Wednesday's
lecture focused on visual language when communicating type, images,
signs, symbols and gestures and its affect on audience, context, media and
method of distribution. Visual literacy is the idea
that pictures can be read, but for this to be successful we need to
have a basic understanding of visual syntax and visual semantics.
Visual
Syntax
The
syntax of an image refers to its pictorial structure and visual organization.
For example, its framing, format, line, texture etc. basically all of the
formal elements that make up the image.
Visual
Semantics
Semantics
of an image refers to the way the image fits into a cultural process of
communication. This includes the relationship between form and meaning, and the
way that this meaning is created through cultural references, social ideals,
religious beliefs, political ideas, historical structures etc.
Semiotics
Toward
the end of the lecture we were introduced to the topic of semiotics.
This covers non-linguistic sign systems, visual language and visual literacy.
It is the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness,
metaphor, symbolism, signification and communication. Visual elements of
semiotics include symbol, sign, signifier, metaphor, metonym and synecdoche.
I think this lecture was really interesting. We were shown an image of apple and have been told that
‘its not an apple’ straight away. An ‘apple’ can have lots of different
meanings starting from a logo of a famous brand to alternative name for a place
in New York.
Symbol: (e.g. logo - image)
Sign: (e.g. identity - what the image
represents)
Signifier: (e.g. brand - the connotations of the
brand and its message or meaning)
Metaphor:
Transfers the meaning
from one image to another. Used to convey a message about something unfamiliar
by associating it with something familiar.
Metonym: Symbolic image used to make reference
to a subject. Related, but not intrinsically linked.
Synecdoche: A universally recognised
image, inherently connected to the subject.
