[MCC-UE 1] Week 6: Visual Culture, Representation, and the Sign

Representation

Using language, images, and signs to create meaning about the world around us

How do we understand the world?

Through representational systems such as language systems, symbolic systems, and systems of visual representation

Language Systems

Words structured through rules and conventions; is arbitrary

Symbolic Systems

Markings, symbols, and gestures

Systems of visual representation

Photography, painting, drawing, cinema, television, digital media

Do we experience the world directly?

No, we experience it through representations.

What does representation represent?

Represents the reality we understand

What does representation do?

It constructs how we see and understand the world.

What is semiotics?

The theory of signs and signification (what things mean)

What does semiotics study?

The ways in which things (words, images, and objects) are vehicles for meaning

What are the components of a sign in semiotics?

Signifier and signified

What does 'signified' refer to?

The meaning attached to a word, image, sound, or object

What does 'signifier' refer to?

Image/sound/word

What can the same signifier do?

Create different meanings (signs)

What is the definition of a sign?

The combination of signified and signifier

How is meaning defined in semiotics?

It is defined/constrained within the broader social context

Can signs be arbitrary?

Yes, signs can be arbitrary. There is no natural connection between a word and the thing it refers to. It is based on social convention.

What is the role of interpretation in semiotics?

It is the labor of our interpretation that makes meaning of signs

Denotation

A literal, descriptive meaning

Connotation

Meanings rely more on the cultural and historical context of the image ; figurative, inferred meaning

What does myth refer to in Barthes' theory?

Cultural meanings made to seem natural

What is a hidden aspect of myth according to Barthes?

A set of rules and conventions that make specific meanings seem natural and universal

How does myth affect connotative meanings?

It allows connotative meanings to appear as denotative.

Example of Myth

The Apple Logo b/c its denotation is a bitten apple, the connotation is knowledge, and when that meaning becomes strongly attached to Apple, the brand starts to feel naturally connected to knowledge

Symbolic signs

Bear no relationship to their objects, they are arbitrary like flags, language

Example of Symbolic Sign

Flag of Mexico

Iconic Signs

Resemble their object in some way, and can be thought of as bearing a trace of the signifier; signs that look like what they represent.

Example of Iconic Sign

Indexical Sign

involve an "existential" relationship between the signifier and the signified, so they have co-existed in the same place at some time; signs that point to or directly connect to something.

Example of Indexical Sign

Smoke or Footprints

What does it mean that photographs are indexical?

The photographs are proof that something was really there or that the moment actually happened