Terminology And Higher Education

Deacon Jim

My girlfriend’s career is a cross between administration and academia in higher education. I have been discussing with her the debates that have been going on here in BT over terminology (e.g., American Bonsai, Style vs. Form, Arts and Crafts vs. Rustic, etc.). She was so excited that we all were participating in a very academic debate. That is that we are at the very early stages of trying to define what we do in this world of bonsai. She explained to me that this is a major part of what academics do, they try to define and give terminology. She admiringly laughed at me for pursuing such an academic enterprise since I typically question the methods and direction of higher education.

What a great concept that we all here in BT are participating at laying the groundwork for generations to come. What a great place to be at the very infant stages, at least in this country and probably the rest of the world outside of Japan and China. What a fun, fascinating, place to be!

More Terminology:

Constructive Argument - The best type of debating a subject in order to come to resolution and move the community forward to a higher path.

Destructive Argument – The worst type of debating a subject which leads to dissention and banishment.

Community – A social group having common interests.

Clique – An exclusive group. “a group of applauders”

Mob Mentality – Reason is thrown out the window and the primordial instincts take over.

Strategic Enrollment – A term currently used by land grant institutions, which are suppose to serve the public, to chase the national rankings by giving a greater and greater share of financial aid to the more wealthy and highly educated and putting the financial burden on those that can least afford a higher education. (I digress….).

I personally really like Constructive and Community which is of course the more difficult and higher road to take.

Deacon Jim

P.S. I think it was Joanie that said something about Form being a better word than Style for a certain terminology. That’s what I think too, and I think Attila thought the same……Hey, that’s almost a quorum.

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jportock

When I hear these two words together (form and style) it seems to me that style could even be considered a subset of form. Joe Schmoe has a certain style when he attempts the literati form but for the same form John Doe's style is very much different. $0.02 worth

JP

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I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown

Joanie

The whole "style" problem is because we are trying to use it to describe too many things....narrow terms like "Literati Style" or "Windswept Style" which most of the books use...but also broad terms like "American Style" or "Naturalistic Style" to describe a whole genre of work.

"Form" seems a better word than "style" to describe a particular shape. "Windswept Form" seems to relay the idea better....when you get used to it

Even the books don't agree in many cases on the traditional forms. Oh, of course the five or six single trunk forms, and a handful of multiple trunk and multiple tree forms. Usage is always determining what the definition is, in the end.

(See my thread on "Those Other Forms" in the general forum, it would be nice to be able to discuss some of the more unusual forms.... )

Joanie

Vance Wood

As to form and style: Form is a shape or expression of artistic interpretation an artist places on a subject, style is an acedemic interpretation of the work of art(form) the artist has created and reflects the forms uniqueness from other expressions in the same medium. This in turn brings about the ubiquitous application of rules and styles, an attempt to analyze a successfull form by placing paint by the number parameters on the form, once it has been determined that this new form is desirable and should be duplicated, hence forth being known as a style.

The above is my oppinion and my definition after years of struggeling with attempts to get this point accross.

jportock

OK, so I grabbed good old Webster's and looked for Form but I found

form n. 1. the shape, outline, or configuration of anything; structure as apart from color, material, etc. ... it goes on. ...5. a) arrangement; esp., orderly arrangement; way in which parts of a whole are organized; pattern; style: distingushed from CONTENT sub2 b) a specific arrangement, esp. a conventional one 6. a way of doing something requiring skill; specif., the style or technique of an athlete, esp. when it is the standard or approved one ...then there is more... 15. a grade or class in some private schools and in British secondary schools 16. [Archaic] beauty ...15 being a nod to our members accross the pond, from me ...19. Philos. the ideal nature or essential character of a thing as distingushed from its matter... something about printing... --vt. 1. to give shape or form to;...2.to mold or shape by training...3. to develope... SYN.--form denotes the arrangement of the parts of a thing that gives it its distinctive appearance and is the broadest term here, applying also to abstract concepts;... Well anyway if you're still readin here's Style, tried it found
style n. ...1. a sharp, slender, pointed instrument... wait, wait, wait that's not what I want... 3) ...b)specific or characteristic manner of expression, execution, construction or design, in any art, period, work,employment, etc.... 4) distinction, excellence, originality, and character in any form of artistic or literary expression... and a bunch more, about fashion and such, but I think I've hit what I want to hit. Plus I'm ready to stop typing from the dictionary.

Anywhoo, I think I'm with Joanie, Form is more appropriate. But that doesn't mean that the use of Form and Style shouldn't still be under debate. What do you think?

Queryingly,
JP

__________________
I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown

Vance Wood

Take for example the Broom style Zelkova, or Elm for that matter. This style is a recent addition to the panoply of bonsai shapes. Some individual thought that because trees grew in this shape naturally that bonsai should reflect this form. I suppose you could say that form and style are interchangable but I kind of look at the two as being subtly different. You form somthing out of nothing, you style something as a reflection of something already existing. In other words style draws upon a prexisting image, concept or pattern. Without that original form there cannot be a style derived from it.

jportock

Once you have the form you begin to style

__________________
I'm an acorn, small and round, sitting on the cold, hard ground. Everyone walks over me, that is why I'm cracked you see. I'm a nut, I'm a nut, I'm crazy. -author unknown