Me Against Myself

Running is always a competition you hold with yourself before it is a competition with anyone or anything else. No matter if you have teammates, coaches, or friends, and no matter who you are running for or against – it is a sport that is purely based on yourself. The image I chose to construct develops this basic idea of running into a very literal sense; it constructs the haunting of oneself in running so that audiences can view the personal struggle associated with it. In running, your personal perception is constantly effecting how you continue with the sport. The image also serves as a means from which to mark one’s personal history with running, and how the effort put into the sport overtime continues to benefit current results.

The linguistic meaning of this image is relatively insignificant, as there are not many words to pick out of the photo. A majority of the numbers or race bibs are blurred out of the main view of the photo, making it difficult for viewers to see what they say. However, it is apparent that the “UMW” logo on each of the uniforms is easily visible and recognizes as similar to each other – a factor that helps tie each of the images together. Though one can tell that there are different numbers on each figure, they are all wearing the same uniform – thus signifying the same object, but at different moments in time. This linguistic meaning thus overflows into also being part of the coded iconic message. It is establishing what the “UMW” may stand for (University of Mary Washington) and the dedication to the sport that goes along with this organization.

When looking closer at the coded iconic messages of this piece, there is a stark contrast between the ground being run on by the figures (red with white lines) and the rest of the image. This red really draws the audience’s attention, while the lines serve as guidelines for the viewer’s eyes to follow – very similar to runners on the actual track. We are attracted to this section of the image because of the solid and familiar form that it takes in comparison to the rest of the image, which is blurry and complex. All lines that we can see run parallel to the red track and the white lines. This track becomes the center of the image, signifying repetition, guidance, and the type of perseverance that is associated with running.

Taking the basic linguistic and coded iconic messages and putting them into a non-coded iconic message is not terribly difficult. In seeing this repeated running figure (but from different points in history) in the central portion of the image, it is obvious that the message of running as a sport is coming through it. It’s clearly very individualistic (as there is only one person showcased in the photo) though that one individual is always and has always been present at many different moments. The individual haunts the past, present, and future in running because what was done before is never forgotten –clearly seen from the different distances apart from each other each runner is.

In relation to the piece we discussed by McCloud, I think a critical (and literal) reading of this piece IS and has to be done here. The abnormality of having the same figure repeated various times lends itself to only thinking about the literal message it’s trying to convey. It’s not a piece that we can just breeze over without considering the repetition, context, and content of the image in relation to what may be shown here.