Friday, May 30, 2008

Nocturnal vermiculated rustication

click photo to enlarge
Why does the law still use the term "messuage" instead of "house, land and out- buildings"? Why do doctors speak of "hypoplasia" in preference to " a below- normal number of cells"? Why does Parliament say "prorogation" instead of "the end of the Parliamentary session", and why do psychiatrists use the word "bruxism" instead of "grinding the teeth"? Those who use such language usually defend it as necessary to the precision with which they need to conduct themselves professionally. And there's clearly considerable advantage to be gained by using unambiguous terminology that is understood within a particular discipline - it makes for clarity and efficiency. However, some of the language used by professionals is not unambiguous and often it's unnecessarily complex. Some medical professionals feel that they spend as much time learning terminology as they do mastering procedures.

However, there is one further use that language of this sort fulfils: it erects a barrier behind which the professional can operate, and it excludes the layman. This is very useful for giving a job the sort of aura required to justify high levels of remuneration! One can't help but feel that this is the real reason that the law, for example, is so resistant to making itself easily understood to the man in the street, rather than the desire to retain technical precision.

Today's photograph shows stone blocks on the exterior of a Victorian bank in Boston, Lincolnshire. The architectural profession describes blocks laid with deep joints as "rusticated". When such stonework was first used in the Italian Renaissance it was seen as "rustic" or country-style, compared with the more urban, smoothly laid stone or "ashlar". "Vermiculated" comes from "vermis", the Latin for worm. The surface pattern of this particular style of rusticated blocks was felt to resemble a worm-eaten surface. My photograph is a digitally enhanced image taken at night under the surrounding tinted lights. So the phrase "nocturnal vermiculated reticulation", is a technically precise description of the shot, even though it sounds like gibberish!

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 800
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On