Many might see the word Poetics and think of Poetry but this is not the case. The idea of Poetics encompasses all that we make and create, particularly in language and symbols.
A useful place to start is through the etymology of Poiesis: the art of ‘letting be’ (https://monoskop.org/images/9/9e/Brown_Nathan_Milat_Petar_eds_Poiesis_2017.pdf). If one is seeking to define many of the non-measurables of living and being, it helps to turn to mapping to capture meaning, relationships and scope. I have done this by providing the following ‘map’ of Poetics: Mapping Poetics.
Mapping Poetics
The first thing you will notice are the four strands of Poetics that encompass: Grammar/Language, Poiesis, Poeticity and semiosis (meaning making). Once we explore the relationships in these four strands we begin to enter into the complexities of linguistics, semiotics and para-linguistics.
In Poetics, we explore all that cannot be measured in living and being. If you look up publications on Poetics you will find hundreds of books and thousands of articles on ‘The Poetics of’. One I read recently was on Quantum Poetics (https://www.thenewatlantis.com/wp-content/uploads/legacy-pdfs/20171117_TNA53Matlack.pdf ). In this we read discussion on the musicality and linguistics of Maths and Physics. Another good read is by Bachelard on the Poetics of Space (https://ia801509.us.archive.org/35/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.139369/2015.139369.The-Poetics-Of-Space.pdf). However, there is much much more to study on the Poetics of life, living and being.
Perhaps the best place to start in understanding Poetics and its relation to risk is by a study of metaphor. I would suggest Metaphors We Live By as a starter (https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~jhoey/teaching/cs886-affect/papers/LakoffJohnsonMetaphorsWeLiveBy.pdf). How does this relate to risk and safety?
If we look at risk and safety only at the surface level, we only see hazards and the physical world (Workspace). When we explore the risk and safety world through its use of language, linguistics, metaphor, symbols etc we see a world that is not conscious of what it is really saying (in Headspace and Groupspace).
It is one thing to speak about the conscious and rational world of risk and quite another to explore how this is being communicated and by what methods. This is where we find dominant ideologies hidden in the text and symbols that indoctrinate the industry into linear and hierarchical models that don’t exist in reality. We see this in the dominant Deontological ethic that dominates the industry. Except when it comes to learning something new, safety is not intesrted.
In Poetics we learn the skills of looking ‘above’ and ‘below’ the text’. We learn a meta-analysis of how text works indeed, that the human person is a text. This helps us better understand why certain unconscious messaging doesn’t work.
My first employment was in 1970 working in Building and Construction whilst I was studying and my second job was teaching English, History and Music to High School students starting in 1974. It was here that I first learned the power of Poetics beyond poetry. Indeed, if we think about the Musicality of life, being and living (Musicophilia https://archive.org/details/musicophiliatale0000sack_u9u5) we better understand the rhythms of how we live and the influences on our emotions.
The other day I had Safety (with three post-nominals) telling me that slogans had no rhythm. Of course, when you don’t know anything about language and Poetics, why would you think that text says more than what is read in a dictionary? Of course, the power of slogans and the indoctrination of slogans as propaganda is well known, just not by Safety. Safety in its cocoon calls these ‘principles’. Then Safety wonders why initiatives backfire and why messaging doesn’t work but then seek answers to Poetic issues in engineering. Great idea.
If you are interested in learning about language, Poetics and unconscious messaging we have a number of modules you can study or receive coaching (https://cllr.com.au/product/poetics-flyer-module-22/ ). In this module, one becomes sensitised to all that happens in Linguistics, paralinguistics and semiotics and why various safety communications don’t work. You also learn how to make messaging work and how to better influence decision making using positive, practical and useable methods.
Prof. Robert Long
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