Visible signs (book)

Author : David crow

Publisher : Ava publishing sa 2003 Singapore 

Distributer : Thames and Hudson 

In London 

"as consumers of visual art we have become highly sophisticated readers of signs and signals. We decode meaning from compositions with subconscious ease. It is important for artists and designers to have an understanding of how meaning is formed and the way that readers can be led to meaning through juxtaposition of words and images, our visual language."

Page 8/9

"a sign is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity"

Page 25

"the meaning of any sign is affected by who is reading that sign. Pierce recognised a creative process of exchange between the sign and the reader." 

Page 54

"the consistent use of soft focus for example in film and advertising has found it's way into our consciousness to a degree that it is universally read as sentimental or soft-hearted"

Page 57

 Jefkins, F. Advertising Writing (1976)

Brooklyn Princess | AW14 TV advert | boohoo.com (possible artefact)

Lindt LINDOR: Mastering Irresistibly Smooth (possible artefact)

Reading Images (book)

Reading Images The Grammar of Visual Design
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen



"We believe that visual communication is coming to be less the domain of specialists, and more and more crucial in the domains of public communications."
page 3


"Visual language is not transparent and universally understood but culturally specific."
page 3

The Photography Reader (book)

Index pages :

semiotics :

109-45 : Semiotics
112, 138-45 : photography and fetish
111, 114-25 :Rhetoric of the image
112, 130-7 :Structure of representation
111, 126-9  Symbolic power of the image

115-16, 166-7, 175-6 : signs



Codes and Rhetoric :
(Part Three)

Victor Burgin wrote an essay "Thinking photography"

Bignell, J. (1997) Media Semiotics, an introduction



Roland Barthes
Rhetoric of the image

" because in advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional "
page 114

Victor Burgin
Looking at photographs 

"With most photographs we see, this decoding and investiture takes place instantaneously, unselfconsciously, 'naturally' ; but it does take place "
page 133


Andy Grundberg
The Crisis of the real

"What structuralist linguistic theory and semiotic sign theory have in common is the belief that things in the world - literary texts, images, what have you - do not wear their meanings on their sleeves. They must be deciphered, or decoded, in order to be  understood. "
page 166

Bibliography

Books :

Semiotics The Basics 2nd Edition
Daniel Chandler
Routledge Taylor and Francis Group London and New York
2002


Introducing Semiotics
Paul Cobley and Litza Jansz (author / artist )
Icon books Cambridge, UK
1999


Pictograms Icons and Signs A Guide to information graphics
Rayan Abdullah and Roger Hubner
Thames and Hudson London
2006


Mythologies
Roland Barthes
Paladin London
1973


On Photography
Susan Sontag
Penguin Books London
1978 (?)


The Objects of Affection Semiotics and Consumer Culture
Arthur Asa Berger
Palgrave Macmillan New York
2010


Researching the Visual Image, Objects, Contents and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry
Micheal Emmison and Philip Smith
SAGE Publications London
2002


The Photography Reader
Liz Wells
Routledge London
2003


Visible Signs An Introduction to Semiotics
David Crow
AVA London
2003

Symbols and allegories in Art
Matilde Battistini
Getty Publications
2005


Reading Ads Socially
Robert Goldman
Routledge Oxfordshire
1992


Reading Images The Grammar of Visual Design
Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen
Routledge London
1996


Deconstruction and the Visual Arts
Peter Brunette and David Wills
Cambridge University Press Cambridge
1994


Signs and Symbols Their Design and Meaning
Adrian Frutiger
Ebury Press London
1998

Symbols and Allegories in Art (book)

Symbols and Allegories in Art
Matilde Battistini
Getty Publications America 2005

"carnation, symbol of fidelity in love."
page 19
check out the language of flowers

"The mirror, which represents sight"
page 38
painting : allegory of the five senses, by Sebastian Stoskopff


"the soap bubbles symbolize the fleeting nature of earthly existence"
page 78

"Youth is represented by a happy young couple"
page 95
painting : the three ages of man by Titian

"the wolf, endowed with very keen visions, forms the figures eye."
"the lion symbolizes strength and virtue attained through effort"
page 106
painting : Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Earth,1570


"the snake symbolizes evil."
page 119


"the rose petals are symbols of love"
page 131

"the peacock is a symbol of rebirth and redemption."
page 147

"the pearl necklace and earring give the portrait a sexual connotation: we recognize the figure to be female"
page 206
painting : Water  by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

"the sea of clouds is a symbol of the Sublime, that peculiar "feeling" one gets when contemplating nature"
page 231

"the masks symbolize falsehood and lies"
page 234

"the strawberry and cherry are traditional symbols of lust"
page 257

"the mirror, principal attribute of the proud"
"the chest contains gold and jewelry. The iconography of this vice partly follows that for vanity."
page 279

"the red dress embroidered in black is another distinct attribute of Wrath, which brings grief and tragedy."
page 281

"gold coins are a typical attribute of greed."
page 285

"the feather, jewels, vials of perfume, and cut flowers are typical attributes of Vanitas."
page 292

"the jewels on the table are symbols of the Blessed Virgin's purity"
page 302
painting : Woman Weighing Pearls by Jan Vermeer

"the scepter alludes to royal power"
page 332
sculpture : Giuliano de' Medici by Michelangelo

"the bowl of jewels has been interpreted as an allusion to fleeting happiness, the only kind that can be attained on Earth."
page 344

"Precious objects, gold coins, and jewels are clear reminders of the vanity of external wealth"
page 365

Paco Rabanne (artefact)

Director : Alexandre Courtes  (french film director)

Music:     Kanye West "Power"

Model:     Nick Youngquest (Australian model and rugby player)

Link to the advert on Youtube  

"epic saga and an allegory for victory"

"metaphorical and yet hyper-realistic. The film brings to life a fantasy in flesh, blood and muscle"

quotes taken from the description box attached to the video 

Link to the song on Youtube

The advert features two splices from Kanye West's song 'Power' it has been spliced so that the swearing in the original song does not feature in the advert as they would not be able to show the advert so as not to offend anybody.

Lyrics:

I'm living in the 21st century doin' something mean to it

Do it better then anybody you ever seen do it

Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it

I guess every superhero need his theme music

[Chorus:]

No one man should have all that power

The clocks tickin' I just count the hours

Stop trippin' I'm tripping off the power

(21st century Schizoid Man)

The system broken, the school's closed, the prison's open

We ain't got nothing to lose motherf*r we rollin',

Huh? motherf*r we rollin'

With some light skinned girls and some Kelly Rowland's

In this white man's world we the ones chosen

So goodnight cruel world I'll see you in the mornin',

Huh? I see you in the mornin'

This is way too much, I need a moment.

[Chorus:]

No one man should have all that power

The clocks tickin' I just count the hours

Stop trippin' I'm tripping off the power

Till then, f*k that the world's ours

(21st Century Schizoid Man)

Lyrics from A-Z 

(but compared with other websites as well)

Voice Over:

Invictus the new fragrance for men by Paco Rabanne

Interview with Nick Youngquest

Signs and Symbols (book)

Signs and Symbols Their Design and Meaning
Adrian Frutiger


Optical Illusions

page 95

this image shows us three figures with the same height, however our eyes read the image as though they are different sizes. this can also happen with images/ photographs


Sign Symbol, Emblem, Signal

"it is felt to be less trouble to look at a picture than to attend to and understand a spoken message"
page 224

The Symbol

"This symbolic element in picture is an implied value, a mediator between recognizable reality and the mystical, invisible realm religion, philosophy, and magic, extending from the consciously understandable into the field of the unconscious."
page 235/ 236

Fauna Symbols

"The fact that birds are associated with the "heavenly" as well as the earthly"
page 246

"The serpent figure can be seen as a symbolic archetype"
page 248

Flowers :

Lily : "purity and innocence but also regarded as a sign of procreation"
Tulip : "a sign of fertility"
Rose : "all rose motifs are a symbolic expression of love"
Sunflower : "a symbol of constancy of love"
Mushroom : "both "lucky mushroom" and a warning of poison"
page 254

Signs symbolising movement

"The spiral is a very ancient sign of the sun and life, its constant rotation symbolising the pulsation and periodicity of all life."
page 277

Researching the Visual (book)

Researching the Visual Images, Objects, Contexts and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry
Michael Emmison and Philip Smith
Sage Publications London 2000


"the primary issue is the interpretation of the photograph and its place in a system of cultural representation."
page 46

"Hall argues we should decode images in terms of connotation and denotation."
page 46
(Stuart Hall)

"Hall suggests that in determining which connotation is valid we have to draw upon our stock of common sense knowledge in order to make a reading of the image in terms of its expressive content."
page 47

"Selection and framing decisions made by photographers and editors are ignored... and no we tend to read such photographs as a truthful document of what really happened, ignoring the possibility of other interpretations of the event."
page 48
(... section = mentions a photo within the book, wont be in my essay)

Objects of Affection (book)

Objects of Affection Semiotics and Consumer Culture
Arthur ASA Berger
Palgrave Macmillan 2010 New York

Chapter One
The Science of Signs


Marshall McLuhan
wrote "The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man"
its a "study of american commercial culture"
he analyzes product adverts
page 12


Marshall Blonsky
wrote "American Mythologies"
same as Roland Barthes but instead of French ads he did American ones
page 12/13


"Saussure believed that symbols are never completely arbitrary, suggesting that there is usually some kind of quasi-arbitray or rudimentary bond between symbolic signifiers and what they signify"
page 14


"Advertising works by generating dissatisfactions and anxieties in people and feeds on the alienation that pervades capitalist societies. It assuages these feelings by focusing attention on private consumption. "
page 45

"Another thing advertising does is promote narcissism; it leads people to focus on their own wants and desires "
page 45

Jean Baudrillard
wrote " The System of Objects"
France 1968
translated to English 1996


"signs are all important, and for Baudrillard they create a "hyper reality" that seems more real than reality"
page 50

"things we purchase are no longer evaluated in terms of their use or functionality but rather in terms of what they signify about us - what they reveal about us, such as our taste, our style, our socioeconomic level, and our attitudes towards authority. This means that it is their semiotic meaning that is now all-important. "
page 50

"people who wear a brand-name fragrance are identifying with the brand more than with the name of the product. "
page 98

"many people are careful in their choices of perfumes and other fashion products"
page 98

"many perfumes are given french or Italian names because in the popular imagination, italian products suggest luxury and refinement and french names suggest sophistication, sex and elite culture"
page 98

"In his book, Media Semiotics, Marcel Danesi explains the importance of brands to people who purchase them. He says that brands function at two levels. At the denotative level, a brand indicates a particular product. But brands function mostly at the connotative level"
page 111

Peugeot (artefact)

http://peugeotofficial.tumblr.com/tagged/gtilegend


http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2014/peugeot-legend-returns/


http://reservations.banffhotels.org/hotels/hotel/?hotel_id=700139630&check_in=10%2F12%2F2015&check_out=10%2F16%2F2015&rooms=1&adults=2&refid=4017

http://famouslogos.net/peugeot-logo/