014). Um homem que lia. In A. L. G. de Faria, G. F. Rigotti, & W. M. Oliveira Jr (Orgs.), Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida (pp. 9-22). Campinas: Editores Associados., p. 9). Within this realm, one of the authors who called his attention was Ernst Hans Gombrich (Bittencourt, 2014Bittencourt, A. B. (2014). Um homem que lia. In A. L. G. de Faria, G. F. Rigotti, & W. M. Oliveira Jr (Orgs.), Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida (pp. 9-22). Campinas: Editores Associados., p. 10), who also had his reservations about the approach of the Social Sciences concerning art.15 15 Recuperado em 07 de junho de 2019, de https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Anatomical_theatre_Leiden.jpg. In this sense, images begin to occupy a privileged place in existence:

The choice of the universe of images and films as a field of study is justified by the fact that images, although imagined, are concrete. Films show lives experienced in a film, lives that can be lived in those 2 hours in the movie theater.

(Bittencourt, 2014Bittencourt, A. B. (2014). Um homem que lia. In A. L. G. de Faria, G. F. Rigotti, & W. M. Oliveira Jr (Orgs.), Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida (pp. 9-22). Campinas: Editores Associados., p. 16)

However, Milton strongly refuted studies whose authors used images with mere illustrations (Soares, 2014Soares, C. L. (2014). Do amor pela palavra... à descoberta da imagem. In A. L. G. de Faria, G. F. Rigotti, & W. M. Oliveira Jr (Orgs.), Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida (pp.). Campinas: Editores Associados., p. 63), approaching, in this sense, theorists of arts, such as the aforementioned Gombrich, but also Pierre Francastel, for whom the work of art did not substitute something else, a double in any other way, but rather “the product of one of the systems through which mankind conquers and communicates its wisdom at the same time it creates its works” (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 05). Artists, in these terms, are thinkers who think through the images they create.16 16 Áreas de Educação e Ensino, quadriênio 2013-2016. Milton conveyed his thoughts by words, but also by images. Initially, he did so in his works through a legacy nowadays preserved especially in the houses of his closest friends (Figure 7), who received his paintings as inheritance, but also in the works on covers of books and journals such as Educação & Sociedade and Pro-Posições (Figure 8).

Figure 7
Photograph of the work of Milton José de Almeida, September 2011.
Figure 8
Sticker with works of covers designed by Milton José de Almeida for the Pro-Posições journal (detailed), designed for the Colóquio Imagens e Palavras event, which occurred on October 15 and 16, 2012.

Therefore, Milton accomplished his work, mostly, based on plastic or aesthetic thought. According to Pierre Francastel: “The aesthetic thought is, with no doubt, one of these great complexes of reflection and action in which a conduct is manifested, and such allows observing and expressing the universe in particularized acts or in a language”. (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 04, free translated)

The proposition, here, is to present some of this aesthetic thought present in the covers of Pro-Posições (which, in English, could be free translated to “Pro-positions”).

In 1998, here deemed the beginning of the second major phase of the journal’s covers, the first three issues featured the image of a person’s back who is drawing something we cannot see (Figure 9). It is, in fact, a Milton’s composition on the drawing of the Italian Mannerist artist Federico Zuccaro (1541 – 1609), Taddeo in the Sistine Chapel Drawing Michelangelo’s Last Judgment (c. 1595) (Figure 10).

Figure 9
Covers of issues 25 (v. 9 i. 1), 26 (v. 9 i. 2), and 17 (v. 9 i. 3) of Pro-Posições: the same theme addressed with different colors.
Figure 10
Federico Zuccaro. Taddeo in the Sistine Chapel Drawing Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, c. 1595, 41.9 x 17.7 cm.

The following two issues also worked with the same image, portraying a world map with several overlapped images, only changing the used colors. In these first five issues there was a considerable change in the used typographic font, without serifs18 6 Here, I understand “verbal thought” as every form of expression and forging of ideals coming from words, either spoken or written. We can consider the statement of VIGOTSKI (2008, p. 58), which defines verbal thought as the result of the intersection between thought and language, a point of intersection between both spheres. and in lowercase letters.

Only from issue 31 [v. 11 i. 1, March 2000 (Figure 11) ] onward the covers would always differ, not only regarding the colors, but the chosen images as well – overall, reworked photographs or paintings (by Milton or other artists). The font of the journal’s title also changes, henceforth with all uppercase letters with the “O”, from “Pro”, outside the alignment of the rest of the words, as a subscript. Interestingly, this play with the letter “O” allows to read the word “O-Posições” [O-positions] as well, which does not cease to suggest a certain sense of problematization and questioning of reality and the status quo. However, here, this is merely a conjecture solely motivated by my perspective and the sense I give to what I observe, guided, of course, by visual evidences.

Figure 11
Covers of issues 31 (v. 11 i. 1), 32 (v. 11 i. 2), and 33 (v. 11 i. 3).

This format would be maintained until issue 68, May 2012 (v. 23 i. 2), when all lowercase letters are adopted, similar to the experiment carried out between issues 25 (v. 9 i. 1) to 30 (v. 10 i. 3), but with serifs (Figure 12).

Figure 12
Different typographic fonts of Pro-Posições covers.

In his covers, Milton used photographs or paintings, whether his or not, from which he performed a new work, in which he seemed to seek a dialogue with the main theme discussed by the journal at each issue, as we see in the two examples next.

The edition of issue 46 (v. 16 i. 1, January/April 2005) features the Dossiê Cultura escolar e cultura material escolar: entre arquivos e museus [Dossier School culture and School material culture: between archives and museums]. To do so, Milton designs a cover based on the drawing of the painter Edgar Degas named Bookshelves, Study for “Edmond Duranty,” of 1879 (Figure 13).

Figure 13
On the left, cover of issue 46 (v. 16 i. 1), Library Collection Professor Joel Martins (School of Education / Unicamp). On the right, reproduction of the original drawing by Edgar Degas, of 1879.

We can easily perceive that the image of the French painter is only a raw material in Milton’s hands, who creates something new and vibrant, attributing vitality that does not exist in the original drawing.

On the cover of issue 40, April 2003 (v. 14 i. 1), Milton brings an engraving of anonymous authorship named the Leiden Anatomy Theater, from the late XVII century. Although I have not managed to find the original engraving used in the cover, a more widespread version of the theme is dated 1610 and represents the theater built by the Dutch physician and botanist Petrus Pavius (1564–1617) (Figure 14). The images feature a space dedicated to the study of human anatomy and is emblematic of the European humanism and the consolidation of the scientific method of Francis Bacon or even René Descartes.

Figure 14
On the left, cover of issue 40 (v. 14 i. 1), Library Collection Professor Joel Martins (School of Education / Unicamp). On the right, engraving similar to that used in the cover of the journal, issue 40, representing the Leiden Anatomy Theater20 8 http://carlosclemen.blogspot.com/2012/08/vitae.html, access on 09/12/2019. (anonymous authorship, 1610).

The subject of the dossier in question was knowledge and education in health, and the image chosen by Milton indicates his erudition and escape from common places – after all, he may have chosen a much better known painting on the subject, also of Dutch authorship, and also of the XVII century, which is The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, painted by Rembrandt (1606–1669) (Figure 15).

Figure 15
Rembrandt. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632, oil paiting, 169.5 × 216.5 cm.

The choice for not being conventional and presenting the reader less known images points to a kind of aesthetic education employed by Milton in these works. Although reworked in the light of his own look (after all, as John Berger reminds us, “to look is an act of choice” [1977, p. 08]), the images of the covers are, at the same time, an invitation for readers to seek what they announce, but also to immerse in the journal’s visuality itself, in the lines and colors that already indicate what is about to be seen in the imminent act of flipping it. Walter Benjamin (1985, p. 224)Benjamin, W. (1985). Sobre o conceito de história. In W. Benjamin, Obras escolhidas I: Magia e técnica, arte e política. Ensaios sobre literatura e história da cultura. São Paulo: Brasiliense. says that the true image of the past swiftly passes by, but this past allows to be fixed, as an image that sparkles when it is acknowledged. In another context (1940) and concerned with the violence and barbarism that was spreading in Europe, Benjamin tells us of the importance of history and the urgency to learn from it. Maybe Milton is somehow addressing this by bringing images that are so old and almost forgotten to deal with a theme such as education and health, or so many others tackled by the journal. Hence, in this case, it is an update of this past to enlighten current issues – since, as the art historian Argan reminds us, “[the] works of art are always the same, but consciences change” (1993, p. 25).

Thus, from 1998 to 2012, the covers of Pro-Posições gathered the most varied images such as paintings, engravings, and photographs. Next, there is a list of the artists chosen by Milton for this “partnership” :

  • Amadeo Modigliani (1884 -1920)

  • Angelo Morbeli (1853 -1919)

  • Antonio Lega (c.1888)

  • Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917)

  • Carlo Carrà (duas vezes) (1881-1966)

  • Edgar Degas (1834 -1917)

  • Federico Zuccaro (1541 - 1609)

  • Francesco Morandini (c. 1544 -1597)

  • George Bellows (1882 -1925)

  • George Braque (1882 -1963)

  • Giorgio De Chirico (1888 -1978)

  • Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720 -1778)

  • Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868 -1907)

  • Jacopo Zucchi (c. 1541- c. 1590)

  • Lewis Carrol (1832 - 1898)

  • Liubov Sergeyevna Popova (1889 - 1924)

  • Lorenzo Lotto (1480 -1556)

  • Luciano Bernardino da Costa (contemporary photographer, professor at the University of São Paulo and at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais)

  • Malevich (duas vezes) (1879 - 1935)

  • Max Klinger (1857 - 1920)

  • Miró (1893 - 1983)

  • Nicolaiev Filonov (1883 - 1941)

  • Odilon Redon (1840 - 1916)

  • Paul Signac (1863 - 1935)

  • Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)

  • Rafael Sanzio (1483 -1520)

From former masters to modern ones, going through his own work, Milton seems to reveal his erudition from works that dialogued with the themes addressed in each issue of the journal. He also poses a difficulty for those who want to analyze him or frame him into some artistic movement or preference. Malevich and Carrá were chosen in two occasions, which already indicates some preference. The Italian masters also have expressive presence. However, there is no image of Giotto or Paul Klee, artists whom Milton had interest in, according to Carmen Lúcia Soares in her text dedicated to her former advisor (2014, pp. 55-57).

Milton died in 2011, but the journal still featured his covers until the following year, when it undergoes a new visual reformulation, adopting the style it has until today.

1.3 - Third phase (2012 to present days)

In its third phase, the Pro-Posições covers have adopted a more modern look, consisting of colorful geometric shapes, under a plain colored background, which varies each issue (Figure 16). The used type of font, as previously mentioned, retrieved the 1998/1999 lowercase letters, but now with serifs, being more similar to a classic style, that of a typewriter – as if it was a game between modernity and old times, after all, it is a 30-year-old journal that has a lot of stories to tell.

Figure 16
Current covers of the journal, Library Collection Professor Joel Martins (School of Education / Unicamp).

Since 2008 in Scielo (Scientific Electronic Library On-line), the journal is one of the most highest-ranked in its area, rating A1 in Qualis CAPES21 9 http://carlosclemen.blogspot.com/2012/08/vitae.html, access on 09/12/2019. and which is nowadays exclusively published on-line, following the editorial trend that has become dominant in recent years. The high cost of printing and distribution, in addition to new reading habits (and gadgets), as well as the lack of space for printed materials in workspaces and residences help us understanding this option. Perhaps the image created by the painter Degas in the XIX century, which was used in the cover designed by Milton José de Almeida in the issue 46 of the journal, is an emblem of a time when reading and printed materials were synonyms. Today, reality has changed, and the digital world allows a whole reading universe to fit on the screen of a smartphone.

Although being available only in the digital version, covers of the journal are still designed for each issue, but this graphic art can only be visualized on the Unicamp portal of journals.22 10 https://www.trapeziogaleria.com/artistas/a-d/carlos-clemen, access on 09/12/2019. However, we can only visualize the thumbnail (about 5 cm) – by clicking on the cover, you open a slightly larger image (about 10 cm), and we also have access to the contents of the journal. On this website we have no access to the full texts – a link leads to the articles already on the Scielo digital platform, which no longer features cover illustrations, only textual information and access to the articles, but maintaining the typographic fonts of the journal’s title (Figure 17).

Figure 17
Homepage (“cover”) of the journal on the Scielo website, access on 09/12/2019.

Therefore, those who access the journal directly on the Scielo platform do not visualize the original cover of the respective issue. Thus, the cover has been ceasing to be the visiting card of the journal, and is becoming a symbol of something that may have lost its relevance over time.

Final considerations

By becoming exclusively on-line, Pro-Posições journal has demonstrated to be aware of contemporary editorial trends, and has proved, throughout the edited issues, that the quality and prestige of a scientific journal do not depend on it being printed. However, over the years, as we sought to point out, its covers, as well as illustrations not linked to the articles (which was common in the early years of its publication), had written a story that is not only literary or verbal, but also visual.

Whether in abstractions or figurations, the covers of Pro-Posições have always been outstanding, consisting in expressions of a plastic thought that had not only added visual value as an aesthetic education to the harsh world of science. It is more than that: they were also a source of information or communication – let us resume Francastel once again: “Whether it is music or figurative art, we must consider that the work constitutes by itself the means that makes communication possible” (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 05, free translated). We mention, for example, Milton de Almeida’s phase, when dozens of artworks from praised artists were taken to the journal’s audience, as a delicate invitation to the knowledge reserved to the internal pages. A pleasure for the eyes and a nourishment for the intellect.

In this article we did not analyze, and could have not, all the covers of the journal. Our proposal was to travel through the issues, to perceive in the covers the movement of history, of the taste, of the visual culture of each moment. We sought to highlight the importance of images as representations of a culture, as paths to understand certain particularities of the social world. According to Durkheim, “[..] a society does not simply consists of the mass of individuals that compose it, of their movements, but, first of all, of the idea it has about itself” (Durkheim, 1978Durkheim, É. (1978). As formas elementares da vida religiosa. In É. Durkheim, Durkheim (Coleção Os Pensadores). São Paulo: Abril Cultural., p. 226, free translated). And a fruitful way to meet this idea consists in representations and, as part of that, art. This reminds us again of Francastel, when he says that “[the] art informs us, in short, more about the ways of thinking of a social group than about events and the material frame of the life of artists and their environment. The work lies in the imaginary” (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 17, free translated).

Therefore, some questions remain: what is the meaning (and the future) of the covers of scientific journals within the world of digital platforms? How to go through its history and social imaginary from which it emerges without this synthetic and very rich interpretation visually accomplished by artists and typographers? This is not a matter of an intensive longing, but of a questioning about the place of images – or rather, of plastic thought – in the digital world of scientific journals.

  • 1
    This text is a part of “Dossier: 30 years of Pro-Posições”, organized by Prof. Dr. André Luiz Paulilo; responsible editor: Prof. Dr. André Luiz Paulilo.
  • 2
    The author thanks Espaço da Escrita – Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa – UNICAMP - for the language services provided.
  • 3
    References correction and bibliographic normalization services: Leda Farah (farahledamaria@gmail.com) e Vera Bonilha (verabonilha@yahoo.com.br).
  • 4
    I also thank the Department of Publications and the Library of the School of Education – Unicamp for the support with the digitization of some of the used images.
  • 5
    Abstract copy editor: José Pereira Queiroz - ze.pereira.queiroz@gmail.com
  • 6
    Here, I understand “verbal thought” as every form of expression and forging of ideals coming from words, either spoken or written. We can consider the statement of VIGOTSKI (2008, p. 58)Vigotski, ?L. S. (2008). Pensamento e linguagem. São Paulo: Martins Fontes., which defines verbal thought as the result of the intersection between thought and language, a point of intersection between both spheres.
  • 7
    I discuss the question of the relationship between text and image in the sociological research in Trevisan, 2010Trevisan, A. R. (2010). Imagens e textos explicativos na investigação sociológica: apontamentos teóricos para ler a Viagem pitoresca e histórica ao Brasil de Debret (1768-1848). Cadernos Ceru (USP), 21, 153-169..
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
    According to Pierre Francastel, both the artist’s project and what he actually accomplishes can be a matter for the Sociology of Art, since this allows highlighting the symbolic character of art (Francastel, 1993Francastel, P. (1993). A realidade figurativa. São Paulo: Perspectiva., p. 33). Annateresa Fabris points out that this interval between the project and the accomplishment is very important for the artistic reflection, to the extent in such interval would reside traces of both visual thought and the various phases of the creative process, which should be thought of based on a tension between the project and the concrete accomplishment (FABRIS, 2003Fabris, A. (2003). O pensamento visual. In A. Catani et al. (Orgs.), Estudos Socine de cinema, ano IV. São Paulo: Panorama., p. 24).
  • 14
    He passed away in October 2011. In 2012 there was the Colóquio Imagens e Palavras, a conference held in honor of Milton, with multiple activities (lectures, exhibitions of works of art, and dance presentations). The event was recorded in a book (organized by Faria; Rigotti Oliveira Jr., 2014bFaria, A. L. G., Rigotti, G. F., & Oliveira Jr., W. M. (Orgs.) (2014b). Imagens e palavras: homenagem a Milton José de Almeida. Campinas: Editores Associados.), which also contains a DVD room with the images and dance presentations.
  • 15
    In this case, Gombrich specifically criticized the immediate relationship that authors, such as Arnold Hauser (1995)Hauser, A. (1995). História social da arte e da literatura. São Paulo: Martins Fontes., established between artistic creation and the material conditions of existence (Gombrich, 1999Gombrich, E. H. (1999). A história social da arte. In E. H. Gombrich, Meditações sobre um cavalinho de pau e outros ensaios sobre a teoria da arte (pp. 86-94). São Paulo: Edusp, 1999., pp 86-94).
  • 16
    The sociologist Paulo Menezes (1996, p. 91)Menezes, P. (1996, outubro). Cinema: imagem e interpretação. Tempo Social, Rev. Sociol. USP, 8(2), 83-104. states this in relation to filmmakers, but the same applies for any plastic artist.
  • 17
  • 18
    “Any of the short lines stemming from and at an angle to the upper and lower ends of the strokes of a letter” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 2019. Available from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/, access on 09/26/2019).
  • 19
    https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/dp/original/DP810340.jpg, Access on 06/07/2019.
  • 20
  • 21
    Education and Teaching areas, 2013–2016 quadrennium.
  • 21

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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    28 Nov 2019
  • Date of issue
    2019

History

  • Received
    03 July 2019
  • Accepted
    15 Aug 2019
UNICAMP - Faculdade de Educação Av Bertrand Russel, 801, 13083-865 - Campinas SP/ Brasil, Tel.: (55 19) 3521-6707 - Campinas - SP - Brazil
E-mail: proposic@unicamp.br