Seminar
The meaning slipping away.
The study of signs, everything in the
universe is a sign of something. Everything that we see, we understand we have
a place for in culture. Even the natural world is understood through culture.
Therefore everything in that sense is a sign. We don’t look for truth.
Intertextuality?????
Sign is the central word
The theory of the sign illustrated by a
diagram
Made up of the signified & signifier
Signifier carries the meaning.
Can’t have a signifier without a signified
French philosopher
Rowland Barthes book mythologies.
Post modernists
Signifier = sound pattern or what you see.
Signified = concept
Denotations - literal meaning – what is
actually there
Connotations – suggestive meaning – the
meaning you give to what is there.
Daniel chandler (get site off the lecture)
Paris match book cover
Denotation. What you can see
The connotation to us right now would be
different from what the French in the 1950s would have been.
Underpinning colonisation.
Ideological critique.
The Nude: Naked or Nude
Kenneth Clark
Strong divide between girls and boys toys.
The connotations……
Lecture
Seeing comes before words. The child looks
and recognizes before it can speak. (Berger 1972)
Charley harper - connection of the letter
and a visual (children’s alphabet)
Visual language . in order to undertand how
visual communication workd, we need to consider the mechanics of visual
language.
Terms and theories used to decode and
explain visual communication have been developed from linguistics.
Sophisticated ‘readers’ of visual signs and
signals. Consumers of visual art and design.
We consume and decode meaning and visuals
unconsciously
Advertising and branding arguably relies on
this in order to be successful.
Logo. We give them meaning and associate
them with the brand.
Fcuk. This is woman. This is man. Labeling
in a simplistic way and an irony with the sophisticated imagery.
Understand how meaning is formed in order to
understand how your work fits into your d you know what conceptually good and
bead design is.
Tim burton has a signature style. Personal,
visual language.
Practices of looking
“Throughout history, debates about the representation
have considered whether these systems of representation reflect the world as it
is… or whether the fact we construct the world and its meaning through the
systems of representation we deploy. (Sturken. M & Cartwright. L)”
where does ideology come from? How the
systems of control operate.
Visual culture regards images as central to
the representation of meaning in the world.
Contempory film and proper-ganda. The
representations of masculinity post 9/11 and post.
How they contribute to the representation
that shapes out world.
It is crucial that we understand how we
communicate effectively through our images.
Damien Hurst. Element of shock. Brit art.
Abram Games. Logo for the festival of
Britain.
Twitter user overload – positive imagery.
Meanings are made through the creation and
interpretation of signs and these are culturally specific.
Positive – adds to the richness to the
understanding of the word we are looking at.
Semiotics/semiology – the study of signs
Useful theoretical framework to apply to
help us decode complex images that may be loaded with multiple signs.
Theory comes from the greek word ‘theorema’
meaning to view, observe or reflect.
Derives from linguistics
Language is both socially constructed and
inherited, culturally specific and a system of signs, organized in codes and
structures.
Saussure three main areas to consider how
meaning is formed
The signs themselves
The way they are organised into systems
The context in which they appear
Pierce was interested in studying signs to
identify how we make sense of the world around us. Concept of the sign based on
readers cultural experience
Three levels;
Firstness- a sense of something, a feeling
or mood (subjective)
Secondness- the level of fact (fundamental)
literal.
Thirdness – the level of general rules
(culturally specific) that bring the other two levels together in a
relationship.
Saussure defines a sign as being composed
of a signifier – the form which the sign takes and the signified – the concept
it represents.
(come in where open) signifier
the shop is open for business – signified
concept
crosses, swastika, red cross, religion
signifier is the same but the signified is different.
Leci n’est pas une pipe – this is not a
pipe
The text beneath the pipe is neither true
nor false
It is a painting, a representation of a
pipe, not the pipe itself.
Joseph kosuth (1965) One and Three chairs
Photograph, chair and dictionary definition
of a chair.
appropriation of ideas
pierce: Iconic, indexical, symbolic
Iconic. Signifier is perceived as
resembling or imitating the signified. [Toilet signs]
Indexical signs the signifier is not
arbitrary but is directly connected in some way ( physically or casually) to
the signified – this link can be observed of inferred. [Tracks]
Symbolic the signifier does not resemble
the signified. It is fumdamentally arbitrary or purely conventional – so the
relationship must be learnt, culturally specific [road signs]
Denotation - A first order of meaning. The literal or obvious meaning of the sign.
Connotation - A second order of meaning, less obvious and are introduces by human intervention.
United colours of Benetton
The angelic and the devil
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
