Semiotics

Class notes

Semiotics

Semiotics means the study of signs. It is when you use images to represent things and use something that stands for something else. For example, the semiotics for the settings on an iPhone are cogs which is used because cogs are things that turn and make things work and move, just like all your settings within the application. 

Denotation

Denotation is what we see when we look at an image and nothing more.

Connotation

Connotation is what we understand from the image - connotations given.

For example, for this picture the denotation is a lion with a sunset behind him. The connotations of this could be that the lion standing proud represents pride and power.

Connotations

Yellow - happiness, peace, calming, cowardly, hazards, hope

Stuart Hall's theory - 'polysemia'

Polysemia - many reading

Stuart Hall's theory was that audiences can have different reactions to a media text, whether it be in a film, documentary, newspaper or even an image. 

Preferred reading

Preferred reading is the reading you want the audience to get from your image/advert or how you want it to be viewed.

Oppositional reading

Oppositional reading is where the intended meaning from your image/advert is opposed by the audience. The wrong meaning is given to the audience to the one you intended  to give.

Homework

A denotation from this film poster would be a difference in the light. On the right hand side it is bright blue from the lightsaber being held but on the left hand side it is red through Kylo Ren's infamous weapon. The connotation from this is that the good characters within the movie are on the right hand side with a blue highlight surrounding them and the bad characters are on the left side with a red highlight, clearly showing that there are two sides in the movie and it shows which characters are part of which side. However, another denotation is Rey in the center of the screen. She is a bigger sized character than most of the others giving the connotation that she has more importance within the movie than the smaller characters. This links into the later connotation about the light because she is centralised and not placed in front of either light sources. This connotes that she maybe flicks between sides in the movie, acts like she is on one side for intel or betrays one of the sides. 

Another denotation is the planet in the background on the right hand side of the poster. Two interesting things about its denotation is the side of the poster its on and its size. The side its on produces the connotation that it could be a hideaway for the good side through the movie at some point which gives another connotation that the bad side are on top for a part of the movie. 

The size is also interesting because Kylo Ren, who appears to be the main villian, is bigger than the planet. This again produces a few connotations that maybe Kylo Ren owned the planet before or takes it over very easily in the movie. 

Finally, the ships at the bottom are coming out of an explosion. This denotation comes with the connotation that they are used in the movie for an outer space fight. This would've been done to show the audience that not all the fight scenes in the movie take place with ligthsabers and on ground. It gives the movie a variety of settings to keep the audience interested.