Can you imagine some picture, film or music video clip, there were some things, right, for example a car, a human, the sun, a red carpet, a closet with secret entry into the Narnia land. All of these things are just things, that we can see and we can say that they are here, but know we what they mean? Yes, of course, everything means something and Semiotics help us to catch the meaning.
In this chapter, we focused on Semiotics. Semiotics or semiology is the study of signs, symbols and signification. It is the study of how meaning is created and understood, not what it is. In communication, we got two sides. On one side is signifier and on the second is signified. The signifier is a sign that signifies something. Signified is the concept, the meaning, which signifier shows us and refers to. The picture of women doesn't mean that the woman is here, it is only her icon which is symbolizing something that we can understand.
Connotation and denotation (haha, yes detonation is something different) are two basics how to read something. Denotation is only about things we can see, the connotation is about their meaning which we have to get, we can get it right or wrong, but that is the difference. The connotation is individual, when we will pick up 10 guys and show them the full moon, each one will have different ideas in their heads. Then we were speaking about another semiotics concepts as are signs, codes, symbols and so, It seems to me really interesting how are those things connected and creates together the whole process of communication that we know and that we use every single day each minute. It is so usual that we don't even realize how we are communicating. Communication is like a chess, you can play a friendly game with your grandpa, or you can get into the match that will decide about your future career and life, you have to train, you have to think about how to select next step to not get a mate. Thanks to all of the semioticians as Charles Piers for icons and indexes, Umberto Ecos "lie" and Ferdinand de Saussure for laying basics of modern linguistics.
After clarification of the basic semiotic concepts, we moved on to use them in practice. Professor showed us a picture, a painting - La Liberté Guidant le Peuple, E. Delacroix, France:
Freely translated - Freedom leads people to the barricades, this painting is expressing the bloody incident of the France revolution in July, 1830. Take a closer look and try to think about all aspects on the painting that you can see, go from denotation to connotation and try to think about what every single thing, like the clothes, tools, movement, colors, background, foreground and the smallest details talks to you.
Another thing to analyze was a music clip from 2003, Shakira - Shewolf. This one was about a married lady which has a wolf inside her and each full moon, her nails grew up and she lets her dark and wild side go out. She wants to be free of the golden cage she lives inside, she wants to enjoy friends company at the party and then walk and dance barefoot on the roof with her hair freely loose hair stuttering in the wind. As the night ends she falls back into her bad just right next to her husband which sleeps well and have no idea. Also, we saw few old cigarette advertisements with cowboys, a symbol of manhood, of freedom and wildness.
*some models dyed for the laugh cancer, but they were The America men.
I like the whole semiotic topic so I have enjoyed it. I had a little knowledge about before, because we went a bit through at school before but I know much more about, thanks. Classes well taught well nothing to point out, good job.
.cheers and love.
kkn
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