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ZEYNEP ARDA
@zeyarda
IZMIR UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
MARCH, 2015
VCD 340
SIGNS & SIGNIFICATION
PREVIOUSLY ON VCD 340:
PEIRCE’S CATEGORIES OF SIGNS
1- ICON - is a sign that bears resemblance to its object. This is often
most apparent in visual signs: a photograph of my aunt is an icon; a map
is an icon; the common visual signs denoting ladies’ and gentlemen’s
lavatories are icons.
2- INDEX - is a sign with a direct existential connection with its object.
Smoke is an index of fire, a sneeze is an index of flu, footprints are
indexes of your steps.
3- SYMBOL - is a sign whose connection with its object is a matter of
convention, agreement or rule. Words are, in general, symbols. The red
cross is a symbol. The Eiffel Tower is a symbol. Numbers are symbols.
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PREVIOUSLY ON VCD 340:
SAUSSURE’S PARADIGM & SYNTAGM
PARADIGM is a set of signs from which the one to be used is chosen.
The set of shapes for road signs - square, round, or triangular - forms a
paradigm; so does the set of symbols that can go within them.
SYNTAGM is the message into which the chosen signs are combined. A
road sign is a syntagm, a combination of the chosen shape with the
chosen symbol.
In language, we can say that the vocabulary is the paradigm, and a
sentence is a syntagm. So all messages involve selection (from a
paradigm) and combination (into a syntagm).
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Saussure’s theories on the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of
the sign take us only so far towards understanding how signs work.
Saussure was interested primarily in the linguistic system, secondarily
in how that system related to the reality to which it referred, and hardly
at all in how it related to the reader and his or her socio-cultural
position.
He was interested in the complex ways in which a sentence can be
constructed and in the way its form determines its meaning;
he was much less interested in the fact that the same sentence may
convey different meanings to different people in different situations.
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It was Saussure’s follower, Roland Barthes, who first set up a systematic
model by which this negotiating, interactive idea of meaning could be
analysed. At the heart of Barthes’s theory is the idea of two orders of
signification.
CONCEPTS THAT WE WILL DISCUSS THIS WEEK
[First-order Signification]
Denotation
[SECOND-ORDER SIGNIFICATION]
Connotation
Myth
Symbolic
Metaphor (+Simile)
Metonymy
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DENOTATION
The first order of signification is the one THAT describes the
relationship between the signifier and signified within the sign, and
of the sign with its referent in external reality. Barthes refers to this
order as denotation. This refers to the common-sense, obvious
meaning of the sign.
A photograph of a street scene denotes that particular street; the
word ‘street’ denotes an urban road lined with buildings. But I can
photograph this same street in significantly different ways...
[VIDEO 01 - SHERLOCK]
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SAUSSURE’S MODEL
sign
is composed of
signification
signifier
(physical existence
of the sign)
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signified
(mental concept)
external
reality or
meaning
BARTHES’ ORDERS OF SIGNIFICATION
FIRST-ORDER SIGNIFICATION
SECOND-ORDER
SIGNIFICATION
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dog
SIGNIFIER
SIGNIFIED
FIRST-ORDER SIGNIFICATION
DENOTATION
SIGN
THE CONCEPT OF “DOGNESS” | NEW SIGNIFIER
NEW SIGNIFIED
FRIENDSHIP
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SECOND-ORDER SIGNIFICATION
CONNOTATION
CONNOTATIONS
Changing the form of the signifier while keeping the same
‘literal’ signified can generate different connotations. The choice of
words often involves connotations, as in references to ‘strikes’ vs.
‘disputes’, ‘union demands’ vs. ‘management offers’, and so on.
Subtle changes of style or tone may involve different connotations, such
as changing from sharp focus to soft focus when taking a photograph or
using different typefaces for exactly the same text. Indeed, the
generation of connotations from typography alone demonstrates how
important the material aspect of written language can be
as a signifier in its own right.
@zeyarda | Pablo Picasso - Picasso made 54 versions of Las Meninas
THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR (BARTHES)
Earlier we mentioned that designs are referred to in semiotics as “texts”
and users of design as “readers”. So where is the author/designer in all
this?
On the face of it, there could be two authors – the client (who owns the
message) or the designer (who creates the design). The way design is
taught often promotes the designer as the author, which leads to a
shock for new designers the first time they deal with a client or art
director who restricts them to a predetermined set of ideas or styles.
Recently this conflict has led to a debate, particularly in graphic design,
about authorship. Designers trained in the art tradition often see
themselves as artists expressing themselves and perhaps ignore the
needs of the client or the audience, claiming “the designer knows the
best”.
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THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR (BARTHES)
The debate ignores an important aspect of semiotic theory. The process
model mentions noise as a possible distorter of a message and includes
factors such as the environment, peer pressure, cultural bakcground or
the mood they’re in. Semiotics too acknowledges the potential for
aberrant reading, suggesting that it is the norm rather than the
exception.
In other words, meaning is created at the moment a text is read, not
when it is written. We have already said that semiotics sees
communication as the production of meaning, so… To put it simply, the
reader is the author.
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THE DEATH OF THE AUTHOR (BARTHES)
Roland Barthes coined the term “the death of the author” and it is an
important point, because it changes the center of gravity in the whole
communication process.
Whether you see the designer as being the facilitator of communication
or the romantic artist struggling to express themselves and their inner
turmoil, nothing counts more than what the reader understands and
does with the design. The moment someone adds an acessory to a
piece of clothing or modifies it in some way, draws doodles on a
carefully designed magazine etc, the meaning changes.
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A bunch of flowers is a good example of a change in meaning. If you
were to give the same bunch of flowers to your grandmother, someone
who is sick, a lover, a stranger or to a good friend, it would have a
different meaning each time. But no matter what the meaning you had
in mind, they may be “read” in ways that you didn’t intend.
That is because signs have two levels of meaning, the one intended
(denotation) and the one that is understood (connotation). If all is well,
denotation and connotation will be in the same direction…
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ABERRANT READING (UMBERTO ECO)
When a message is interpreted in a way that was not intended by the
sender, it is known as an “aberrant reading”.
For a long time this was thought to be an unintended outcome of
communication, but Umberto Eco suggests that because meaning is
determined in large part by social aspects (race, gender, ethnicity etc)
then if the reader has a different social background from the author, the
decoding of the message will be aberrant - and as this is very likely to
happen in mass communications then aberrant readings must be the
norm.
This seemingly dry piece of theory has deep implications for designers
and anyone engaged in communications.
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DENOTATION VS CONNOTATION
IN TERMS OF THE SYNTAGMATIC CHOICES WE MAKE
I can use a colour film, pick a day of pale sunshine, use a soft focus and
make the street appear a happy, warm, humane community for the
children playing in it. Or I can use black-and-white film, hard focus,
strong contrasts and make this same street appear cold, inhuman,
inhospitable, and a destructive environment for the children playing in it.
Those two photographs could have been taken at an identical moment
with the cameras held with their lenses only centimetres apart. Their
denotative meanings would be the same. The difference would be in
their connotation.
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TEXT
WRITING THE SAME THING USING A DIFFERENT FONT CAN LEAD
TO NEW CONNOTATIONS FOR THE SAME TEXT/SAME CONTENT
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@zeyarda | Brainstorming & Mind Maps
@zeyarda | Brainstorming & Mind Maps
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
@zeyarda | Denotation & Connotation in Photography
DENOTATION VS CONNOTATION
IN TERMS OF UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIETY & ITS CONCEPTS
Both connotations and denotations are subject not only to socio-cultural
variability but also to historical factors: they change over time. Signs
referring to disempowered groups (such as ‘woman’) can be seen as
having had far more negative denotations as well as negative
connotations than they do now because of their framing within
dominant and authoritative codes of their time – including even
supposedly objective scientific codes. Fiske warns that ‘it is often easy
to read connotative values as denotative facts’. Just as dangerously
seductive, however, is the tendency to accept denotation as the literal,
self-evident truth.
Semiotic analysis can help us to counter such habits of mind.
[VIDEO 02 - BAUHAUS WOMEN]
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@zeyarda | Pablo Picasso - Picasso made 54 versions of Las Meninas
MYTH (BARTHES)
A myth is a story by which a culture explains or
understands some aspect of reality or nature.
Primitive myths are about life and death, men and gods, good and evil.
Our sophisticated myths are about masculinity and femininity, about the
family, about success, about the British policeman, about science. A
myth, for Barthes, is a culture’s way of thinking about something, a way
of conceptualizing or understanding it. Barthes thinks of a myth as a
chain of related concepts.
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MYTH (BARTHES)
Barthes argues that the main way myths work is to naturalize history.
This points up the fact that myths are actually the product of a social
class that has achieved dominance by a particular history: the meanings
that its myths circulate must carry this history with them, but their
operation as myths makes them try to deny it and present their
meanings as natural, not historical or social. Myths mystify or obscure
their origins and thus their political or social dimension.
The mythologist reveals the hidden history and thus the socio-political
works of myths by ‘demystifying’ them.
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MYTH (BARTHES)
There is a myth that women are ‘naturally’ more nurturing and caring
than men, and thus their natural place is in the home raising the
children and looking after the husband, while he, equally ‘naturally’, of
course, plays the role of breadwinner.
These roles then structure the most ‘natural’ social unit of all—the
family. By presenting these meanings as part of nature, myth disguises
their historical origin, which universalizes them and makes them appear
not only unchangeable but also fair: it makes them appear to serve the
interests of men and women equally and thus hides their political effect.
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MYTH (BARTHES)
Barthes’ idea of “NATURALIZING” history matches Jean Kilbourne’s idea
of “NORMALCY”...
[VIDEO 03 - KILLING US SOFTLY]
* If connotation is the second-order meaning of the SIGNIFIER, then
MYTH is the second-order meaning of the SIGNIFIED.
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@zeyarda | Red wine myth & “Frenchness”
@zeyarda | Red wine myth & “Frenchness”
@zeyarda | Red wine myth & “Frenchness”
@zeyarda | Red wine myth & “Frenchness”
@zeyarda | Myths are evolutionary, not revolutionary...
SYMBOL (BARTHES)
But Barthes (1977) does refer to a third way of signifying in this order.
This he terms the symbolic.
An object becomes a symbol when it acquires through convention and
use a meaning that enables it to stand for something else.
A Rolls-Royce is a symbol of wealth, and a scene in a play in which a
man is forced to sell his Rolls can be symbolic of the failure of his
business and the loss of his fortune. Barthes uses the example of the
young Tsar in Ivan the Terrible being baptized in gold coins as a
symbolic scene in which gold is a symbol of wealth, power, and status.
[VIDEO 04 - STATUS SYMBOL - AUDI - MERCEDES - IGGY POP SUCCESS - SCROOGE MCDUCK]
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@zeyarda | Fur as an out-dated symbol of wealth
INDEX & SYMBOL (PEIRCE)
The Rolls-Royce is an index of wealth,
but a symbol (Peirce’s use, not Barthes’s)
of the owner’s social status.
Gold is an index of wealth but a symbol of power.
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METAPHOR (JAKOBSON):
A metaphor can be understood/regarded as
a new sign formed from the signifier of one
sign and the signified of another.
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The land is surrounded by the West and armoured with walls of steel,
But I have borders guarded by the mighty chest of a believer.
Let it howl, do not be afraid! And think: how can this fiery faith ever be killed,
By that battered, single-fanged monster you call "civilization"?
[VIDEO 05 - ANASON]
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Garbın âfakını sarmışsa çelik zırhlı duvar,
Benim iman dolu göğsüm gibi serhaddim var.
Ulusun, korkma! Nasıl böyle bir imanı boğar,
"Medeniyet!" dediğin tek dişi kalmış canavar?
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SIMILE
Similes can be seen as a form of metaphor in which
the figurative status of the comparison is made explicit through
the use of the word ‘as’ or ‘like’.
Her smile was as bright as the sun.
He ate like he hadn't seen food in a week.
He swims like a fish in the ocean.
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EVERYDAY METAPHORS
But metaphors are not just literary devices: they have a much
more fundamental, everyday function. They are part of the way
in which we make sense of our Everyday experience.
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EVERYDAY METAPHORS
When we talk about ‘high’ morals, ‘falling’ asleep, or the ‘lower’
classes we are talking metaphorically and using the same
metaphor each time: in this the spatial difference between UP and
DOWN is made to act as the vehicle for a variety of social
experiences.
It is a concrete, physical difference that is used to make sense of a
number of more abstract, social experiences. This difference,
though natural, is not neutral: we humans think that one of our key
distinctions from other animals is that we have ‘risen up’ on our
hind legs as part of the ‘upward’ evolutionary process. So UP
always has positive values attached to it.
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EVERYDAY METAPHORS
UP is also associated with consciousness and health (we wake ‘up’,
but ‘fall’ asleep or ill) and with the dominant system of
morality—‘high’ morals. When we add to this
the realization that the gods are ‘up’ in heaven, the devils ‘down’,
and that life itself is ‘up’ (Christ ‘rose’ from the dead) and death
‘down’, we can begin to understand how fundamentally such an
everyday metaphor influences the way we think.
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EVERYDAY METAPHORS
Such everyday metaphors differ from literary metaphors in a
number of ways. They do not draw attention to themselves as
metaphors, and thus do not invite us to decode them consciously.
They are thus more insidious, and the sense that they make
becomes more easily part of our society’s ‘common sense’; that is,
it becomes part of the uninspected, taken for-granted assumptions
that are widespread throughout society. Such common sense
appears to be natural, but it never is: it is always arbitrary, always
socially produced.
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EVERYDAY METAPHORS
It is, then, finally, ideological: the power of the dominant classes is
maintained partly to the extent that their ideas can be made into the
common sense of all classes. It is IDeological common sense, for
example, that leads Blue-collar workers to see their social position as
‘lower’ than that of managers; it is ideological common sense that
makes us think of having fun as wasting time. Everyday metaphors are
more ideological and covert than literary ones, and so we need to be all
the more alert to them and the ‘common’ sense they are making.
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@zeyarda | Visual metaphors
METONYMY (JAKOBSON)
If metaphor works by transposing qualities from one plane of reality to
another, metonymy works by associating meanings within the same
plane.
Its basic definition is making a part stand for the whole.
If we talk of the ‘crowned heads of Europe’ we are using a metonym.
“HOLLYWOOD” is a metonym for U.S. cinema industry, “YESILCAM” is a
metonym for Turkish cinema industry.
For Jakobson, metonyms are the predominant mode of the novel, while
metaphors are that of poetry.
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METONYMY (JAKOBSON)
The representation of reality inevitably involves a metonym: we choose
a part of ‘reality’ to stand for the whole.
The urban settings of television crime serials are metonyms a photographed street is not meant to stand for the street itself, but as a
metonym of a particular type of city life - inner-city squalor, suburban
respectability, or city-centre sophistication.
In metaphor, this substitution is based on some specific similarity,
whereas, in metonymy, the substitution is based on some understood
association.
[VIDEO 06 - PRETTY WOMAN (MIN 10:00-13:00) - ARAB SPRING (MIN 8:00-11:00)]
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COMING SOON ON VCD 340:
CODES
READING MATERIAL AVAILABLE AT:
http://homes.ieu.edu.tr/zarda/vcd340/w05
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