The Advanced Research Center of Graphic Writing Systems is an educational and cultural organization devoted to the study, creation, promotion, documentation, and transmission of graphic writing traditions. Graphic writing systems are systems of thought comprised of a variety of distinct communicative elements.
Graphic writing can be described as a conceptual interface, a system in which various forms of knowledge notation produce meaning. As such, the interface incorporates graphic and visual signs or objects that record activity and codify memory and thought. These records include cosmograms, pictograms, ideograms, diagrams, symbols, figures, drawings, textile designs and intentionally organized marks like notches, grooves or body scarifications. At their most complex, graphic writing systems can also include body language, gesture and pose, music and rhythmic sounds, numerological divination, astrology, and the identification of forces or characters by food or color.
These systems facilitate communication within and between cultures and serve as the conduit for cultural knowledge and indigenous values. They form a body of literature by codifying historical facts and oral traditions, and document and conserve collective memory over time. Graphic writing is also often used within the domain of religious practices. Its spiritual role can be understood as amplifying metaphysical knowledge and invoking religious literature, mythology, traditional medicine, and divination. This writing tradition is common in religious performance where graphic characters act as a code to attract external forces, further serving as vehicles for communication, meditation, healing, and protection. Graphic writing systems also serve a pedagogical purpose within religious practice as they are used to teach religious values, beliefs, and rituals.
Background
Graphic writing systems are found in every continent except Antarctica. Their known history stretches more than 5,000 years and their development can be traced alongside all major civilizations. The range of graphic writing systems began in the intersection of Africa and the Middle East. Token Writing among the Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia dates back to around 8000 BC., Egyptian hieroglyphics and cuneiform appeared approximately around 3500 BC., Devanagari writings in India with Hindi, Nepai and Narathi writing date to around 2640 BC. Hebrew, Assyrian and Canaanite writing followed, as did Chinese and Japanese calligraphies, Aramaic scripts, and Amharic and Ge’ez writings in Ethiopia. Beyond Ethiopia, classic African graphic systems include the Tally documents called Ishango bone in Burundi, Karonic writing of Muslims in the north of Africa mixed with other local graphic system in the region, Ajami of Islamized sub-Saharan Africa, Vai of West Africa, Mum script of the king Njoya in Cameroon, the Nsibidi script of the Efik and Ekoi in cross river section of Nigeria and Cameroon, the Mende writing of Liberia and the Ivory coast, Bisinsu in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sona writing in Angola, Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec writing in Mesoamerica appeared from 700 BC. to 1600 AC., and Navajo, Hopi, and Cherokee writings in north America were recorded as early as 500 BC. At the same time, Phoenician, Ancient Greek and Latin writing developed with graphic components as did Islamic calligraphy.
Prior to any known history of systematic graphic writing, archeological finds have confirmed written symbols dating back 20,000 years in areas once encompassed by the Kongo kingdom in central Africa; today Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Popular Republic of Congo, and Gabon. Symbols closely related to the ancient remnants continue to be used in religious practice in central Africa and are collectively known as Bidimbu. In addition to ongoing use in Africa, similar symbols form part of contemporary religious writing systems in Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, Suriname, Brazil and Belize. This continuity is but one example of the vast potential further comparative research in the field of graphic writing systems.
Goals and Aims of the Center
The center seeks to bring attention to the subject of graphic writing systems as means of communication, foster understanding of the role such systems play in cultures and religions around the globe and generate further interest in the study of graphic communication among academics and students in the humanities and social sciences.
A primary goal of the center of Graphic Writing Systems is to create an academic space in which historians of art, musicologists, musicians, linguists, anthropologists, archeologists, sociologists, ethnographers, multicultural specialists, artists, scholars and students can find the resources -- human and scholarly -- to further their own endeavors, both research and field projects, and engage in collaborative creation. A particular focus is providing training to young people from communities with few cultural and educational resources, and furthering interchange between scholars and professionals, both in the United States and countries and communities where graphic writing systems have played an important role.
Equally important, the Institute will endeavor to encourage cooperation and information exchange among and between existing scholars of graphic writing and will demonstrate the potential for collaboration among scholars of different disciplines and across regional and cultural expertise. A greater understanding of graphic writing systems and their role within and across societies calls for both an increase in the quantity and diversity of ongoing research and the development of a more global and interdisciplinary approach. This will enable identification of commonalities between distinct writing systems as well as provide the foundation for further comparative theoretical study.
Though ongoing research, the Institute will examine the prevalent role of representational language as part of the epistemology of world cultures and detail the processes through which multiple forms of representation and meaning-making (graphic, design, symbols, writing/script) are used to communicate. It will further aim to understand the mode of transformation of objects into systematic writing and the subsequent transmission and regeneration of graphic expression across generations and diasporic population movements.
Finally, the Institute will collect international resources on graphic writing and music, establish and maintain physical and digital archives of these resources. These archives will be made available to scholars and students worldwide.
Components of the center of Graphic Writing Systems
Once established, the work of the Institute of Graphic Writing Systems would initially comprise several distinct but interrelated components. Described in detail below, these are: Furtherance of Academic research on graphic writing systems; Archive of Graphic Writing Systems and Documented Usage; Digital Library of Communicative and Traditional Music; and a Magazine or Journal on Graphic Writing Systems
•Furtherance of Academic Research on Graphic Writing Systems
The Institute of Graphic Writing Systems will be actively engaged in the Design and teaching of courses on graphic writing systems at Stanford and in the Bay Area communities. It will actively encourage new research projects, arrange for visiting scholars, and will organize lecture series, and an annual conference highlighting current research on graphic writing and visual communication. Finally, the Institute will fund international and domestic field research targeting specific areas with active graphic writing traditions.
•Archive of Graphic Writing Systems and Documented Usage
The forms would be explore range from the early rupestral arts and graphic forms recorded at central African sites, to three dimensional art forms such as funerary sculptures and terra-cotta urns, from inscriptions on religious objects like swords, canes and domestic items, to engraving on figures. Also studies graphic notions expressed through surface painting, textile design, architectural decoration, body scarification, tattoos, and body language including poses and gestures.
•Digital Library of Communicative and Traditional Music
The Institute of Graphic Writing Systems will establish a music database and digital recording archive. Music is a form of graphic communication as a result of its role in the production of living historical documents. Musical lyrics of traditional cultures express information about the religious ceremonies, cultural values and history. Also relevant to the broader aims of the Institute of Graphic Writing Systems are the ways in which songs are used to convey specific philosophical concepts, many of which explore the relationship between humans and nature. “Rhythmic Systems” compound words and sounds to form phrases of energy and linguistic phrases are a kind of percussion with the vocals and words. In this way music is an indicator of the link between the practitioner and unseen spiritual forces and the resulting dialogue is a form of language.
The archive will be created from ethnomusicological field recordings and will provide a resource for scholars, musicians, students and others. Recordings will be cross-referenced by country/community, musical genre, song title (where applicable) and performer(s). Accompanying documentation will include descriptions and brief histories of the musical genre(s), song information, biographical background on musicians and composers, field notes and technical information about the recordings. In some cases, musical recordings will be supplemented by interviews with performers and composers. There will be a strong visual component -- musical recordings will be supplemented by photographs and video recordings of ceremonies, formal and informal performances, and interviews.
A complete directory of resources, background information and recording samples will be available on-line. Scholars and musicians alike can log on and research a particular genre, look for information about an individual musician or group, view photos and listen to music samples. Those who wish to listen to complete recordings can apply for a research visit.
There are a variety of criteria a sound recording must meet for inclusion in this targeted archive. All selected music must be, in some manner, used as form of communication within a culture. Communication devices in the music selected could include rhythms, timing and beats which individually or collectively convey an aesthetic of the piece. In many cases, the music selected will be linked in some manner to verbal or lyrical expressive forms in the source culture. The music complements oral literature and is used to further express a concept or stimulate cultural exchange.
•Online Journal on African Graphic Writing, African and African Diaspora Music, Visual Culture, Religion and Art.
The magazine will be a platform from which to publish work from a range of disciplines that are related to the broad study of graphic writing systems. One of the primary functions of the magazine is to promote awareness of graphic communication and highlight work from a range of scholars and artists whose work incorporates or builds upon graphic writing as a way to understand culture, art and communication. By drawing on work from a range of academic and artistic fields, the magazine will also further the Institute’s goal of fostering collaboration between individuals working towards a more complete understanding of graphic communication.
Existing Digital Archives
Orbis Africa Archive, Zaire Province, Angola.15 Gigabytes (Stanford University)
Tsikaya Archive, Bengela and Namibe Provinces, Angola, 20 Gigabytes (Pangeiart –Stanford University) See link: http://www.tsikaya.org/
CD and Web-base volumes
Odantalan, Published and produce in 2002 (Amsterdam, Lisbon, Luanda and New Haven)
Angolan musician Victor Gama in co-operation with an art historian Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz and fellow musicians from Angola, Brazil, Cuba, and Colombia have conceptualized the project. The final project finished with the creation of a collective music work during a workshop edited on CD as well a catalogue describing the process and including texts on various related subjects.
Motivation:
Present day Angola is a country of around 10 million inhabitants in with 4 million are considered ‘dislocados de guerra’, war displaced people, refugees in their own country. A considerable percentage of the population is still refugee in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia and Zambia. The motivation of Odantalan is closely linked to the harsh realities of civil war, foreign invasion and post war reconstruction of the country. Now in ‘peace’ time the process of reconstruction, modernization of the country is threatening its ancient culture.
The thought of that creative process can be sought out to oppose the attitude of indifference toward the destructive process and their consequences is also one of the driving forces behind the project.
The main goal of the project begun with a number of identifiable elements of the Angola ‘traditional’ and contemporary culture being a critical component in the conformation of the African cultures in the Americas found today in Cuba or Brazil. Finally the project offered a space of creative work, a workshop bounded by the contribution of different music tradition from Angola and the diaspora in the Americas.
Tsikaya, Published and produce in 2009 (Amsterdam-Lisbon)
Tsikaya promotes musicians living and working in the rural areas of Angola’s vast countryside.
Initiated in 1997 the Tsikaya project aims at stimulating the creativity of composers in the rural country while promoting their work and encouraging construction and dissemination of traditional musicalm instruments.
Tsikaya also intends to help recover the musical heritage through field recordings, a CD series and this internet web site www.tsikaya.org. Tsikaya aims at creating the first organized digital musical archive ever in the country while stimulating productive cultural economies in the rural areas benefiting composers and their communities.
The first CD in a series on the Tsikaya project in Angola is a compilation of some of the most representative artists and groups working today in the provinces of Benguela, Huíla, Cunene and Cuando-Cubango.
From solo musicians playing their traditional as well as new instruments to dance and percussion groups, this CD is a memorable example of the rich cultural life across the rural areas of Angola’s vast countryside.
Affiliated Members
Advisors
C. Diane Christensen, Director, Christensen Fund (Palo Alto, USA)
Boris Wastiau, Director, Ethnographic Museum, Geneva (Suisse)
Wayne Modest, Keeper of Anthropology, Tropenmuseum (Holland)
Craig Clunas, Head of the Art History Department, Oxford University (United Kingdom)
K. K. Bunseki FuKiau (Linguistic and Philosopher)
C. Daniel Dawson (Columbia University)
Felipe Garcia Villamil (Musician and Priest of Afro-Cuban Religion)
Victor Gama (Composer and Master Musician, Pangeiart)
Partners - by Institution and Region
Robert Farris Thompson, Professor, Yale University History of Art Department (USA)
Christopher Miller, Professor, Yale University French Department (USA)
Christopher Wood, Professor, New York University (USA)
Irene Guerra Marques, Advisor, Ministry of Culture (Angola)
Martin Lienhard, Professor, Zurich University (Suisse)
Stefania Capone, Senior Researcher, CNRS and Paris X-Nanterre (France)
Herbert S. Klein, Director, Stanford University Center for Latin American Studies (USA)
Matondo Ngo Vungi dia Ungudi Blaise, Field Director Orbis Africa (Angola)
Amaury Garcia, Professor, Mexico College (Mexico)
Adriano Mixinge, Cultural Attaché, Angola Embassy (Spain)
