Week 2 - Visual Culture

The Narrative in Visual Culture

Materiality, Connotation, Denotation

Linguistics

Linguistics views communication as the production of meaning and suggests that one message is going to mean different things to different people, depending on different factors. It focuses on the receiver and the social, political and economic environment in which they live. This theoretical approach to design applies not only to graphic design but to fashion design, product design, illustration and architecture. 

2 Methods of Studying Visual Culture

Semiotics

Swiss linguist Ferninand de Saussure is considered the founder of semiotics. Semiotics is the study of systems and signs as part of social life. The term signs has a broad definition and mainly refers to something that represents something else. Signs can be in the form of words, images, objects, sounds and gestures.  Semiotics is a discipline of communication design that can almost be thought of as a scientific study of how humans communicate with one another and the devices used to achieve this. There are a number of words used to describe how a sign looks and how it communicate in a specific social context

Signifier

A signifier is what the sign looks like. This refers to the relationships between signs.

Signified

This is the meaning or concept connected to a sign and refers to the relationship of a sign to what it stands for. Semantics is another term for this

Interpreter

This is the relationship of a sign to an audience interpreting the sign. This takes into consideration the frame of reference of the reader, as well as the context of the reader in relation to the sign.

When speaking about semiotics there are 4 different types of signs. Icon, index, symbol and metasymbol.

Icon

An icon is a sign where the signifier represents the signified. For example a photo of a leaf.

Index

This type measures meaning by an inherent relationship to an object, also known as a pointing sign as the symbol points to something else.

Symbol

In this sign meaning is established from an arbitrary relationship between signifier and signfired.

Metasymbol

A metasymbol has gained meaning beyond a one to one relationship over a period of time. History, tradition and culture can also contribute to the evolution of a metasymbol.

Index

Icon

Metasymbol

Symbol