Analysis the picture (Design major)
Semiotics Methods for Design April 4, 2019 • Lecture 6
How does it work? Group exercise and comments Semiotic analysis of images. A recap
Valentina Manchia valentina.manchia@polimi.it
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How does it work? An exercise
March 28, 2019 • group analysis
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• Arrange yourself in 6 or 7 groups of 5-6 people: group 1, 2, 3 and so on.
• Each group has to analyze an image by using the semiotics tools just presented, in order to explain how it works. Of course I’m here to help you!
• Please prepare a Word file or a PowerPoint/ Keynote file with your names and the number of your group – in order to receive your image.
• You have 45 minutes for your analysis. • Then each group will give a very short oral
presentation.
How does it work? An exercise
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How does it work? An exercise
April 4, 2019 • group analysis and comments
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In general, all your analysis are a good description of your feeling and impressions of images, but semiotic analysis has to go deeper – and has to be structured. Let’s see how and why
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–semiotic analysis
“How does it works?”
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1. description of what we see from a figurative point of view
3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - chromatic categories (colours) - topological categories (space arrangements)
4. Recognition of values conveyed by plastic elements
2. Recognition of narrative structures and/or of values conveyed by the recognized figures
Analysis of the figurative dimension (or figurative reading)
There is semi-symbolism? 5. Semi-symbolic in action? Whereas there is one to one relation between Expression Plan and Content Plan, there is semi-symbolism. A semi-symbolic structure can be represented as a two terms equation: Above : below = transcendent : mundane
General conclusions
Introduction (i.e. general description)
Analysis of the plastic dimension (or plastic reading)
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Group 1 Evansha Agrawal
Irina Stojsic Maria Almeida Pengyuan Ren
Rebeca Medeiros Zixun Huang
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Group 1 Evansha Agrawal
Irina Stojsic Maria Almeida Pengyuan Ren
Rebeca Medeiros Zixun Huang
Group 1 focused on many aspect on this image, and on the opposition between its two sides, but it’s not a semiotics analysis: you cannot use your categories, like colors / positions / background / meaning / object / medium, you have to follow some rules. Let’s see how and why
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Semiotic analysis of images
A recap
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Semiotics analysis of images: a recap
Signifier / Expression Plan
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Signified / Content Plan
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Semiotics analysis of images: figurative dimension
Signifier / Expression Plan
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Signified / Content Plan
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Semiotics analysis of images: figurative dimension
Signifier / Expression Plan
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Signified / Content Plan
Narrative structure and basic values
(from deep semantic structure)
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Semiotics analysis of images: figurative dimension
Signifier / Expression Plan
—————- —————-
Signified / Content Plan
Narrative structure and basic values
(from deep semantic structure)
1. description of what we see from a figurative point of view
2. Recognition of narrative structures and/or values on the recognized figures
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How do forms and colors mean? The semi-symbolic mode
There is a semi-symbolic mode in action if one can observe a sort of code, in which a category (that is, an opposition of two terms) on the Expression Plan refers to a category on the Content Plan
It’s why we refer to semi-symbolic mode as semi-symbolic language
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Group 1 Evansha Agrawal
Irina Stojsic Maria Almeida Pengyuan Ren
Rebeca Medeiros Zixun Huang
1. description of what we see from a figurative point of view:
On the left, a tortured prisoner On the right, Christ
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1. description of what we see from a figurative point of view:
On the left, a tortured prisoner On the right, Christ
Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891), Come Unto Me
Thanks to our cultural background, on the left we recognize a photo that we saw on newspapers and TV; and thanks to our iconographical background, on the right we see a typical image of a blessing Christ
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Antonio Ciseri, Come Unto Me, (1821-1891)
2. Recognition of narrative structures and/or values conveyed by the recognized figures
So we have two different figures. But what meaning they can convey? In order to discover that, we could look for the basic values of such images
Figurative dimension / Expression Plan (Recognition) tortured prisoner vs blessing Christ
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2. Recognition of narrative structures and/or values conveyed by the recognized figures: Human vs divine
War vs peace
The two figures carry two different basic meaning: we could talk about an opposition between human and divine, but also between torture vs peace. But here it is not just a question of the values carried by these two figures, but also of how these two figures are structured
Figurative dimension / Expression Plan (Recognition) tortured prisoner vs blessing Christ
———————————————- Figurative dimension / Content Plan
Human vs divine War vs peace
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In order to understand this point, let’s take a short visual experiment.
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Here we are two other pictures, seemingly carrying the same basic values. But it is not the same as in our example. The way in which from Gallenkuş’ picture intertwines the two images, that is the prisoner and Christ, counts. In other words, it is the way in which the frame space is arranged, as well lines and colors, that match together the two figures and convey a message, it’s not just the figurative meaning of the two figures.
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Semiotics analysis of images: plastic dimension
Signifier / Expression Plan
—————- —————-
Signified / Content Plan
Narrative structure and basic values
(from deep semantic structure)
3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - chromatic categories (colours) - topological categories (space arrangements)
4. Recognition of values conveyed by plastic elements
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Topological categories: arrangement of the objects in the frame
(i.e. upper vs lower, left vs right,
peripheral vs central…)
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Eidetic categories: shapes and qualities of lines and forms
(i.e. horizontal vs vertical, pointed vs rounded…)
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Chromatic categories: qualities of colors
(i.e. saturated vs non saturated…)
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Antonio Ciseri (1821-1891), Come Unto Me
Chromatic categories
3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - chromatic categories (colours) - topological categories (space arrangements)
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Eidetic categories Interrupted lines vs Continued line
Chromatic categories
Topological categories The two figures are located at the centre, in the same place. They seem to be a whole image. - Not opposition, but continuity between the two
3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - chromatic categories (colours) - topological categories (space arrangements)
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3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - Chromatic categories (colours) - Topological categories (space arrangements) 4. Recognition of values conveyed by plastic elements
Plastic dimension / Expression Plan Eidetic categories interrupted lines vs continued lines
Topological categories central position – central position Chromatic categories colors with high contrast (photography) vs brighter and soft colors
(painting) ———————————————- Plastic dimension / Content Plan
Suffering vs happiness War vs peace
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3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - Chromatic categories (colours) - Topological categories (space arrangements) 4. Recognition of values conveyed by plastic elements
Plastic dimension / Expression Plan Eidetic categories interrupted lines vs continued lines
Topological categories central position – central position
Chromatic categories colors with high contrast (photography) vs brighter and soft colors (painting)
———————————————- Plastic dimension / Content Plan
Suffering vs happiness War vs peace
Figurative dimension / Expression Plan (Recognition) tortured prisoner vs blessing Christ
———————————————- Figurative dimension / Content Plan
Human vs divine War vs peace
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Plastic dimension / Expression Plan Eidetic interrupted lines vs continued lines
Topological central position – central position Chromatic colors with high contrast (photography) vs
brighter and soft colors (painting) ———————————————- Plastic dimension / Content Plan
Suffering vs happiness War vs peace
Figurative dimension / Expression Plan (Recognition) tortured prisoner vs blessing Christ
———————————————- Figurative dimension / Content Plan
Human vs divine War vs peace
5. Semi-symbolic in action? Whereas there is one to one relation between Expression Plan and Content Plan, there is semi-symbolism. A semi-symbolic system can be represented as a two terms equation
Yes, there is semi-symbolic system because:
interrupted lines : continued lines = suffering : happiness colors with high contrast : brighter and soft colors = suffering : happiness
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Group 2 Soumya Gupta
Tamara Lau Julia Reitzer
Ludovica Piro Nikolaos Gkatsis
Some other very short comments about other group analysis…
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Group 2 Soumya Gupta
Tamara Lau Julia Reitzer
Ludovica Piro Nikolaos Gkatsis
Let’s take a look, for example, at Group 2 analysis. This is a good first list of figures, but it is not structured as a semiotic analysis
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Group 2 Soumya Gupta
Tamara Lau Julia Reitzer
Ludovica Piro Nikolaos Gkatsis
Conclusions are interesting but they melt together all the dimensions (figurative and plastic) and all the plans (Expression and Content): semiotic analysis has to be more structured to be
more powerful
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Group 3 Claudia Maria Cutrupi
Zhang Mengying Wang Ruowen Chung Wuikang
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Group 3 Claudia Maria Cutrupi
Zhang Mengying Wang Ruowen
Chung Wuikang
Important: analysis do not have to express our feelings, not at first. In this sense this is not an analysis of the figurative dimension
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Group 4 BAOYIFANG
CHENYI NIUYIJIANG
HUXUN WENGYUXIN WANGNING
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Group 4 BAOYIFANG
CHENYI NIUYIJIANG
HUXUN WENGYUXIN WANGNING
Group 4 writes, here, about poverty and wealth as metaphor. Semiotically, we could better say that poverty and wealth are
values conveyed by this image. A very important point to notice, here: poverty and wealth are not things that we can see or
perceive – they are content. Our aim in a semiotic visual analysis is to discover “how does this image works”: that is, which are the
visual elements in this image that convey this message, that is this opposition between poverty and wealth?
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Group 5 Francesca Pavanel
Maria del Pilar Suarez Anzorena Maria Paula Vargas Triana
Kira Pyatakova Situ Yuming
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Group 5 Francesca Pavanel
Maria del Pilar Suarez Anzorena Maria Paula Vargas Triana
Kira Pyatakova Situ Yuming
1. description of what we see from a figurative point of view
3. description of what we see from a plastic point of view: - eidetic categories (lines) - Chromatic categories (colours) - Topological categories (space arrangements) 4. Recognition of values conveyed by plastic elements
2. Recognition of values on the recognized figures
Group 5 proposes a first analysis of the
figurative dimension that needs to be more
structured and developed. However, it is quite good because
there is both step 1 and 2.
The analysis of the plastic dimension is
just a good description of what we see in
terms of colors and lines but there is not
step 4, that is fundamental.
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Group 6 ASJAD, LI XIAOQUIN,
XU MENGTING, DONG YAN
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Group 6 ASJAD, LI XIAOQUIN,
XU MENGTING, DONG YAN
As Group 1, Group 5 focused on many aspect on this image, and on the opposition between its two sides, but it is not a semiotics analysis: you cannot use your categories, like medium / colors / impression / background / object / position, you have to follow semiotic rules and procedures, as shown before.
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Jean-Marie Floch (1947-2001), Visual
Identities The best way to learn how to conduct a good semiotic analysis is to read and study Floch’s analysis: • “IBM and Apple’s logo-
centrism” (33-62) • “Chanel changing: the total
look” (85-115)
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