Visual semiotics
Encyclopedia
"Surrounded with symbols, images and various signs, human being has always strived to signify them and utilized for communication. The meaning comes out of an interaction between message and its reader (audience). While handling a text, one must consider not only its components but also the relation between those components, all the impressions it has created and the techniques used for creating such impressions as well. When the images urge us to react, we are aware of its effect upon us, which is resulted from myths, ideologies and connotations embedded in the images. Only through a sophisticated analysis, the hidden meaning under the obvious one could be formed. Visual semiotics
deconstructs the communicative visuals while in its attempt to attain the meaning and ideology
. Human being is acquainted with signs throughout his/her life learning to use and signify them".
Studies of meaning evolve from semiotics
, a philosophical approach that seeks to interpret messages in terms of their signs and patterns of symbolism. The study of semiotics
, or semiology in France, originated in a literary or linguistic context and has been expanding in a number of directions since the early turn-of-the century work of Charles Sanders Peirce in the U.S. and Claude Lévi-Strauss
and Ferdinand Saussure in France.
A sign can be a word, a sound, or a visual image. Saussure divides a sign into two components--the signifier (the sound, image, or word) and the signified, which is the concept the signifier represents, or the meaning. As Berger points out, the problem of meaning arises from the fact that the relation between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and conventional. In other words, signs can mean anything we agree that they mean, and they can mean different things to different people. Nonverbal signs can produce many complex symbols and hold multiple meanings.
Peirce categorized three ways signs stand for their referents: iconic, indexical, and symbolic. An iconic sign/referent relation is based on resemblance--a depiction of a dog in a drawing or photograph, for example. An indexic relation is one in which the sign is in some actual proximal or physical contact with its referent (such as a wind sock to tell wind speed and direction). A symbol, such as a nation's flag, stands for its referent through convention--in other words, its meaning is arbitrary and based upon agreement or habit. Words are usually symbolic; in Western languages there is generally no iconic or representational link between a word and its signified concept. Visual communication
,--including video forms--often uses all three types of sign/referent connections. Skaggs has developed some useful tools for graphic designers expanding on Peircean themes.
The Belgian Mu Group (Groupe µ
) (founded 1967) developed a structural version of visual semiotics, on a cognitive basis, as well as a visual rhetoric
.
Most signs operate on several levels--iconic as well as symbolic and/or indexical, which suggests that visual semiotic analysis may be addressing a hierarchy of meaning in addition to categories and components of meaning. As Eco explains, "what is commonly called a 'message' is in fact a text whose content is a mutilevelled discourse.
The broadening concept of text and discourse encourages additional research into how visual communication operates to create meaning. Deely explains that "at the heart of semiotics
is the realization that the whole of human experience, without exception, is an interpretive structure mediated and sustained by signs." Semiotics
now considers a variety of texts, using Eco's terms, to investigate such diverse areas as movies, art, advertisements, and fashion, as well as visuals. In other words, as Berger explains, "the essential breakthrough of semiology is to take linguistics as a model and apply linguistic concepts to other phenomena--texts--and not just to language itself." Anthropologists like Grant McCracken
and marketing experts like Sydney Levy have even used semiotic interpretations to analyze the rich cultural meanings of products and consumer consumption behaviors as texts.
Visual texts are an important area of analysis for semioticians and particularly for scholars working with visually intensive forms such as advertising and television because images are such a central part of our mass communication
sign system. Linda Scott has deconstructed the images in perfume advertising as well as in Apple's "1984" commercial using close readings of the various messages which can be interpreted from the ads. Shay Sayre has also looked at perfume advertising images and the visual rhetoric in Hungary's first free election television advertisements using semiotic analysis. Also using semiotics
, Arthur Asa Berger has deconstructed the meaning of the "1984" commercial as well as programs such as Cheers and films such as Murder on the Orient Express.
Systems of meaning, Culler and Berger tell us, is analyzed by looking at cultural and communication products and events as signs and then by looking at the relationship among these signs. The categories of signs and the relationships between them create a system. Barthes, for example, has analyzed the "fashion system," and classified the system of communication through fashion into two categories: image clothing and descriptive clothing. Likewise, an advertisement has its own system of meaning. We expect an appeal to purchase, either directly or implied, to be made and a product to be shown, for example, as part of the advertising system.
Congresses have been held in Blois (France) 1989, Bilbao (Spain) 1992, Berkeley (California, USA) 1994, São Paulo (Brazil) 1996, Siena (Italy) 1999, Québec (Canada) 2001, Mexico city 2003, Lyon (France) 2004, Istanbul (Turkey) 2007, Venice (Italy) 2010. The next one will be held in Buenos-Aires (Argentina) in 2012 (see http://www.aisv2012.org).
President : Jean-Marie Klinkenberg
General Secretary : Göran Sonesson
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
deconstructs the communicative visuals while in its attempt to attain the meaning and ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
. Human being is acquainted with signs throughout his/her life learning to use and signify them".
Studies of meaning evolve from semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, a philosophical approach that seeks to interpret messages in terms of their signs and patterns of symbolism. The study of semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, or semiology in France, originated in a literary or linguistic context and has been expanding in a number of directions since the early turn-of-the century work of Charles Sanders Peirce in the U.S. and Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist, and has been called, along with James George Frazer, the "father of modern anthropology"....
and Ferdinand Saussure in France.
A sign can be a word, a sound, or a visual image. Saussure divides a sign into two components--the signifier (the sound, image, or word) and the signified, which is the concept the signifier represents, or the meaning. As Berger points out, the problem of meaning arises from the fact that the relation between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary and conventional. In other words, signs can mean anything we agree that they mean, and they can mean different things to different people. Nonverbal signs can produce many complex symbols and hold multiple meanings.
Peirce categorized three ways signs stand for their referents: iconic, indexical, and symbolic. An iconic sign/referent relation is based on resemblance--a depiction of a dog in a drawing or photograph, for example. An indexic relation is one in which the sign is in some actual proximal or physical contact with its referent (such as a wind sock to tell wind speed and direction). A symbol, such as a nation's flag, stands for its referent through convention--in other words, its meaning is arbitrary and based upon agreement or habit. Words are usually symbolic; in Western languages there is generally no iconic or representational link between a word and its signified concept. Visual communication
Visual communication
Visual communication as the name suggests is communication through visual aid and is described as the conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon...
,--including video forms--often uses all three types of sign/referent connections. Skaggs has developed some useful tools for graphic designers expanding on Peircean themes.
The Belgian Mu Group (Groupe µ
Groupe µ
Groupe µ is the collective pseudonym under which a group of Belgian 20th-century semioticians wrote a series of books, presenting an exposition of modern semiotics....
) (founded 1967) developed a structural version of visual semiotics, on a cognitive basis, as well as a visual rhetoric
Visual rhetoric
Visual rhetoric is the fairly recent development of a theoretical framework describing how visual images communicate, as opposed to aural, verbal, or other messages. The study of visual rhetoric is different from that of visual or graphic design, in that it emphasizes images as sensory expressions...
.
Most signs operate on several levels--iconic as well as symbolic and/or indexical, which suggests that visual semiotic analysis may be addressing a hierarchy of meaning in addition to categories and components of meaning. As Eco explains, "what is commonly called a 'message' is in fact a text whose content is a mutilevelled discourse.
The broadening concept of text and discourse encourages additional research into how visual communication operates to create meaning. Deely explains that "at the heart of semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
is the realization that the whole of human experience, without exception, is an interpretive structure mediated and sustained by signs." Semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
now considers a variety of texts, using Eco's terms, to investigate such diverse areas as movies, art, advertisements, and fashion, as well as visuals. In other words, as Berger explains, "the essential breakthrough of semiology is to take linguistics as a model and apply linguistic concepts to other phenomena--texts--and not just to language itself." Anthropologists like Grant McCracken
Grant McCracken
Grant McCracken is an anthropologist, blogger and author. A member of Convergence Culture Consortium at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McCracken has authored several books, including Chief Culture Officer , Transformations , Flock and Flow , Culture and Consumption II , Big Hair , and...
and marketing experts like Sydney Levy have even used semiotic interpretations to analyze the rich cultural meanings of products and consumer consumption behaviors as texts.
Visual texts are an important area of analysis for semioticians and particularly for scholars working with visually intensive forms such as advertising and television because images are such a central part of our mass communication
Mass communication
Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...
sign system. Linda Scott has deconstructed the images in perfume advertising as well as in Apple's "1984" commercial using close readings of the various messages which can be interpreted from the ads. Shay Sayre has also looked at perfume advertising images and the visual rhetoric in Hungary's first free election television advertisements using semiotic analysis. Also using semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
, Arthur Asa Berger has deconstructed the meaning of the "1984" commercial as well as programs such as Cheers and films such as Murder on the Orient Express.
Systems of meaning, Culler and Berger tell us, is analyzed by looking at cultural and communication products and events as signs and then by looking at the relationship among these signs. The categories of signs and the relationships between them create a system. Barthes, for example, has analyzed the "fashion system," and classified the system of communication through fashion into two categories: image clothing and descriptive clothing. Likewise, an advertisement has its own system of meaning. We expect an appeal to purchase, either directly or implied, to be made and a product to be shown, for example, as part of the advertising system.
Association of Visual Semiotics
There exists since 1989 an International Association for Visual Semiotics (in French and Spanish, the two other official languages : Association internationale de sémiotique visuelle, Asociación internacional de semiótica visual).Congresses have been held in Blois (France) 1989, Bilbao (Spain) 1992, Berkeley (California, USA) 1994, São Paulo (Brazil) 1996, Siena (Italy) 1999, Québec (Canada) 2001, Mexico city 2003, Lyon (France) 2004, Istanbul (Turkey) 2007, Venice (Italy) 2010. The next one will be held in Buenos-Aires (Argentina) in 2012 (see http://www.aisv2012.org).
President : Jean-Marie Klinkenberg
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is a Belgian linguist and semiotician, professor at the State University of Liège, born in Verviers in 1944. Member of the interdisciplinary Groupe µ...
General Secretary : Göran Sonesson