" Personal happiness has since become a primary ideal of Western political thought with the idea that the government is there to secure people's freedom and their ability to find happiness. The smiley face image has since been incorporated into modern American society as a symbol of happiness, whatever that happiness may entail, and many project their ideas of happiness onto the symbol. But the symbol is so simple and universal it will continue to exist despite those who attempt to assign a definition to it. [3: Lumpkin, Libby. Deep Design: Nine Little Art Histories. (Los Angeles: Art Issues, 1999), 23.]
While many in the modern world associate artistic smiles with happiness, the article points out that this has not always been the case. In the past, smiles have been associated with many other things like the fulfillment of desire or the attainment of secret knowledge. Smiles were used to give the subject of the artwork something more than the viewer had. However, in nature, smiles have always been the reaction of people who were expressing feelings of happiness. And...
But the author makes certain to inform the reader that the smiley face is really nothing more that'd simple symbol without any special meaning. For instance, I particularly liked when the author stated "The Smiley Face is just a free-floating signifier that works as well in Sunday schools as it does in commercial stores - a dematerialized material grin." I think that this quote sums up the author's assertion that there is nothing to interpret in the smile, but also is an example of how each generation interprets the smile in art. For the author, writing in the modern secular world, there is no special meaning of symbol. But I believe that this quote actually reveals that the author's assertion, that there is nothing to interpret in the smile, is itself an interpretation.
References
Lumpkin, Libby. Deep…
