Semiotics or semiology is a study of signs and
symbols that was first introduced in 1916 by swiss linguist Ferninard de
Saussure which was then developed even further by John Barthes (France) and
C.S. Peirce (USA). Semiotics can be used or interpreted. Semiotics is to help
us understand ways of seeing things around us and in reality. Semiotics can be
anything from vehicles to clothing to food to music and semiotics is also
mentioned in newspaper articles, television, magazine, books etc.
Semiotics is heard in music, smelt or tasted in
food and seen in photographs, in photography semiotics can help us read from an
image as the image shows evidence of what is happening in the image.
Signs
Signs are everywhere they can be anything and
semiotics can make them understandable. Signs works in two areas: signifier and
signified, signifier is the object and signified is what the object represented
for example, an apple is the signifier (the apple means food) that can be
signified as health, knowledge, temptation.
The painting above by Lucas Cranach (1472-1553)
shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden standing next to the Tree of Knowledge
where Satan disguising as the serpent uses the apple to tempt Eve. In the
painting you see the serpent in the tree and you think the snake means animal
where the snake is signified as evil and is actually the devil taking the form
of the serpent.
Icons
An icon is used to represent areas for example a
magnifying glass is an icon for searching, a musical note is an icon for music,
a gun is an icon for violence or war etc.
Bibliography
Wells L., 2009, Photography A Critical
Introduction, 4th edition, Oxon, Routledge, p350.
Hall S., 2007, This Means This This Means That a
user's guide to semiotics, Laurence King
No comments:
Post a Comment