Colonel (abbreviated Col., Col or COL and pronounced /ˈkɜːrnəl/, similar to "kernel") is a senior military officer rank below the general officer ranks. However, in some small military forces, such as those of Iceland or the Vatican, colonel is the highest rank. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.

Historically, in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army. Modern usage varies greatly.

The rank of colonel is typically above the rank of lieutenant colonel. The rank above colonel is typically called brigadier, brigade general or brigadier general.

Equivalent naval ranks may be called captain or ship-of-the-line captain. In the Commonwealth air force rank system, the equivalent rank is group captain.

History and origins

The word "colonel" derives from the same root as the word "column" (Italian: colonna) and means "of a column", and, by implication, "commander of a column". The word "colonel" is therefore linked to the word "column" in a similar way that "brigadier" is linked to "brigade", although in English this relationship is not immediately obvious. By the end of the late medieval period, a group of "companies" was referred to as a "column" of an army.

The Indian Army has followed the British Army rank system since India's independence from the British Empire in 1947. However, the crown in the rank insignia has been replaced with the Ashoka Lion, which symbolizes the sovereignty of the Government of India.

Colonel in the Indian Army is equivalent to captain in the Indian Navy and group captain in the Indian Air Force. Like other armies, this rank is higher than Lieutenant Colonel and lower than a Brigadier.

References

Thierry Geoffroy (born 1961), also known as Colonel, is a Danish-French artist, living in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a Conceptual artist using a wide variety of media including video and installations, often collaborative with other artists.

Format art

Geoffroy refers to his work as "format art", since the format of the artwork is the artwork. In 1989, he when wrote a manifest on five types of moving exhibitions (Manifeste – Les differents Types de moving Exhibitions). Since then he has worked on several other formats, his most famous being Emergency Room, which has toured internationally and has been shown at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. The formats generally involve many participants and are designed to investigate social psychology (e.g., conflicts, collaboration).

His method is inspired by the TV program format: art institutions wanting to use an art format must purchase a license and agree to use the original title, architectural concept, and methods. As in TV, vast documentation is always created with video and photo material as central elements.