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Semiotics 1Guest Speaker

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Semiotic Analysis

Semiotics is one of three ContextualIssues that we cover in Unit 3, butyou only have to write on one of them

For Semiotics you will be asked to:1 choose two printed advertisements

2 decode them utilizing semiotic analysis

3 identify the sign, signifier, signified, thedenotation, connotation and myth etc

4 discuss their use of text and language

5 conclude with your view on the success of

these adverts

You will be taken through thissequence in Semiotics 2

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Your Semiotics/Semiology Pack

This Contextual Issue makes particular use of the SupportingTexts that are to be found in this Reader. These will be used inSemiotics 2. The pack has the following sections:

1. Explaining Semiotics/Semiologyan account of how signs carry meaning, the three different types of signs, identifyingdenotation and connotation, and the myths at work in adverts

2. Jargon Busting an exercise to help you use the correct terms3. Semiotic Analysis Categories two copies: for class work and for assignment4. Sony Advert Case Study class work example for Semiotic analysis

5. Article: Signs and Myths

Further, this first session on Semiotics is lead by Professor David

Crow, MMUs Pro-Vice-Chancellor for internal communicationsand the Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design.

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Prof. David Crow: Semiotics 1

David Crow will introduce us tosemiotics / semiology - theoutline summary by me is

reproduced here, based on his0910 delivery

Usefully, he speaks entirely interms of visual language (eventhough semiotics originates from

and is about linguistics) He makes many points about

design and the media youshould annotate the followingtranscripts carefully

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David Crow: Main Points 1

1. signs signifysomething (label things) and what is signifiedis their target, so signshave two elements: the signifier and the signified

2. these two have to be connected by agreement within a particular linguisticcommunity because the sound of words and their meaning are a learnt link (wordsdon`t resemble things): signs can change and writers/designers play with this fact

3. text wants to make things exact while images can have many possible meaningsand so text is better at anchoring or fixing meaning (giving it anchorage)

4. the meaning of images can be steered when text is included to fix or suggestmeanings, and artists and advertisers can manipulate or disrupt this anchorage

5 official languageis when there are agreed conventions with long established/clearanchorage and often it is an instrument of control (eg. pronounciation - `are youone of us?`): using it correctly right leads to capital rewards(eg. a degree or job)

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6. however, there are unofficial languages, eg.using a dialect that has its owninternal logic and some that are sometimes forbidden eg. graffiti or punk

7. advertising, in particular, uses and adopts and rewards languages such asgraffiti/street styles because they have credibility (are free from control) andpostmodernism encourages this by constantly recycling/reinventing all signs

8. signs are greatly influenced by the number of surrounding signs which canchange their meanings: thusclose ups or distance shots (limiting or increasingsurrounding signs) change meanings - design students need to be able to readsigns and the importance of their contexts to perform well.

9 language is always connected to our identity, especially for the young who aredominated by signs eg. your hair (everything can be a sign about ourselves)

10. advertisers and graphic designers are experts in exploiting these teen tribalidentities and their unofficial languages: they imitate street language which is

real and which is Nike (street/authentic v commercial worlds)

11. graphic/media practitioners recycle the street so quickly these days that it ishard to be authentic or revolutionary today because they have learnt to exploitour intuitive associations to create cool images that hit home

12. there are many reasons for you and your work to know about this kind of theory