semiology and the photographic image

7/28/2019 Semiology and the Photographic Image

1/21

Semiology

and the photographic image

Roland Barthes: semiology as culturalcriticism

From the study of verbal language to that ofcultural phenomena: films, photographs,fashion, advertising, etc.

Developing a common vocabulary and arigorous or scientific method for the critical

analysis of mass culture. Understanding the complexity and

meaningfulness of all cultural artefacts despitetheir apparent "obviousness. The reality-effect (Roland Barthes)

The impression of reality (Christian Metz)


2/21

The photographic message:

the reality-effect The reality-effect:

So-called realism of the image makes it appear to be

"natural" rather than socially and historically constructed.

A product or production of the image--its structure

of signification as a message.

The appeal to a belief:

I know very well that this is only a photograph, yet I

choose to believe in its reality. Arguing that the photography functions as a sign

is to discredit it as an innocent or neutral

representation.


3/21


4/21

What is a sign?

There is an arbitrary relation between a

sign and its meaning.

Referent: what the signifier purports torepresent

Signifier: representational aspect

Signified: concept or meaning

If the relation between signifier andsignified is only defined by convention,

then meaning or signification is socially

and historically constructed.


5/21

Ferdinand de Saussure


6/21

The two traditions:

semiology and semiotics Semiology: the study of signs based on

linguistics

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Courseon General Linguistics.

Roland Barthes

Christian Metz

Semiotics: the study of signs based onlogic Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)

Umberto Eco

Gilles Deleuze


7/21

Defining the sign:

representation

The perceptible aspect of the sign:

how we recognize the sign as

standing for something

Saussure: the signifier

Peirce: the representer or

representamen Souriau: the first degree of film form


8/21

Defining the sign:

representation Peirce: icon, index, and symbol

An icon signifies in virtue of its resemblance, or

its analogical relation to what it wishes torepresent.

A symboldoes not resemble what it refers to; itsignifies through the force of convention.

An indexmay but does not necessarily

resemble its referent. It signifies in virtue of arelationship of contiguity with its referent. Acausal or existential link is presumed.

The representational character of signs can be,and often is, mixed or heterogeneous.


9/21


10/21

Defining the sign: signification How signs become meaningful to

individuals and societies.

Saussure: the signified Peirce: the interpretant

Souriau: the second degree of film form

Signification is always defined by

convention. The distinction between speech (parole)

and language (langue).


11/21

Defining the sign: signification

The distinction between speech

(parole) and language (langue).

Speech: the everyday use of language. A

potentially infinite number of statements.

Language: the limited number of rules we

use in speaking. The distinction between message and

code.


12/21

Defining the sign: signification The message is

actual

concrete

singular

heterogeneous

A code is

ideal

abstract

general

homogenous


13/21

Defining the sign: signification A message is a singular, meaningful unit of

discourse.

A code is an abstraction created by theanalyst--a logic reconstructed from thematerials provided by the message.

A code is a principle of intelligibility

formulated by the film theorist through theanalysis of specific "messages." Its unity or homogeneity is not of a sensory or

material order; rather, it is an order of logicalcoherence, valued for its explanatory power.


14/21


15/21

Roland Barthes on

photography The photographic message

a sign can be a very complex structure that mixes

forms and materials of representation; a sign is meaningful only in context.

Denotation and connotation

The photographic paradox

The photograph is a message without a

code.


16/21

The photograph is

a message without a code

MESSAGE CODE

signifer (representation) signified (meaning)denotation connotationphotograph captionobvious or informational symbolictraumatic ideologicalnatural noncode cultural coderecords transforms

studium punctumsignifiance


17/21

Roland Barthes on photography

The denotation of the photograph

"Certainly the image is not the reality but at least it is its

perfect analogon and it is exactly this analogical perfection

which, to common sense, defines the photograph (17).

The photograph as a "mechanical analogon" whose

message is "the scene itself, literal reality."

The photographic paradox

The spectators fascination with "the here-now, for the

photograph is never experienced as an illusion ..., its reality

[is] that of the having been there, for in every photograph

there is always the stupefying evidence of this is how it

was, giving us, by a precious miracle, a reality from which

we are sheltered" (44).


18/21


The code gravitates toward connotational

meaning.

The imposition of a second meaning through editorial

choice, laboratory manipulations, cropping, layout, etc.

The informational or "obvious" meaning of the

photograph.

Connotation is to denotation as a caption or

written text is to the photograph. If the message is "informational" then the code

structures the "symbolic" level of meaning, that is,

the range of meanings accruing to the image in

virtue of conventional or cultural associations.


19/21


20/21


Ideology and the image:

How the image structures social belief and

meaning The ideological function of connotation, as regulated

by given codes, is to reassure individuals and to

integrate them into the society overall.

How the image is naturalized by the code. The traumatic quality of the photograph as a

suspension of language


21/21

semiology and the photographic image

Documents