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WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?(DISCIPLINE OR MEDIUM?)(THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING?)

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or,WHAT IS A PHOTOGRAPH

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

A set of discourses or genres?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

A set of discourses or genres?

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A questionWhat defines a photograph?A technology or a way of making an image?Proof or a picture?

A set of discourses or genres?

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A questionWhat defines 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)?

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A questionWhat defines 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)?

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A questionWhat defines 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)?

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A questionWhat defines 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 defined function?

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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 reflect on how meaning mightbe seen to be constructed in photography.

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To repeat an idea again:

Is photography

a medium?or

a discipline?

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To repeat an idea again:

Is photography

a medium?ora discipline?

i.e. a self-sufficient mode of making?

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To repeat an idea again:

Is photography

a medium?ora discipline?

i.e. part of a set of regulated norms?

Not a homogenous whole but a set of different discursive practices

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To repeat an idea again:

Is photography

a medium?ora discipline?

i.e. part of a set of regulated norms?

Not a homogenous whole but a set of different discursive practices

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A key disciplinary concern:What is semiotics? (any ideas?)

The science of signs

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

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

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The science of signs?Two key names:Ferdinand de SaussureC.S. Peirce

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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.

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Peirces lexicon of signs:iconindex

symbol

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

symbol

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Peirces lexicon of signs:icon: visual similarity (looks like, resembles)examples:imagediagram

metaphor

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Peirces lexicon of signs:iconindex: a causal relation (no smoke without fire)symbol

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Peirces lexicon of signs:icon

indexsymbol: an interpretive norm (no similarity, must be

learnt: an example the red cross means medicine

there is no natural link)

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What is a photograph here?Index a causal relation: a photograph is proof of that-has-

been (Barthes), Andre Bazin: it is a decal, a transfer of reality, a

moment of time mummifiedIcon a resemblance, a perspectival version of the world, world

transformed into picture, a visual languagePhotographs are both icon and index,

both temporal imprint and visual language

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A paradox:the photograph seems to be a message without a code a neutralrecording naturalReality appears to pour out of a photograph

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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)

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An approach:

With photographs we must look at two parts:What it points towards /DENOTATIONWhat it implies /

CONNOTATION

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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 pointingAND iconological implication)

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Roland Barthes proposes several methods that provide connotations

for the seemingly natural photograph, and these can be applied toportrait 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

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*The poseHenri 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 studiowho lives his work, who is identical withhis sculptures)

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Juergen Teller

denotation?

connotiation?

subject?

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2 x tears Corinne Day / Man RayDenotation: a woman criesConnotation?

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*The object

Gordon Parks

Signs operating with other signsThe flagthe broom

the historical resemblance*see Grant Wood

American Gothic

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Larry Clark

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Robert Mapplethorpe

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Diane Arbus

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Julia Margaret Cameron

denotation?

connotiation?

subject?

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Gillian Wearing

denotation?

connotiation?

subject?

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August Sander

denotation?

connotiation?

subject?

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Alasdair McLellan

In Glorious Mono / Vogue

S/S 2013

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Mel Bles

Monochrome Set / Pop2013

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

three different styles?

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Katy GrannanBoris Mikhailov

Denotation:

A woman lying down outside

Connotation:What differences (throughphotographic choices: horizon,color, positioning, location)

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

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Two key ideas:

PART 2.How is meaning communicated? By signsSigns, in the system developed by Saussure, are divided into two

components.The signified.The signifier.

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The signified.The signifier.definitions please

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------T-r-e-e

SIGN =

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------T-r-e-e

SIGN =

Signified = concept

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------T-r-e-e

SIGN =

Signified = meaning

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------T-r-e-e

SIGN =

Signifier = material carrier: t-r-e-e

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------A-r-b-r-e

SIGN =

Signifier = material carrier: a-r-b-r-e

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e

---------------------------------A-r-b-r-e

SIGN =

Signifier = what it means

Signifier = how meaning is transmitted

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An application of Saussures version of semioticsto cultural analysis: structuralismSome names:Claude Levi-Strauss

Michel FoucaultJacques Lacan

Roland Barthes

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Sign / Message:France is a great empireLoved by all its subjects

Signifier:A black soldier giving a salute

Signified:French-ness / Colonial unity

An ideological strategy:The empire is united

see, even this man salutes the flag

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Sign / Message:

Volvic is a great brandIts consumers help othersSignifier:A black child being given waterSignified:Buy this product to give life to AfricaA mixture of information and feelingInformation:1L (here) = 10L (there)Feeling:This product provide ethical feel-good factor

An ideological strategy:

The commodity can replace ethics

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Another example in practice:Red Roses = Love

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Take a bunch of roses: I use it to signify my passion [yet] there are

here only passionified 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 signifier and the rose as sign

the sign is the fusion of roses as material object with concept passionRoland Barthes, Myth Today in his Mythologies, p.113

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---------------------------------

T-r-e-e---------------------------------

SIGN =

Signified = what it meansSignifier = how meaning is transmitted

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---------------------------------

T-r-e-e---------------------------------

SIGN =

Signified = LoveSignifier =

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Semiotics at workSign =

Signified = fresh / naturalSignifier = flowers

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Semiotics at workSign =

Signified = fresh / naturalSignifier = flowers

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=

freshness

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---------------------------------T-r-e-e---------------------------------

SIGN =Signified = Herbal Essences

Sensual / Natural / FreshnessSignifier =

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A strategy:Adverts do not only provide information, they

provide feelingThey also strongly demonstrate how semiotic

systems workProducts have no essential meaning so one must

be constructed a task of semiotics.

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A question does shampoo signify / meannatural 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 )

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Judith Williamson in herDecoding Advertisements,

p.31:Art / Poetry invokes feelings in the experience of

the workAdvertising invokes the idea of a feeling youWILL have if you buy the product (if you own it)

Advertising links the tangible(a cleaning product)

with the intangible(feeling natural)

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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)

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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)

Th d i i h d / di J di h

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The advertising method / according to Judith

Williamson SEMIOTIC PROCESSTo make a connection:1. color2. orality (the drives: oral, anal, genital, invocatory, gaze)3. object-to-object

4. object-to-world5. 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)

Obj bj f i

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Object-to-object conferring

value

Obj bj f i

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Object-to-object conferring

value

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Object-to-person

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Object-to-person

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Object-to-person

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A key set of principles:Signs operate via:*connection

(with other signs)

*(in order to establish) difference

*in relation to a set of valuesthat

emanate from a system (a commonlanguage)

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When products are the same,they need to be perceived as

different

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CONNCETION?DIFFERENCE?

VALUE?

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CONNCETION?DIFFERENCE?

VALUE?

CONNCETION?

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CONNCETION?DIFFERENCE?VALUE?

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A conclusion:

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A conclusion:Semiotics doesnt give the key to meaningIt emphasises that meanings are not given in advance, but emerge

from a process.(ie not what something means, but howsomething means

something)Semiotics is not the code but that which shows us that meanings

are historicallyconstructed not naturallygiven.

Semiotic analysis can be applied to ALL kinds of meaning

processes advertising is only one (as it is the most obvious inattempting to make things mean something else).

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Signs are NOT natural. Signifiers have no essential link

with their signified.

Signs are cultural. The relation between signifier and

signified is arbitrary, but this relation is agreed in cultureYET with photography and advertising signs can

appear naturalThis is what Barthes calls MYTH

BUT semiotics shows us that meanings do not arrive inadvance, they arise from a process of combination,

difference and agreed / understood value

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Semiotics / Meaning is a process

vs.The Da-Vinci Code: there is a hidden meaningThere is no hidden meaning but the meaning is out there (ie in

the process, in semiosis the process of transmitting andinterpreting meaning)Meanings are not fixed, but subject to dynamic transformation

(as advertising shows us but for what purpose?)

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