Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Daniel Schwartz, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Computer Science. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 22, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis identifies and characterises a minimal aesthetic evident in a strand of fashion emerging in New York and Paris from 1964 onwards. It examines the way in which a minimal aesthetic has been applied to the practice of fashion design and retail architecture, specifically in a high-fashion context. The research establishes that the earliest manifestation of a minimal aesthetic in fashion design, took place in 1964, in the work of the French fashion designer André Courrèges. Designers who later adopted similar principles include Jil Sander (1968), Calvin Klein (1968), Zoran Ladricorbic (1976), Donna Karan (1984), Helmut Lang (1986) and Narciso Rodriguez (1997), among others. The study identifies the origins of the principles of a minimal aesthetic and examines them through two distinct case studies that consider the practice of designers Donna Karan and Helmut Lang, both of whose work emerged during the 1980s. The investigation re-evaluates the significance of Minimalism in fashion history. It challenges accepted views of Minimalism in fashion as merely a trend of the mid-1990s, or as a local phenomenon. The thesis maintains that these principles find expression in the designers’ work, in the architecture of the flagship stores and in the inter-relationship between the two. Additionally, it investigates the meanings that these products convey to the consumer. Through an evaluation of the retail architecture, it establishes parallels between the principles of this aesthetic and earlier elements of a post-war Modernist architecture. The study of the dynamic inter-relationship between elements of fashion design and those of architecture focuses on the definition of a minimal aesthetic. Furthermore, these claims are contextualized within other fields such as material culture, cultural and historical studies and sociology. The thesis employs a qualitative methodology comprising empirical research based on case studies and object-based analysis, all of which draw upon theory that addresses the means of interpretation. The study has developed through an analysis of dress and the retail architecture associated with the case study designers’ work. Through empirical research, the research shows how contemporary attitudes, practices and theories have emerged which are essential for the analysis of dress and the spaces it inhabits. The primary sources, garments from the collections of André Courrèges, Donna Karan and Helmut Lang held at key international costume archives at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, are discussed in relation to other archival and published sources.

Partindo inicialmente da proposta de se estender a um repertório não-ocidental o corpus do modelo analítico desenvolvido na dissertação de mestrado Análise do discurso musical: uma abordagem semiótica, a tese de doutorado O Sentido na Música: semiotização de estruturas paradigmáticas e sintagmáticas na geração de sentido musical termina por se debruçar sobre as relações semi-simbólicas que organizam e estruturam as diferentes instâncias de produção de sentido na música e na canção. A partir de uma semiotização da métrica greco-latina, desenvolve uma estratégia sintética de abordagem das instâncias rítmica (plano da expressão) e tensiva (plano do conteúdo) na música. A partir da análise comparativa de três versões da canção egípcia ya garat al-wadi, identifica como principais diferenciais entre a música ocidental e árabe-mediterrânea a utilização por parte desta das configurações melismáticas enquanto estratégia de estruturação melódica e o emprego da estruturação intervalar em detrimento do pensamento motívico que caracteriza o idioma musical ocidental. Também a partir daí verifica-se a insuficiência do modelo de aspectualizações modulatórias de Greimas e Fontanille, todas de caráter linear, e propõe-se os fundamentos para um estudo das modulações cíclicas, divididas em circulares (convergentes, associadas ao efeito de sentido de realização) e espirais (divergentes, associadas à potencialização). As modulações cíclicas mostram sua eficiência enquanto ferramentas metodológicas ao serem capazes de abordar sinteticamente fenômenos gerativos comuns tanto à simplicidade da música mântrica quanto à complexidade das grandes composições sinfônicas. Por fim, ao examinar a questão da influência moura sobre a música tradicional nordestina, chega-se a um estudo da semiotização das estruturas rímicas do plano de expressão verbal capaz de subsumir o conjunto de relações semi-simbólicas que organizam e inter-relacionam sincreticamente os planos de expressão e conteúdo das instâncias verbal e musical na canção. / The thesis Meaning in Music: semiotization of paradigmatic and synthagmatic structures in the production of musical sense was firstly conceived as an extension of a previous work, Musical Analysis: a semiotical approach. Its main target was to verify the efficiency of the previously developed model when applied to a non-western repertory. Eventually, the research was redirected towards the study of the semi-symbolic relations which ultimately orchestrate and organize the production of meaning in the various instances of the musical discourse. A new rhythmical approach was developed based on the Greek-roman theory on metric, and its advantages with respect to an orthodox consideration of duration noted in western musical writing were largely proved. The first piece of non-western repertory to be analyzed was the Egyptian song ya garat al-wadi. Three different versions were compared so that the essence of Eastern-Mediterranean music was found, and it was summarized in two main principles: the melismatic organization of melody and the absence of motivical structures were the semiotization of intervals themselves prevails. Also, the propositions on modulatory aspects by Greimas and Fontanille were considered insufficient to deal with the cyclical modulations that are extremely frequent in Eastern music. A new approach on cyclical modulations was thus proposed, discussing its two main possibilities: convergent or circular modulations, associated with the effect of realization, and divergent or spiral modulations, related with greimasian concept of potentialization. Finally, the focus was directed towards the presence of moor influence on Brazilian traditional music. Although consistent historical or analytical proof was not found, the chapter abandoned its previous diachronical approach to dive into a synchronic investigation on the semiotizatin of rhyme and its effects on the semi-symbolic relations which regulate the balance between verbal and musical instances in songs, thus establishing the basis to a new synchretic approach to the study of songs.

Partindo inicialmente da proposta de se estender a um repertório não-ocidental o corpus do modelo analítico desenvolvido na dissertação de mestrado Análise do discurso musical: uma abordagem semiótica, a tese de doutorado O Sentido na Música: semiotização de estruturas paradigmáticas e sintagmáticas na geração de sentido musical termina por se debruçar sobre as relações semi-simbólicas que organizam e estruturam as diferentes instâncias de produção de sentido na música e na canção. A partir de uma semiotização da métrica greco-latina, desenvolve uma estratégia sintética de abordagem das instâncias rítmica (plano da expressão) e tensiva (plano do conteúdo) na música. A partir da análise comparativa de três versões da canção egípcia ya garat al-wadi, identifica como principais diferenciais entre a música ocidental e árabe-mediterrânea a utilização por parte desta das configurações melismáticas enquanto estratégia de estruturação melódica e o emprego da estruturação intervalar em detrimento do pensamento motívico que caracteriza o idioma musical ocidental. Também a partir daí verifica-se a insuficiência do modelo de aspectualizações modulatórias de Greimas e Fontanille, todas de caráter linear, e propõe-se os fundamentos para um estudo das modulações cíclicas, divididas em circulares (convergentes, associadas ao efeito de sentido de realização) e espirais (divergentes, associadas à potencialização). As modulações cíclicas mostram sua eficiência enquanto ferramentas metodológicas ao serem capazes de abordar sinteticamente fenômenos gerativos comuns tanto à simplicidade da música mântrica quanto à complexidade das grandes composições sinfônicas. Por fim, ao examinar a questão da influência moura sobre a música tradicional nordestina, chega-se a um estudo da semiotização das estruturas rímicas do plano de expressão verbal capaz de subsumir o conjunto de relações semi-simbólicas que organizam e inter-relacionam sincreticamente os planos de expressão e conteúdo das instâncias verbal e musical na canção. / The thesis Meaning in Music: semiotization of paradigmatic and synthagmatic structures in the production of musical sense was firstly conceived as an extension of a previous work, Musical Analysis: a semiotical approach. Its main target was to verify the efficiency of the previously developed model when applied to a non-western repertory. Eventually, the research was redirected towards the study of the semi-symbolic relations which ultimately orchestrate and organize the production of meaning in the various instances of the musical discourse. A new rhythmical approach was developed based on the Greek-roman theory on metric, and its advantages with respect to an orthodox consideration of duration noted in western musical writing were largely proved. The first piece of non-western repertory to be analyzed was the Egyptian song ya garat al-wadi. Three different versions were compared so that the essence of Eastern-Mediterranean music was found, and it was summarized in two main principles: the melismatic organization of melody and the absence of motivical structures were the semiotization of intervals themselves prevails. Also, the propositions on modulatory aspects by Greimas and Fontanille were considered insufficient to deal with the cyclical modulations that are extremely frequent in Eastern music. A new approach on cyclical modulations was thus proposed, discussing its two main possibilities: convergent or circular modulations, associated with the effect of realization, and divergent or spiral modulations, related with greimasian concept of potentialization. Finally, the focus was directed towards the presence of moor influence on Brazilian traditional music. Although consistent historical or analytical proof was not found, the chapter abandoned its previous diachronical approach to dive into a synchronic investigation on the semiotizatin of rhyme and its effects on the semi-symbolic relations which regulate the balance between verbal and musical instances in songs, thus establishing the basis to a new synchretic approach to the study of songs.