Comments on the 2001 Motif Symposium – Carving

Submitted by Lindsey Hanahan - September 4, 2001

Response to Charlotte Wile’s June 5 Motif Theory Discussions

I have just completed the IMS cert. program at the University of Utah, and Peggy Hackney shared with us the dilemma of the Carving symbol. I had an idea for a symbol that was slightly different than the one Peggy showed us.
This symbol is the one Peggy showed us:

Here is my suggestion, which I think is much easier to draw:

My reasoning is that starting a symbol with a spiral, that needs to be horizontally straight on a score, is very difficult. (Well, it’s very difficult for ME, and mechanically I believe it is a bit of a challenge.) By starting with the usual half-circle on the left, and finishing with a spiral, it is much easier to make a horizontally straight symbol, but the spiral at the end is a clear designation of the spiral-like nature of Carving. I think it gives the symbol a very distinctive look to delineate it from the "any" symbol, without making a drastic change - in fact, it is an intuitive change. If you read it left to right, you might say that "carving LEADS to spiraling."

I like [Charlotte’s] sign for axial movement, but I agree that "axial" is not necessarily the best choice. I would say movements in Place, or perhaps (borrowing from Ballroom dance vocabulary) they could be "spot" movements meaning that they're on a spot. (This is as in swing dancing, or salsa, where the couple remains stationary - usually it is the man that is most stationary and the woman dances around him, but the overall idea is the same. The movement does not "progress" meaning it doesn't travel along the "line of dance." Seems like an interesting parallel to me.) I'm afraid using the word "Place" would get all confused with Direction symbols, so "spot" seems like a possibility.