This thesis investigates the concept of the symbolic form of architecture. It first focuses on the philosophical foundations for this concept in the works of Ernst Cassirer, Immanuel Kant, Conrad Fiedler, and Theodor Adorno. Then, the development of the modern perception of form in architectural theoreticians, where "modern" architectural theory evolved from an analogical state into a symbolic state, is examined: Karl Bötticher's concept of a Junktur and his attempt to transcend the presumed dichotomy in architecture between ornamentation and form is discussed; Gottfried Semper's concept of style and Alois Riegl's concept of motif are presented as reactions against what they saw as the mechanistic reliance on structure as definitive of form in architecture; Louis Sullivan's ornamentation is discussed as an attempt to integrate structure and ornamentation into a morphological whole; Otto Wagner's attempt to purge architecture from analogical responses through a strictly constructional basis for ornamentation is presented; and Adolf Loos' dismissal of decorative ornamentation, since it is an impediment towards true aesthetic judgment, is examined. Finally, a critical review of the symbolist movement in architecture, art, and literature is presented as a movement diametric to the symbolic development in architecture, since it glorified the analogical, and frequently the mimetic. The origins for how the symbolist movement became a denial of clarity center on Emanuel Swedenborg's concept of symbols, and how it was misinterpreted by the symbolists. / Master of Architecture

L’étude sur le documentaire a suscité ces dernières années de nombreuses approches : historique, rhétorique, pragmatique, stylistique. Celles-ci posent la question de la réalité dans le film ou dans la photographie, problématique récurrente du documentaire. C’est à nouveau cette interrogation qui sera abordée dans cette recherche. La perspective envisagée a l’ambition de synthétiser toutes ces approches en remontant à l’origine de la photographie, au dix-neuvième siècle, et en faisant valoir sa spécificité d’image. Un parcours photographique est proposé montrant en quoi l’image photographique a pu bouleverser notre rapport à la réalité. Cette ambition synthétique a trouvé son fondement dans un concept original initié par le philosophe allemand Ernst Cassirer : la forme symbolique. Il s’agit d’une logique culturelle qui propose de se placer au cœur de nos réalités et d’analyser les principes qui les gouvernent. Le point d’ancrage d’une telle philosophie repose sur la culture comprise comme une réalité relative. Dans cette perspective, l’image photographique en tant que documentaire est considéré comme un lieu donnant à penser une réalité ? Comment ? Cette recherche nous amène à envisagé trois moments pour l’élaboration de cette forme symbolique particulière : 1) l’invention d’une image-monde que l’image photographique a suscité ; 2) la survivance des réalités contenues et transformées dans cette image-monde ; 3) la création d’un lieu de mémoire par la constitution d’un patrimoine photographique. / The study of documentary has called for numerous approaches these past few years: historical, rhetorical, pragmatic, stylistic. These approaches question the reality in film or photography, the recurring problem of the documentary. And this question will be tackled again in this research. The intention of the outlined perspective is to integrate all these approaches by retracing the steps to the origins of photography, in the nineteenth century, and by asserting its specificity of image. A photographic journey is proposed showing how the photographic image was able to change drastically our relationship with reality. This synthetic ambition was inspired by an original concept initiated by the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer: the symbolic form. It is based on a cultural logic which suggests going to the heart of our realities and analyzing the principles which govern them. The core of such a philosophy lies in a culture contained as a relat! ive reality. In this light, is the photographic image as documentary considered as a place giving reality to thought? How? This research allows us to imagine three moments in the development of this specific symbolic form: 1) the invention of an image-world invoked by the photographic image; 2) the survival of the realities contained and transformed in this image-world; 3) the creation of a place of reference for an assembled photographic heritage.

yes / In this article, we suggest that our semiotic understanding of embodiment could be expanded to include a socially exalted individual who embodies a symbol. To illustrate this argument, we draw on an ongoing research project that examines fandom rhetoric and debates around the ‘Greatest of all time’ or the GOAT symbol in Tennis. Grounding Bakhtin’s tri-distinctions of identity, I-for-myself, I-for-other, other-for-me, in a Kantian hermeneutic tradition, we perform a theoretically informed analysis of the GOAT debate. Neither of the three components exists in isolation, rather, they interact in a reflexive dialogue which continually shapes and re-shapes individual consciousness and experiences of embodiment. We apply a ‘Romanticism aesthetic activity’ analytical framework to the tri-distinctions of identity, that consists of ‘creative’ and ‘critical’ rhetoric, within which we found genres of ‘myth,’ ‘art,’ and ‘science.’ Each genre functions, through disparate means to exalt or metamorphise an individual (our focus is on Roger Federer) into a cultural symbol, and that the symbolic form of GOAT reflexively organises the emotional field and identities for those fans deeply invested in it. This paper contributes to the current cultural psychological literature on understanding the mediation of people to symbols in a new digital age.

L’étude des concepts fondamentaux de l’iconologie permet de dégager la conception de l’art, de l’histoire et de la création qu’elle implique. L’examen de l’analyse iconographique, des formations par analogie et de la critique du formalisme de Wölfflin permet de réviser l’idée selon laquelle l’intellectualisme de Panofsky le conduirait à méconnaître la spécificité du visuel. La mise au jour des torsions que l’iconologue fait subir au concept de forme symbolique clarifie la question du néo-kantisme et pose celle de l’usage de concepts (philosophiques) par l’historien. Le propre de la démarche historienne ressort aussi de l’analyse du concept rieglien de Kunstwollen qui engage la théorie de la création, la définition de l’art, son autonomie et la légitimité de l’iconologie. Celle-ci passe également par la résolution d’une tension entre le souci d’écarter toute approche esthétique ou normative de l’objet d’art et la nécessaire prise en compte de sa spécificité épistémologique et pratique. Enfin le concept d’habitus et la refonte des notions d’influences et de tradition lèvent l’antinomie entre liberté créatrice et nécessité historique. L’usage du modèle dialectique (hégélien) de l’histoire relève d’un choix de méthode et d’une prise de distance par rapport à Warburg dont les concepts centraux sont détournés. / The study of the fundamental concepts of iconology enables us to identify the idea of art, of history and of creation it presupposes and also to rethink the traditional interpretation which is made of it. The analysis of the iconographical moment, of the creation by analogy and of the criticism of Wölfflin’s formalism challenges the idea that Panofsky supposedly fails to recognize the implacability of the visual aspect. As for Panofsky’s thesis of Neo-Kantianism, it is based on resorting to the concept of symbolic form. But the twisting it undergoes is relevant of the unique way in which the historian resorts to (philosophical) concepts. The distinguishing feature of the historical approach also emerges from the study of the Rieglian Kunstwollen concept which involves the theory of creation, the definition and the autonomy of art, and the legitimacy of iconology. This legitimacy also emerges from the solving of the tension between the desire to turn down any esthetical or normative approach of the objet d’art, and the necessity to take its epistemological and practical specificity into account. The historian’s will to be objective and the transformation of the taste-based judgment into the knowledge-based judgment it seems to imply are also questioned. Finally, the concept of habitus and the transformation of the notions of influence and tradition remove the antinomy between creative freedom and historical necessity. The use of the dialectic (Hegelian) model of history is a choice of method and implies that Panofsky voluntarily stands back from Warburg’s philosophy, the key concepts of which are thus embezzled.

Un parfum aujourd’hui est le plus souvent produit dans un contexte industriel. Ce contexte favorise l’innovation et la recherche de nouvelles matières premières, tout en créant de fortes attentes sur le produit fini. Est ainsi formé un panorama de créations homogènes, répondant aux standards de modes olfactives. Commande des clients des sociétés de composition, le parfum est présenté comme une équivalence olfactive d’inspirations de mots et d’images. En l’absence d’un code olfactif strict, cette équivalence est renforcée par les textes descriptifs qui énumèrent les ingrédients ou leurs effets et transforment les parfums en signes complexes de leurs composés. Contestant la notion d’équivalence littérale entre les odeurs, les mots et les images, nous pensons néanmoins que le parfum fonctionne comme un système symbolique tel que ceux décrits par Nelson Goodman. Pour en comprendre la signification, on ne peut se limiter à la seule lecture immanente du parfum, il faut effectuer une ouverture pragmatique à l’étude des conditions de sa production et des relations entre les différents producteurs tout en envisageant le contexte culturel ainsi que ses usages. En effet, selon qu’il est senti sur mouillette ou porté par un individu, le parfum fonctionne différemment. Dans un cas, il dénote et exemplifie des objets ou des odeurs du monde, dans l’autre, il distingue. Il peut aussi avoir un fonctionnement esthétique et se rapprocher des formes symboliques artistiques, constituant la vision singulière d’un monde. Cette dimension cognitive et représentative du parfum contribue à renforcer la rupture entre les odeurs naturelles et les odeurs artefactuelles à prétention artistique. / More often than not, a perfume is created within an industrial context, which entails innovation and searching for new raw materials, while at the same time creating expectations for the finished product. A homogenous landscape is created in response to the olfactory standards of fashion. Ordered by clients to their fragrance house suppliers, the fragrance is presented as an olfactory equivalent to words and images. Because no strong olfactory code exists, this equivalence is reinforced by descriptive texts, which support fragrances by naming their ingredients and effects, and thereby transform fragrances into complex signs of their components. Contesting the possibility of any literal equivalence between smells, words and images, we think nonetheless that a perfume functions as a symbolic system, akin to those described by Nelson Goodman. In order to understand the meaning of a fragrance, one cannot focus on an immanent reading of it. One is better advised to gauge it pragmatically, through the study of the conditions of its production and the relationships between producers, never neglecting the cultural perspective or the uses put to it. Indeed, depending on whether the fragrance is smelt on paper strips or worn by a person, it functions in different ways. In the former case, it denotes or exemplifies objects or smells of the world, whereas in the latter, it creates a distinction. It can also function aesthetically, not unlike the symbolic forms of art, and constitute the singular vision of a world. Both cognitive and depictive, this dimension of a fragrance helps differentiate natural smells from artificial ones which have taken on an aesthetic value.

Since West Papua’s integration into Indonesia in 1969, the Free West Papua Movement has been engaged in a struggle for independence from Indonesia. The indigenous people of the territory have endured murder, rape, and many other abuses. This thesis provides an account of Indonesia’s control over West Papua through a settler-colonial lens. It aims to shed light on the paradox of the extensive involvement by the international community during the handover period in contrast to the limited intervention in addressing the human rights abuses that followed, by employing the concept of sovereignty as symbolic form. The thesis concludes that sovereignty has evolved beyond a mere attribute of modern states. It now serves as a strategic tool for upholding international peace. Interference and intervention are therefore normalized, and utilized arbitrarily, as demonstrated in the case of West Papua. This offers insight into the ongoing human rights abuses that persist with impunity.

Cette recherche se concentre sur l'analyse des modélisations de l'imaginaire national dans la France contemporaine. A la lumière du processus de mondialisation et de ses multiples dimensions, la forme nationale semble être prise dans l'alternative entre une uniformisation au mépris des « cultures » nationales, et d'autre part une exacerbation des singularités culturelles nationales, la forme nationale étant associée à une valeur positive dans un monde en « crise ». Face à l'alternative entre une loi de succession des formes de groupement et l'essentialisation d'une réalité nationale irréductible, cette recherche aborde la question nationale par l'étude de contenus contemporains de formes symboliques d'objectivation de l'imaginaire national. A partir de l'observation de matérialisations de l'idée de nation, il s'agit de s'attacher aux opérations concrètes de représentation nationale et leur intégration dans des contextes d'énonciation de la « réalité »nationale. Dans un premier temps, l'étude des mots de la nation aborde la construction de la forme nationale comme objet sociologique et les modalités contemporaines de son énonciation, particulièrement les investissements autour de la question de l'identité nationale. Ensuite, à partir de l'image comme forme symbolique d'énonciation des groupes sociaux, nous avons étudié une matérialité particulière de l'imaginaire national, la production philatélique nationale, permettant d'observer les modulations de l'image sociale de la nation. Enfin, l'étude empirique des cérémonies d'accueil dans la citoyenneté française permet d'observer les contenus et frontières contemporaines de l'identification nationale à partir de sa mise en pratique. / This study is focused on the analysis of the modellings of the national imagination in contemporary France. With the globalization and its multiple dimensions, the national existence seems to be taken in this alternative: on one hand a standardization in defiance of the national "cultures", and on the other hand an exacerbation of the national cultural peculiarities, the national shape being associated with a positive value in a world in "crisis". Contrary to the alternative between a law of succession of the groups and an essentialisation of an inflexible national reality, this study approaches the national question by the study of contemporary contents of the national imagination symbolic forms. From the observation of the contemporary modulations of their contents, this study is based on the observation of concrete operations of national representation and their integration in contexts of the national "reality" statement. At first, the studyof nation's words approaches the construction of the national shape as sociological object and the contemporary modalities of the national shape statement, particularly the investments around the national identity. Then, from the image as a symbolic shape of social groups statement, we studied a particular materiality of the national imagination, the national philatelic production, which allows to observe the modulations of the nation's social image. Finally, the empirical study of citizenship ceremonies allows to observe the contemporary contents and borders of the national identification from its application.