English and Media Center, http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/index.html Saw this quote somewhere—with this ref, but don’t actually see it in her Web page. If anyone finds it, please let me know.

To return to the theory overview from last class, a key distinction between semiotics (and most modern cultural theory) and past theories is the distinction between a classical notion of art as imitation of nature, and image as a revealer of the truth, And a modern notion of image as a coded communication that one learns to interpret. Most “theory” has as it’s primal assumption the fact that most, if not all, all images, just like language, need to be interpreted via a code (English language sentences convey meaning to me because I know the code—Japanese ones are meaningless to me). This process is not so straightforward as it is with written language however. Our stance, relationship to next lectures and meaning of “conventional” in this context (language is pretty nearly entirely conventional vs. imagery which may not be) SOURCES
http://petergreenaway.co.uk/draughtsman.htm Vasari, a Renaissance biographer of artists, when speaking of Masacchio said, http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1986/3/86.03.08.x.html#b

How we understand images and talk about them an interesting topic— Makes sense if you believe that all thought is mediated by, if not determined by, language

Tinkertoy example from http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/saussure.html

Example: we share language with people of different religions in this country but not same world-view: people from universities, speaking same language, with some believing in evolution, others in literal bible explanation of creationism.

So Semiotics does make some assumptions about the role of language in thought that not everyone agrees with. But even the most violent opponents of the “language-as-thought” crowd have to admit that we do use language A LOT for thinking  and that it would be pretty hard to get by without it. This lecture would be really short, for instance. One of the interesting and effective things about semiotics has been that it takes a wide range of images as its material for study. In fact, anything visual can de studied—and is! From Renaissance painting to TV to Madonna to, and more. While art history and other academic visual disciplines (parts of engineering, for instance) rarely address our everyday cultural materials (other culture's materials are OK to study—anthropology, but not our own), semiotics has made advertising, family snapshots, and movies its main areas of study. [story about wanting to research rolling stones in HS]. No accident that what was formerly “art and semiotics” is now a department of “Modern Culture and Media” What does the image on the left “say” about Rumsfeld? Note flags, podium, uniforms (soldiers and him) How is our notion of outer space affected by images such as this Hubble image? Did you know that these are taken in black in white? What goal might the “prettification of space” have? On the right: how have architectural elements from other periods been drawn together to give rich mcMansion owners a cultural veneer? SOURCES
____________________ U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speaks to troops in Kuwait on Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/rumsfeld.troops.ap/index.html http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/35/ Andy disturbed by not seeing anything about what it is that is being communicated

Have to interpret signs, and not just individual elements but their relationships to one another (just as individual words don’t’ tell you what a novel is about… so have to look at how the different image-signs are composed) Decoding can be straightforward—in religious painting we know that “dog” stands for fidelity, and the audience for the painting would have known that too. (iconology) But what about images like a Cosmo cover? Or a nature photograph? (Will say more about middle images in the next slide) Semiotics says that all communications are composed of  signs that needs to be decoded This is easier to understand with images that do not look like what they represent: a six-pointed star doesn’t Look like: Judaism, for instance—you have to know what it means when used as symbol. Similarly with one of most emotionally powerful icons of our time—the swastika Context and relationship to other imagery key; CROSS: visually simple, many uses and meaning changes with context: defense against vampires, Muslim: symbol of religious oppression, warfare (crusades), blacks in the south -> religious icons in churches and beyond or KKK/symbols of bigotry/racism. Costume jewelry worn in ways that offend religious people. Similarly, a person floating on a flower bed isn’t immediately meaningful unless you know something about Buddhism. Writers like Umberto Eco and others have tried to develop an all-encompassing system for reading visual, and other, material. Short discussion?: Can the same system be used to read all of these images? Is there any difference between understanding an “art” image and an advertising image? A nature photograph? A family snapshot? Rude signs: http://www.thejokefactory.org/JF_pictures/Pictures_by_date/2003/06_June_03/MY%20kinda%20Road%20Signs.jpg Arnolfini Wedding Portrait
Northern Renaissance
oil on wood
1434
by Jan Van Eyck full of symbolic imagery: dog (fidelity), mirror (eye of God), fertility symbols
-record of a real event
-artist is shown in the mirror on the back wall
-great deal of detail

Obviously there’s more to understanding these images than just knowing the dog symbolized fidelity. They were made at different times, for different purposes, in different social contexts. This affects how we “read” them. Arnolfini wedding … Renaissance, northern Europe, marriage, church, religion, role of oil painting, who would have one in their home, cost, etc. Cosmo cover: sell advertising space, wide distribution, many to see (vs. in someone’s house), cheap to purchase, material that will disintegrate, etc. This is not rocket science—art historians have been considering the context in which artifacts were made for a long time. And even the icon-filled Renaissance painting has meanings that are not immediately obvious—we can examine what is says about each gender’s role in the marriage it describes, What reading can we give to the Cosmo cover? Why is the woman depicted this way? How is it different from the Arnolfini wedding woman? What “message” is the magazine trying to send to its viewers? How do the image and text work together to influence each other and their meanings? Etc. Both images are selling: religious tradition, devotion to marriage as sanctified by church vs. selling products using thin veneer of glorification of self, sexuality—would you like to see yr mother, sister dressed like this. Girlfriend? Dress codes in high school – what is acceptable (bare midriff, etc.)

A sign (Saussure’s term) is composed of a signifier and a signified. They are not separable, but like two sides of the same coin. Semiotics gets very precise about the process of “reading “ images: Language is a code. I can read English, but not Chinese characters. Different coding systems… When I went to  Italy, I couldn't’ understand some of the road signs—and not just because they were in Italian. Their “one way” looked like a  “no parking to me”. Cow sculpture cow: http://www.icomm.ca/emily/pictures/cow.jpg Brown cow: http://www.tynybrynfarms.com/photogallery/Limousin%20Cow.JPG Coloring page cow: http://www.gocampingamerica.com/kidspages/art/color_cow.gif Chinese cow-with-two-horns symbol http://www.blss.portsmouth.sch.uk/hsc/chinchars.shtml

Code is rules for interpreting conventionalized aspects of an image. Applier code to signifier produces the signified.

Like language—words be themselves have limited usefulness. Need grammar to combine them. In pictures, can’t look at isolated part of image and determine meaning—part of the whole and relationships are key to meaning.

Powerful example: seeing the statue of liberty in NYC is to see the referent of many photos. People find a photo moving depending on citizenships, personal associations--avd experience. In original  Planet of the Apes…[explain plot if anyone hasn’t seen it] image is incredibly moving, works at many levels. Note that: the humans the apes have conquered can’t talk (as the apes can and the main human protagonist)….

Our conclusions about what is a sign and what it denotes or connotes have to with our way of seeing and may be quite different for someone else. Important ask of yourself when analyzing images or reading someone else’s analysis! Our own culture, experience,  personal background, and beliefs will affect the way we see things—what we consider the signs and signifiers to be, how we interpret their interrelations  and whether or not we will “get” the code. To mathematicians, little squiggles are a powerful notional language. For artists, styles and media immediately indicate different time periods and intents, etc. To a color blind person SOURCES
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"These ads were intended to reflect Prado's imposing presence when driving in the city," says Julie Du, account manager with Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi, which made the ads. But Chinese words often hold multiple meanings. Prado translates into Chinese as badao, which also means "rule by force" or "overbearing." Consumer critics who called Toyota and posted scathing--occasionally profane--messages in Internet discussion groups said the lions resembled those flanking the Marco Polo Bridge, the site near Beijing of the opening battle in Japan's 1937 invasion of China. The Toyota fiasco highlights the tricky cultural and historical pitfalls that afflict marketing for even the savviest China-based foreign companies. On one hand, the ad industry increasingly agrees that despite rampant nationalism, patriotism doesn't build brands. But Toyota and others recently have discovered that they can't ignore how strongly politics shapes Chinese consumer sentiment. As China's economy grows at breakneck pace and it prepares for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Chinese people may be growing more nationalistic. An October 2003 survey by WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather advertising firm found that 34% of young people in prosperous southern China found patriotism to be "extremely important"--a 10 on a scale of one to 10. "Young people are indoctrinated from very early on in school to be patriotic," says Joseph Wang, Ogilvy's group managing director for Hong Kong and southern China. Some Chinese brands such as Coca-Cola competitors Jianlibao and Fei Chang Kele try to tap that patriotism in ads. "The Chinese people's own Cola!" exhorts ads for Fei Chang Kele. But an increasing number of ad agencies are finding that a patriotic appeal doesn't lure Chinese shoppers to sportswear brands such as homegrown favorite Li-Ning Sports Goods over Nike just because it originates in China. Indeed, the Ogilvy survey found that the strongest patriots were just as likely to buy foreign brands as shoppers who claimed to be indifferent. Ninety-four percent of the "more patriotic" drank Coke, compared with 100% of the "moderately patriotic." Only 19% considered country of origin a factor in brand choice. "Brand-buying today is a personal activity. Patriotism is [a] collective activity," Ogilvy's Mr. Wang explains. As a result, agencies are dumping patriotic pitches in favor of pragmatism. "It's the same as in politics: A political party can go only so far on a patriotic platform. Ultimately, if they don't deliver the goods, voters give them the boot," says Mickey Chak, planning director of DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc. China. Foreign sportswear makers who sponsor local Chinese teams often receive a lukewarm response. As a result, brands increasingly are highlighting their global significance instead. "Many sports fans in China aren't just interested in a sport because there are Chinese players in it," Mr. Chak says. "Long before Yao Ming, basketball enjoyed popularity, and Chinese consumers bought into the NBA." But even though they are dumping patriotism, advertisers such as Toyota have bungled by going too far and ignoring it. Despite longstanding wartime antagonisms, the Chinese have become major consumers of Japanese products--which carry a high-quality cachet--even as they complain about accidents involving Japanese products, or Japanese service manuals that make political gaffes by identifying Taiwan as separate from China. Bayerische Motoren Werke of Germany faced weeks of negative publicity in state-run newspapers during October after a woman in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin crashed into a crowd with her BMW X53.0 Diesel Sport. Marketed to China's elite upper-class, the BMW brand became a target of populist resentment from millions of laid-off former state workers left behind by China's economic boom. Many agencies have implemented "disaster checks" before their campaigns go live to make sure that they haven't been blinded to a political sore spot. Toyota will establish a "supervisory system" for its marketing, a public-relations officer in charge of its Chinese office says. Saatchi & Saatchi, which declined to discuss the role of patriotism in advertising, is working on new Toyota Prado ads but doesn't yet have a release date for them." (Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2004) Their ire was raised when Leo Burnett Shanghai Advertising, a Sino-United States joint venture, created a presentation for Nippon Paint showing a freshly-painted pillar whose twining dragon, unable to keep its grip because Nippon Paint is so smooth and silky, ends up in a coil at the bottom. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail_frame.cfm?articleid=51061&intcatid=2

Semiotics analysis often used to expose underlying ideologies and much of culture theory/visual studies has Marxist inspiration or concerns, even when Marx not explicitly mentioned. Thus issues of class, the evils of Capitalism, etc. often play a role in theoretical analyses. Workers are oppressed, capitalists/owners of means of production are oppressive, etc.  images can be studied, using semiotics, to reveal power relationships and the ideologies that keep them in place. … Key features of Ideologies--  cast alternative viewpoints in a poor light. Not accidental that there are huge flags—symbols (signs if you will) of national patriotism (power of country behind each leader…), aligning each leader with the identity of his country. Both depicted from slightly below—to make them more towering/powerful looking. 1 : visionary theorizing
2 a : a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture b : a manner or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, or culture c : the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program. Mirriam-Webster SOURCES
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Lenin propaganda poster

Yes, this is a huge simplification of real life, but makes the idea clear… the game treats all as equally valid, tries not to have an ideological slant itself. From the Rule Book http://www.zmangames.com/products/Ideology/Web%20Rulebook.pdfc

Semiotics tends to focus on the site of the image itself—examining its appearance and ‘signs” and their relationships rather than on the motivation and methods of production of the image or on discussing which audience is interpreting the image. “Social Semiotics” stresses the audience and stresses that semiotics is “centrally concerned with reception”

Semiotics not overly focused on technology used. Obvious WE believe that’s very important because it affects the “truth” we perceive and other aspects of interpretation. An exception to this is attention paid to the camera—still and motion-based Formal design strategies do enter into semiotic analysis, to explain how placement, scale, etc of objects is working Social: there is a strong emphasis on the social repercussions of images (eg whose ideology the represent), although often a certain audience is assumed.

Does anyone use this theory to create images, or only for analysis?

The terms come from Michel Foucault, or heavily influenced this approach. He also wrote yuon prisons, mental hospitals, science—wanted to understand what makes us human-or classified as sub-human.

From last time…

Similar to Foucault’s “discourse” analyses is Roland Barthes’ “mythologies”  -- another attempt to look beyond single images and even genres to the interrelated effects of image, text, and other media on our belief in the “naturalness” of certain ways of seeing and understand the world, and of our sense of ourselves as human and what it means to be human.  See Mythologies [Barthes 1972] for more detailed diagram with additional terminology. A whole lot of new vocabulary (because its semiotics!) that I am not mentioning here.. Soap powder describes ways in which different types of cleaning chemical are becoming part of everyday life in France…

While much of our grasp of reality may be mediated by language, and while many visual “signs” may be arbitrary and require a learned code to decipher, this may not be true of all visual material. Our position is that that is too extreme and that all representational images are a combination of some degree of non-culturally based interpretation by the eye-brain system,  and some amount of interpretation based on our culture, background, experience of both creator and viewer We process reality, including real 3D world, not just images, to extract useful meaning. Starting the image itself some convex linear combination of our construction through our system and what in our systems in the first place, the image itself convex linear combination of reality and what the author put there. Nature: still have your biological perception construction as well as social contract—but not author intent issues… Author constructs an artificial reality which can range from 3 pebbles stacked on top of each  other (Zen art, Japanese garden) to pencil sketch caricature in 30 sec to Mona Lisa to VR in Cave . Different tools produce different imagery. Range from as realistic as possible—to point where they can fool perceptual system. To completely unreal and iconic—Guernica, all symbolic. We believe always is a code, but not always a symbolic code—no one trying to symbolize anything. First see it naked without that code. If told come up with interpretation, cog system can go into overdrive and if trained in art of interpreting imagery can come up with all kinds of conjunctures. Reality: there isn’t one reality—landscape at night in full moon, different from same landscape during day time. Changes over time even when nothing moves except light. To go back to Plato—we’re still in the cave—not seeing things directly but always working through our perceptual system and cultural context. [Greenberg vs. avd seeing fall colors]. Reality out there, but we are not nec seeing things the same way.

Notes from feedback in class: top needs to be identified as a “continuum” and both need several images along bars.

Gauntlette is a professor of media and believes in its influence—but has a compelling critique of sloppy research that has created a lot of erroneous perception of the effects of media.

While I think we can all agree that everything is always what it seems, that doesn’t mean that nothing really exists outside of our perception. (read from response)

Shows actually a misunderstanding of the theory—haven’t met any theorist who don’t believe in reality—just that it is mediated by culture. We’ll certainly see how our particular brain systems mediate what we see in next week’s lectures.

Sokal ended up writing  a whole book about misuse of science and math concepts on theory writing…

funny

Next lecture will take a different approach to the visual—studying how the visual system, or eye, and the perception of the world created by our brain, actually function. These two approaches taken together can help to answer some interesting questions about the role images in thinking, why they have the impact they do,  and the interaction between conscious and unconscious visual processing and interpretation of images.