WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?!

(DISCIPLINE OR MEDIUM?)!
(THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING?)"

or,! WHAT IS A PHOTOGRAPH"

A question! What denes a photograph?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?!

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres?"

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres? !

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres? ! A use? An object in set of contexts (personal / social)? "

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres? ! A use? An object in set of contexts (personal / social)? "

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres? ! A use? An object in set of contexts (personal / social)? "

A question! What denes a photograph?! A technology or a way of making an image?! Proof or a picture? ! A set of discourses or genres? ! A use? An object in set of contexts (personal / social)? ! Does it have a dened function? "

If I ask what is a photograph it is to ask whether photography is primarily a !

technology !
or a !

social practice !
and in considered this reect on how meaning might be seen to be constructed in photography."

To repeat an idea again:! Is photography! a medium?! or! a discipline?"

To repeat an idea again:! Is photography! a medium?!

i.e. a self-sufcient mode of making?"

or! a discipline?"

To repeat an idea again:! Is photography! a medium?! or! a discipline?"

i.e. part of a set of regulated norms? " Not a homogenous whole but a set of different discursive practices"

To repeat an idea again:! Is photography! a medium?! or! a discipline?"

i.e. part of a set of regulated norms? " Not a homogenous whole but a set of different discursive practices"

A key disciplinary concern:! What is semiotics? (any ideas?)! The science of signs"

Some disciplinary concerns:! What is semiotics? (any ideas?)! The science of signs"

Some disciplinary concerns:! What is semiotics? (any ideas?)! The science of signs"

The science of signs?! Two key names:! Ferdinand de Saussure! C.S. Peirce"

Two key ideas:! PART

1.!

Peirce: A sign is something which stands to somebody for something else! Signs stand in for things.! Signs are a means of communication.! Signs are meaning communicated."

Peirces lexicon of signs:! icon! index! symbol"

Peirces lexicon of signs:! icon: visual similarity (looks like, resembles)! index! symbol"

Peirces lexicon of signs:! icon: visual similarity (looks like, resembles)! examples:! image! diagram! metaphor"

Peirces lexicon of signs:! icon! index: a causal relation (no smoke without re)! symbol"

Peirces lexicon of signs:! icon! index! symbol: an interpretive norm (no similarity, must be learnt: an example the red cross means medicine there is no natural link)"

What is a photograph here?! Index a causal relation: a photograph is proof of that-hasbeen (Barthes), Andre Bazin: it is a decal, a transfer of reality, a moment of time mummied! Icon a resemblance, a perspectival version of the world, world transformed into picture, a visual language! Photographs are both icon and index, ! both temporal imprint and visual language"

A paradox:! the photograph seems to be a message without a code a neutral recording natural! Reality appears to pour out of a photograph"

YET we must understand photography as part of a visual language.! It is the indexical aspect of photography that makes it most convincing, that makes us believe it. ! (Natural / Realism)! It is the iconological part we must investigate to see how a picture is constructed ! (Cultural / Historical)"

An approach:! With photographs we must look at two parts:! What it points towards / ! DENOTATION! What it implies / ! CONNOTATION"

Taking these two aspects together THEN we can say what a photograph is of ! (ie the subject of a photograph is an amalgam of denotation AND connotation of indexical pointing AND iconological implication)"

Roland Barthes proposes several methods that provide connotations for the seemingly natural photograph, and these can be applied to portrait photographs! *trick effects! *pose! *objects! *photogenia (lighting effects)! *aestheticism (artiness call to art historical codes)! *syntax image sequence! see his The Photographic Message in Image/Music/Text "

*The pose! Henri Cartier-Bresson! denotation: ! a man walks in a space with sculptures! connotation: ! a man is the same as his work! the subject:! the artist Alberto Giacommeti! (a man is a studio! who lives his work, who is identical with! his sculptures)"

Juergen Teller! denotation?! connotiation?! subject?"

2 x tears Corinne Day / Man Ray! Denotation: a woman cries! Connotation?!

*The object! Gordon Parks! Signs operating with other signs! The ag! the broom! the historical resemblance! *see Grant Wood! American Gothic"

Larry Clark"

Robert Mapplethorpe"

Diane Arbus"

Julia Margaret Cameron! denotation?! connotiation?! subject?"

Gillian Wearing! denotation?! connotiation?! subject?"

August Sander! denotation?! connotiation?! subject?"

Alasdair McLellan! In Glorious Mono / Vogue! S/S 2013"

Mel Bles! Monochrome Set / Pop! 2013"

Denotation: that dress Connotation ?! What different connotations are provided for this object in these ! three different styles?!

Katy Grannan! Boris Mikhailov! Denotation:! A woman lying down outside!

Connotation:! What differences (through ! photographic choices: horizon, ! color, positioning, location)!

Ryan McGinley / Ansel Adams: photographs of rocks, with what differences?!

Two key ideas:! PART

2.!

How is meaning communicated? By signs! Signs, in the system developed by Saussure, are divided into two components.!

The signied.! The signier."

The signied.! The signier.! denitions please"

SIGN ="

---------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e" T-r-e-e"

SIGN ="

Signied =

concept"

---------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e" T-r-e-e"

SIGN ="

Signied =

meaning"

---------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e" T-r-e-e"

SIGN ="

---------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e" T-r-e-e"

Signier =

material carrier: t-r-e-e"

SIGN ="

---------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e" A-r-b-r-e"

Signier =

material carrier: a-r-b-r-e"

SIGN ="

Signier = what it means " ---------------------------------!

--------------------------------! T-r-e-e" A-r-b-r-e"

Signier = how meaning is transmitted"

An application of Saussures version of semiotics to cultural analysis: structuralism! Some names:! Claude Levi-Strauss! Michel Foucault! Jacques Lacan! Roland Barthes"

Barthes:! I am at the barber's, and a copy of Paris-Match is offered to me. On the cover, a young Negro in a French uniform is saluting, with his eyes uplifted, probably xed on a fold of the tricolour. All this is the meaning of the picture. But, whether naively or not, I see very well what it signies to me: that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her ag, and that there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his soc-called oppressors. I am therefore again faced with a greater semiological system: there is a signier, itself already formed with a previous system (a black soldier is giving the French salute); there is a signied (it is here a purposeful mixture of Frenchness and militariness); nally, there is a presence of the signied through the signier."

Sign / Message: " France is a great empire" Loved by all its subjects" Signier:" A black soldier giving a salute" Signied:" French-ness / Colonial unity" An ideological strategy:" The empire is united" see, even this man salutes the ag "

Sign / Message: " Volvic is a great brand" Its consumers help others" Signier:" A black child being given water" Signied:" Buy this product to give life to Africa" A mixture of information and feeling" Information:" 1L (here) = 10L (there)" Feeling:" This product provide ethical feelgood factor " An ideological strategy: " The commodity can replace ethics"

Another example in practice:! Red Roses = Love"

Take a bunch of roses: I use it to signify my passion [yet] there are here only passionied roses on the plane of experience I cannot dissociate the roses from the message they carry, as to say that on the plane of analysis I cannot confuse the rose as signier and the rose as sign! the sign is the fusion of roses as material object with concept passion! Roland Barthes, Myth Today in his Mythologies, p.113"

SIGN =" Signied = what it means " ---------------------------------!

--------------------------------! T-r-e-e"

Signier = how meaning is transmitted"

SIGN =" Signied = Love " ---------------------------------!

--------------------------------! T-r-e-e"

Signier ="

Semiotics at work! Sign = ! Signied = fresh / natural! Signier = owers"

Semiotics at work! Sign = ! Signied = fresh / natural! Signier = owers"

=!

freshness"

SIGN ="
Signied = Herbal Essences" Sensual / Natural / Freshness " --------------------------------! --------------------------------! T-r-e-e"

Signier ="

A strategy:! Adverts do not only provide information, they provide feeling! They also strongly demonstrate how semiotic systems work! Products have no essential meaning so one must be constructed a task of semiotics."

A question does shampoo signify / mean natural freshness?! A semiotic reading: a product attempts to link itself with another system of value! (from product that cleans to product that links to sense of self )"

Judith Williamson in her Decoding Advertisements, ! p.31:! Art / Poetry invokes feelings in the experience of the work! Advertising invokes the idea of a feeling you WILL have if you buy the product (if you own it) ! Advertising links the tangible (a cleaning product) with the intangible (feeling natural)"

NOT a question of: ! 1. what a thing means! (a bottle of shampoo can mean different things)! BUT a question of:! 2. how a thing means! (how a thing is given meaning)!

NOT a question of: ! 1. what a thing means! (a bottle of shampoo can mean different things)! BUT a question of:! 2. how a thing means! (how a thing is given meaning)!

The advertising method / according to Judith Williamson SEMIOTIC PROCESS! To make a connection:! 1. color! 2. orality (the drives: oral, anal, genital, invocatory, gaze)! 3. object-to-object! 4. object-to-world! 5. object-to-person ! (the object stands in for the person you want to be / ! you think you are)! 6. object-person-object (the person becomes an object skin-care, hair-care)"

Object-to-object conferring value"

Object-to-object conferring value"

Object-to-person"

Object-to-person"

Object-to-person"

A key set of principles:! Signs operate via:! *connection (with other signs)! *(in order to establish) difference! *in relation to a set of values that emanate from a system (a common language)"

Difference?! When products are the same,! they need to be perceived as ! different"

CONNCETION?! DIFFERENCE?! VALUE?"

CONNCETION?! DIFFERENCE?! VALUE?"

CONNCETION?! DIFFERENCE?! VALUE?"

A conclusion:! Semiotics doesnt give the key to meaning! It emphasises that meanings are not given in advance, but emerge from a process.! (ie not what something means, but how something means something)! Semiotics is not the code but that which shows us that meanings are historically constructed not naturally given. ! Semiotic analysis can be applied to ALL kinds of meaning processes advertising is only one (as it is the most obvious in attempting to make things mean something else)."

Signs are NOT natural. Signiers have no essential link with their signied. ! Signs are cultural. The relation between signier and signied is arbitrary, but this relation is agreed in culture! YET with photography and advertising signs can appear natural! This is what Barthes calls MYTH! BUT semiotics shows us that meanings do not arrive in advance, they arise from a process of combination, difference and agreed / understood value "

Semiotics / Meaning is a process! vs.! The Da-Vinci Code: there is a hidden meaning! There is no hidden meaning but the meaning is out there (ie in the process, in semiosis the process of transmitting and interpreting meaning)! Meanings are not xed, but subject to dynamic transformation! (as advertising shows us but for what purpose?)!