Semiotics and the Practices of Looking (GDA Y2)
- 1. Practices of Looking Seeing: • Something we do all the time. • “Did you see John at the weekend?” • “Have you seen that new film” • “Has anybody seen my marbles” Looking: • Involves more purpose. • Negotiate social relationships and meanings. • Relationship of power – if something makes you „look‟ or think a certain way, it becomes powerful. • Do you think that print adverts / graphics are powerful? How? Why?
- 2. Practices of Looking Mimesis: • The concept that representations of our world (paintings, photographs, film) are accurate imitations. Social constructivism: • The concept that we learn about the world through representations. Consider this: • How do you know the Arctic is cold? • How do you think people consider Manchester? • What are Americans like? • What does the moon look like?
- 3. Practices of Looking How do you know the Arctic is cold?
- 4. Practices of Looking How do you think people consider Manchester?
- 5. Practices of Looking What are American people like?
- 6. Practices of Looking What does the moon look like?
- 7. Practices of Looking Viewers make meaning… • Look at the below picture. What do you see? Why might individual people look at this picture differently?
- 8. Practices of Looking ‘This is not a pipe’
- 9. Practices of Looking Ideologies • System of beliefs that exist with in all cultures. • Shared set of values. • Inform our every day lives. • Subtle yet powerful. • Beauty, gender roles, sexuality, morality are all ideologies. Task • You will each be allocated a word. • You must create a visual mood board for each word. • Consider the general ideas surrounding your word and find images that you associate with that word.
- 10. Practices of Looking LOVE
- 11. Practices of Looking NAZI
- 12. Practices of Looking LIFE
- 13. Practices of Looking POVERTY
- 14. Practices of Looking SAFETY
- 15. Practices of Looking HEART • Think of words that you associate with the heart…
- 16. Practices of Looking • Denotation: Accurate to what we are seeing. The literal meaning of something • Connotation: Something that we associate with a word or image. Something that an image or a word represents. • Think about the genres we discussed last week and the typical traits of each one. • Horror – night time, knives, upside down crucifix • Rom Coms – Hugh Grant, flowers, holding hands • Comedy – Jim Carrey, trips, eccentric people • Action – Muscles, guns, explosions
- 17. Practices of Looking SIGNS Signifier: Image or Signified: Meaning sound Sign: Thought or action
- 18. Practices of Looking SIGNS Signifier: Yellow Signified: Caution / triangle with danger exclamation mark in middle Sign: Go steady!
- 19. Practices of Looking SIGNS IN FILM Signifier Signified (denotation): (Conotation): Horror, White mask and bad person negative black cloak Sign: BE SCARED!
- 20. Practices of Looking TASK: Print advert analysis • Pick a print advert and write a short 500 report on it using the theories and analysis strategies discussed this morning. • Consider; connotations, denotations, signs, social constructivism and ideologies. • For example, if you see a slender female in the advert, consider ideologies and the way the notion of modern beauty has been socially constructed.
- 21. Practices of Looking Seminar Questions • What is the difference between „seeing‟ and „looking‟? • „Looking involves a relationship of power…‟ How does relate to your own practice and how can you make some „look‟ at your work? • What is „social constructionism‟ and do you believe our understanding of the world is constructed through it? • „We live in an image-saturated society…‟ Is this positive of negative?