Catastrophe Theory and Semiophysics:With an Application to "Movie Physics"

In the humanities the applications of catastrophe theory and other models stemming from "dynamic systems theory",a field of applied mathematics based on topology and differential calculus,was the first theoretical innovation since the computer/mind-boom which began in the sixties and brought many research fields to public recognition and institutional success which exploited the metaphor of the computer as mind or artificial intelligence;cf.AI and the Chomsky paradigm.The rise of dynamic model designs began in the late sixties with the publications of Rene Thom,a Fields Medal winner in mathematics,and Christopher Zeeman,a renowned researcher in applied mathematics(mostly in biology and psychology/neurology).The French and English endeavor received much support after 1974-1977 culminating in a joint conference in Cerisy-la-Salle in 1982.The first sections review this development,the catastrophe controversy 1978-1980 and later developments mainly in the work of Rene Thom and his major followers(Petitot,Wildgen,& Brandt).Thorn’s new impulse,his "semiophysics"(Thom,1988),and the research which followed are summarized and the notions of "saillance" — "pregnance"(perceptual salience and biological relevance) including its evolutionary aspects are sketched.A specific application to the concept of sign applying the hyper-cycles proposed by Eigen and Schuster(1979) is put forward.Eventually,a new application by the author called "movie physics" is described,which gives a hint to further evolutions of this new field of semiotic theorizing,mainly in the media.