Words, Signs and the iCon of Apple
While on a recent visit to the Apple Store I had a sudden realization. As I looked carefully around the store at all the signs on the walls and all the iPads and iPhones buzzing and computer monitors and even the big inset televisions on the back wall at the Genius bar I discovered that not one time and in no visible place was written the word Apple. Yet everything in the place, from floor to ceiling to every able bodied blue shirt wearing devotee all screamed Apple.
How does that happen? It’s their symbol.
Sure, we can chalk it all up to the science of brilliant branding and so forth I think there’s something much deeper at work.
Symbols, in saying nothing, say more than words ever could. The word “Apple” is quite limited in what it can do. Go into a room of strangers and simply speak the word, “Apple” and people will not know if you are referring to fruit or a computer or pie or sauce or. . . .
With that same group, say nothing but simply brandish the symbol and you’ve spoken volumes.
Not all symbols do this. When a symbol gains the power to convey an entire world of meaning that can be shared among many without words it has moved into the rarified air of “sign” status. To one degree or another it becomes iconic. In a powerful but ultimately limited way, Apple has done this.
It’s interesting that the alternate world of computers has gone in the opposite direction. Not only is there no iconic sign, there isn’t even a word. They have allowed themselves to be reduced to a couple of letters: PC.
There is an intense analogy here with respect to words and signs and the way God works in and through Jesus Christ. I’d love it if you would “flesh” that out with me.
Most Mac users I know love Apple, even when their Mac is broken. Most PC users I know (including me) have a love/hate relationship with Microsoft, even when their PC is working.
I am also reminded of the story of the lady at the jewelry store who asked if they had a cross pendant “with the little man on it.” (I can’t remember where I heard that story — maybe from you or someone else here at Asbury?)
In any event, seems like the power is not in the symbol, but in the connection it makes with, between and among those who “behold” it, as a kind of continuing participation in a shared experience or in the perception (in the case of someone like me who has not “converted” to Apple) that there is an experience there which I have not yet shared.
Kind of like a sacrament?
The first thing that I thought of when I read this blog entry was the United Methodist Church that I grew up in. For a few years (luck would have it that I was away in college and seminary for most of these years), the contemporary worship director considered himself to be of the “seeker friendly” crowd. This meant that he wanted absolutely no icons or symbols in the worship space (yet he really liked wearing a shirt that said “Jesus” in the shape of a Pepsi symbol).
He wanted to limit recognizable symbols completely from the service in order to not make anyone “uncomfortable.” He moved the service out of the sanctuary and into the fellowship hall, which he had set up to look more like a club, complete with a stage and colored lights, than a church.
All that said, I agree with the commenter above that for a symbol to mean anything to a person, they first have to have an experience that they relate to the symbol. The cross is meaningless to a person if the person has not already experienced the saving grace of Christ.
Once we have that experience, however, which I would hope that all Christians can claim that they have experienced, the symbols become very valuable.
Matthew,
I wouldn’t say that the cross is meaningless without experiencing grace first. I am sure that there are many in the western world that have never stepped into a church, but have a definite meaning associated with a cross. I am not saying that it is a full, theologically correct, Christian meaning, but we sadly can’t say that about probably half the people inside churches either.
JAy.
An interesting though, not entirely along the lines of where you were wanting to go, but I am going there anyway!
Show the Apple logo to the general public, and probably 30% will have a significant reaction, either positively (the majority) or negatively. Show the Microsoft Windows logo, and again about 30% will have a reaction, probably more skewed to negative. Show the Disney “mouse ear” logo, and you will probably get at least 50% of the people present to smile.
Then show a cross. I suspect that fewer people will have a significant reaction.
What does that mean? What are corporations doing to create icons that cause an emotional response? What should the church be doing that is similar or different?
Our Protestant history is replete with iconaclasm within worship services – four blank walls and a sermon, while elsewhere God’s faithful are led into a full liturgy with its many iCons. Any major sports event will provide a full sacramental service to be taken in and consumed. Eat, drink, smell, see, imagine, touch, dream, desire, more, more, more.
Steve Jobs was a genius at such electrifying, compelling, innovative marketing. Within our mega-churches, jumbotrons replace our ancient images with high-tech wonders. The vast majority experiment with PowerPoint or other specialized software packages to cast a spell. I find it saw when I attend worship and feel that I’m being entertained rather than led toward encounter with the risen Christ.
St. John of Damascus has some great stuff to say to us about the proper use of imagery in worship. I quote …
“Concerning the charge of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbols, therefore when an Orthodox venerates an icon, he is not guilty of idolatry. He is not worshipping the symbol, but merely venerating it. Such veneration is not directed toward wood, or paint or stone, but towards the person depicted. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objects, but worship is due to God alone.
We do not make obeisance to the nature of wood, but we revere and do obeisance to Him who was crucified on the Cross… When the two beams of the Cross are joined together I adore the figure because of Christ who was crucified on the Cross, but if the beams are separated, I throw them away and burn them.”
Another one from St. John: “I do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation … .”
And Jesus is the ultimate icon (image of God) towards which all icons must point. I want to reclaim these truths and escape a Platonistic faith which denies the good of creation. A way forward may be exploring the imagery of Tabernacle, Temple and Priesthood.
Thanks for the feedback. Love the quotes Michael
always love a Jd observation.
your correlation to the cross makes me think of the art of Antoni Tapies where the simple “x” or cross finds it’s way into most of his works. …shouldn’t it find it’s way into most of our work?