graphic ideology: an intro to semiotics

Graphic Ideology: Visual communication, propaganda or persuasion

Graphic Ideology: Visual communication, propaganda or persuasion

Charles Sanders Peirce(1839-1914)

Ferdinand Saussure1857-1913)

SemiologySemiotics

The study of signs

Semiotics

What's in a name? that which we call a roseby any other name would smell as sweet;(Romeo and Juliet. W. Shakespeare)

Rosa

Roos

Ros

Ruusu

Posa

Bunga mawar

Warda

:

Sign

Sign

SignifierSignified

‘Everything is based on relations’(Saussure, 1915/1969, p. 123)

A sign has two inseparable parts: the signifierand the signified. The signifier is what is usedto create meaning (verbal, written or visual). Thesignified is the idea it represents. When we seethe word ‘open’ (signifier) outside a shop we knowthat it is communicating ‘this shop is open forbusiness’ (signified).

Open for business

‘Everything is based on relations’(Saussure, 1915/1969, p. 123)

According to Saussure a sign is made up of phonemes. These are sounds which combineto make meaning.

“These noises can only be judged as language when they attempt to communicate an idea” (Crow, 2007)

D’, O’, G’

The word ‘dog’ and a picture of one do not signify in the same way, so it is safe to say a theory of semiotics based on linguistics will fall short of offering a complete account of visual signification (Iverson 1986, p. 85)

Charles Sanders Peirce(1839-1914)

Charles Sanders Peirce(1839-1914)

Interpretant Similar to Saussure’s signifiedt

Icon An iconic sign has a physicalidentifiable resemblance tothat which it represents

Index While culturally dependantindexical signs have logical,linked associations

Symbol These signs have no logicalconnections to what they represent

Saussure was ultimately concerned with the structure (langue) rather than the use of language (parole)… Peirce was concerned with the world we inhabit and how we use language and signs to understand the world (Noble & Bestley 2011, p. 92)

Icon

Index

Symbol

Visual language is a combination of the iconic, indexical and the symbolic

Denotation…connotation

• 'Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious' or 'commonsense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide… the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious’ 'commonsense' meaning of a sign. In the case of linguistic signs, the denotative meaning is what the dictionary attempts

to provide. (Chandler, 2002)

Denotation…connotation

• ’Connotation refers to the range of secondary meanings, either intended or unintended within a form of communication

(such as text; written, verbal or visual): the range of meanings and intepretations of an object or thing, its qualities and impressions in the eyes of the reader (Noble & Bestley, 2011)

Encode(the message/signal)

Decode(interpret the message/signal)

Addresser Addressee

Encode-decode. First coined by Hall (1973)

Addresser-addressee. First used by Jacokbsen (1960)

“Meaning is not ‘transmitted’ to us—we actively createit according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware”(Chandler, 2002, p.14).

Encode(the message/signal)

Decode(interpret the message/signal)

Addresser Addressee

Syntax

• What's in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet;

What's in a name? that which we call a roseBy any other name would smell as sweet;

All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another (Crow, 2007, p. 20).

Visual language, grammar and syntax

“What is expressed in language through the choice betweendifferent word classes and clause structures, may, in visual communication, be expressed through the choice between different uses of colour or different compositional structures”(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 2).

“ two kinds of participants, represented participants (the people ,the places and things depicted in images), and interactive participants (the people who communicate with each other through images, the producers and viewers of images ” (Ibid, p. 119).

Participants, circumstances, vector, actor, goal,

Signified: Books are magical methods of transport. Signifier: A book metamorphosed into a flying carpet. Vector: Left to right diagonal movement in perspective. Actor: figure on flying carpet. Participants: a variety of objects and figures. Circumstances: participants which are less essential for meaning to be made. Goal: Abook metamorphosed into a flying carpet is carrying a person to dreamland (dreamland is mentioned in original written text).

Vector— the action taking place

Goal— the intended outcome

Actor— the dominant image

Actor

Goal

Vector

http://www.prismjournal.org/mcauley.html

Textual determinismThree reading structures involved in semiotic analysis(Hall, 1980)

Hegemonic/preferred/dominant

Negotiated

Oppositional

“An important requirement of successful advertising is clear reception of a message with minimal or no awareness of the technicalities of the manipulation. If everyone analysedevery advertisement, advertising would lose considerablemoney” (Kellehear, 1993, p. 44).

Hegemonic readingDenotation

Cowboy smoking cigarette in outdoor setting

Connotation

Freedom

Independence

Hard work

Masculinity

Alpha male

Rebellious

Hegemonic readingSignified

Marlboro cigarettesare for ‘real men’.For moments of quiet contemplation when itstime to get away fromthe humdrum ofdaily life.

Signifier

Male staring intodistance. MountainsIn background suggest‘being away from it all’.He is rugged, but clean shaven, wears a clean shirt, no tie so that heappears relaxed and nonconforming. Cowboyoutfit acts as a metaphor for being independent,not one of the crowd.

Polysemy and Anchorage

All images are polysemous; underlying theirsignifiers, a ‘floating chain’ of signifieds, the reader able to choose some and ignore others… (Barthes, 1977, pp. 38/39)

Polysemy (noun)The co-existence of many possible meanings

In all these cases of anchorage, language (written,verbal) clearly has a function of elucidation… anchorageis a control, bearing a responsibility — in the face of theprojective power of pictures… the text thus has arepressive value (Ibid, p. 40)

anchorage”

Roland Barthes1915-1980

Polysemy and Anchorage

“our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature” (Lakoff & Johnson, 200, p. 1)

(orientation) happy is up; sad is down (examples ‘my spirits rose, I fell into a depression’) (p. 15)

(ontological) the mind is a brittle object (example ‘I’m going to pieces’, ‘his mind snapped’) (p. 28)

(personification) inflation is a person (examples inflation has robbed me of my savings’, inflation has outwitted the best economic minds in the country’) (p.33-34).

Signified Signifier

This brandof chili ishot

The bottle isbeing heldlike a lighter

Our associationwith lightersis transferredto the chilisauce. Lightersgive off heat

Signified Signifier

Signified SignifierThe public onlysee the final ‘product’of design. They don’tsee the ‘process’.

An iceberg.

We know that when we see an image of an iceberg we are only seeing 10% of it. The rest lies underneath unseen.

Robin Beaudry, 2014.

Denotative(Describe what is in the picture)

Connotative(What does it ‘mean’)

An ablutionary conclusion

OR

Thank you

Mur-rom-boo

Go raibh maith agat

“visual communication design is a reflective, decision-makingprocess that is concerned with the transfer of informationfrom various sources into a visually dominant communicableform” (McAuley, 2009, p.28).