Visual Culture - Semiotics Seminar

Semiotics:

Study of signs and symbols

Greek word - Semeiotiks 

Signs and we communicate 

Daniel Chandler - Semiotics The Basics - 2001

Signs Incorporated into tv, film and advertising

Saussure - Worked on the sign and signified

Worked in the 1800's

Signifier and Signified

Charles Sanders Pierce - made contribution to semiotics 

"Icon, Index and Symbol"

Iconic Signs 

Indexical Signs - direct link to object with indexical sign

Symbolic Signs

Symbols - culturally learned 

Roland Barthes - Mythologies - 1957

Denotation - Literal or primary meaning 

Connotation - Idea or feeling which works

Roland Barthes - Rhetoric of the Image - 1964

Roland Barthes - S/Z essay - 1970

Proairetic Code

Die Hard

Sequence Of Events

Action Films 

Want to know what happens next

Hermeneutric Code

Story avoids the truth

Withhold information

Building up

Detective/crime film

Zodiac

Semantic Code

Deeper meaning 

Object as symbol or metaphor

D'ali L'age D'or

Cultural/Referential Code

Cultural, artistic, literary codes are embedded in a text

Woody Allen films

Symbolic Code

Binary Opposites

Good V Evil

Dress Code

Class

Age

Gender Expression

Glamour

Social Status

Colour Code

Red - passion, dander

Blue - cool, transparency

Pink - feminine 

Non-Verbal Code

Gesticulation of characters

Race Code

Portrayal of identity to race and ethnicity 

Cultural Code

Pop culture references

Class Code

Objects of desire

Cinematic Code

Camera Shots

Framing

Angles

Win Wenders - Wings of Desire