To consider these questions theoretically, it could be said that the designed elephants act as a punctum, Roland Barthes’ (1993) term for the point in a photograph that activates the rest, known as the studium. The semiotics, of the visual field, are drawn together into readable form via the punctum and, thus, the symbolic language of art finds a meaning-making process. Could this be applied to the urban spaces of Singapore and the baby elephants of The Elephant Parade? Locals and visitors stop, notice, photograph, read the signage, admire the elephants, respond to the unique designs and expressions, and perhaps note the way they relate to the city spaces. By stopping to admire, talk, gather in groups, they may notice the situated environment of the elephants, read about the event, sit on the broad steps outside shopping complexes, photograph features of street gardens or trees, leaving their children to pat the elephants and run around them.
Globalization: Encountering Foucault, the play of signs’ and the eurozone
Reflecting a personal point of view within the theme of re-imagining place, though not deriving in any specific way from the relational aesthetics of Nicholas Bourriaud (2002), [r]elational arts produce encounters that are based in inter-relations or inter-subjectivity and meanings become apparent through the community encounters. This takes the experience of the arts to an alternative space from that of individual consumption’ (Grierson and Gibbs 2008: 16). Taking these concepts further to a globalized setting, Michel Foucault wrote:
Behind the great abstraction of exchange, there continues the meticulous, concrete training of useful forces; the circuits of communication are the supports of an accumulation and a centralization of knowledge; the play of signs defines the anchorages of power.
And all the direct evidence be, that the said man Singapore Map pistolled the shadow of the said A. B. tho’ there be never so many evidences Singapore Map that the said person murthered C. D. E. A timber frame with holes in which the ankles and wrists of criminals were confined by way of punishment for relatively minor crimes. The stocks were usually located in a public area of a town, such as a marketplace, in order to shame the offender into better behavior. Stono Rebellion. A slave rebellion that took place on September 9, 1739, near the Stono River in South Carolina. Approximately 20 slaves attacked a general store, killing the proprietors and stealing weapons, including firearms. They marched south, recruiting slaves at the homes and businesses they passed, and ultimately killing about 20 white people.
