semiology and the photographic image
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Semiology
and the photographic image
Roland Barthes: semiology as culturalcriticism
From the study of verbal language to that ofcultural phenomena: films, photographs,fashion, advertising, etc.
Developing a common vocabulary and arigorous or scientific method for the critical
analysis of mass culture. Understanding the complexity and
meaningfulness of all cultural artefacts despitetheir apparent "obviousness. The reality-effect (Roland Barthes)
The impression of reality (Christian Metz)
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The photographic message:
the reality-effect The reality-effect:
So-called realism of the image makes it appear to be
"natural" rather than socially and historically constructed.
A product or production of the image--its structure
of signification as a message.
The appeal to a belief:
I know very well that this is only a photograph, yet I
choose to believe in its reality. Arguing that the photography functions as a sign
is to discredit it as an innocent or neutral
representation.
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What is a sign?
There is an arbitrary relation between a
sign and its meaning.
Referent: what the signifier purports torepresent
Signifier: representational aspect
Signified: concept or meaning
If the relation between signifier andsignified is only defined by convention,
then meaning or signification is socially
and historically constructed.
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Ferdinand de Saussure
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The two traditions:
semiology and semiotics Semiology: the study of signs based on
linguistics
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913). Courseon General Linguistics.
Roland Barthes
Christian Metz
Semiotics: the study of signs based onlogic Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914)
Umberto Eco
Gilles Deleuze
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Defining the sign:
representation
The perceptible aspect of the sign:
how we recognize the sign as
standing for something
Saussure: the signifier
Peirce: the representer or
representamen Souriau: the first degree of film form
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Defining the sign:
representation Peirce: icon, index, and symbol
An icon signifies in virtue of its resemblance, or
its analogical relation to what it wishes torepresent.
A symboldoes not resemble what it refers to; itsignifies through the force of convention.
An indexmay but does not necessarily
resemble its referent. It signifies in virtue of arelationship of contiguity with its referent. Acausal or existential link is presumed.
The representational character of signs can be,and often is, mixed or heterogeneous.
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Defining the sign: signification How signs become meaningful to
individuals and societies.
Saussure: the signified Peirce: the interpretant
Souriau: the second degree of film form
Signification is always defined by
convention. The distinction between speech (parole)
and language (langue).
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Defining the sign: signification
The distinction between speech
(parole) and language (langue).
Speech: the everyday use of language. A
potentially infinite number of statements.
Language: the limited number of rules we
use in speaking. The distinction between message and
code.
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Defining the sign: signification The message is
actual
concrete
singular
heterogeneous
A code is
ideal
abstract
general
homogenous
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Defining the sign: signification A message is a singular, meaningful unit of
discourse.
A code is an abstraction created by theanalyst--a logic reconstructed from thematerials provided by the message.
A code is a principle of intelligibility
formulated by the film theorist through theanalysis of specific "messages." Its unity or homogeneity is not of a sensory or
material order; rather, it is an order of logicalcoherence, valued for its explanatory power.
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Roland Barthes on
photography The photographic message
a sign can be a very complex structure that mixes
forms and materials of representation; a sign is meaningful only in context.
Denotation and connotation
The photographic paradox
The photograph is a message without a
code.
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The photograph is
a message without a code
MESSAGE CODE
signifer (representation) signified (meaning)denotation connotationphotograph captionobvious or informational symbolictraumatic ideologicalnatural noncode cultural coderecords transforms
studium punctumsignifiance
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Roland Barthes on photography
The denotation of the photograph
"Certainly the image is not the reality but at least it is its
perfect analogon and it is exactly this analogical perfection
which, to common sense, defines the photograph (17).
The photograph as a "mechanical analogon" whose
message is "the scene itself, literal reality."
The photographic paradox
The spectators fascination with "the here-now, for the
photograph is never experienced as an illusion ..., its reality
[is] that of the having been there, for in every photograph
there is always the stupefying evidence of this is how it
was, giving us, by a precious miracle, a reality from which
we are sheltered" (44).
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Roland Barthes on photography
The code gravitates toward connotational
meaning.
The imposition of a second meaning through editorial
choice, laboratory manipulations, cropping, layout, etc.
The informational or "obvious" meaning of the
photograph.
Connotation is to denotation as a caption or
written text is to the photograph. If the message is "informational" then the code
structures the "symbolic" level of meaning, that is,
the range of meanings accruing to the image in
virtue of conventional or cultural associations.
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Roland Barthes on photography
Ideology and the image:
How the image structures social belief and
meaning The ideological function of connotation, as regulated
by given codes, is to reassure individuals and to
integrate them into the society overall.
How the image is naturalized by the code. The traumatic quality of the photograph as a
suspension of language
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