Tutorial: on the meaning of various images and symbols in different cultures.
Studio: Students work on class projects with Lecturer supervision.
Remember, your subject is about semiology you must consider the channel, noise, materiality, symbolism, historical and cultural context in your submissions and we we'll address those topics today.
Last week we learned:
Denotation: What is being pictured? Denotation means the same no matter who created the image
Connotation: How it is pictured? The reader is playing a part by applying their knowledge of the systematic coding of the image. The meaning is affected by the background of the viewer.
Connotation is arbitrary in that the meanings brought to the image at this stage are based on rules or conventions which the reader has learned. 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. As the conventions vary from one culture to another then it follows that the connotative effect of the conventions, the rules on how to read these images will also vary between communities.
Today's content:
What is Culture
Toys: Children are particularly vulnerable to the form and meaning of the visual communication in their lives. Traditionally they are gender specific with little boys favoring mechanical or sporty things. Girls get a mixed bag. Feminist studies and the feminist movement have made great strides forward for women but the popular media young girls are exposed to is another story
Consider the cultural context of these objects.
In the analysis of these objects we must consider the culture they come from and represent. So let's define culture. The meaning of culture shifts depending on why you want to use it.
3 useful definitions:
1. the process of a societies intellectual spiritual and aesthetic development.
2. The particular way of life of the people
3. The works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity.
Just as there is high art and popular art there is High culture and low (or popular) culture.Popular culture is generally perceived to be a cynical process for engaging the masses in a cycle of consumerist desire.
Toys: Children are particularly vulnerable to the form and meaning of the visual communication
in their lives. Traditionally they are gender specific with little boys favoring mechanical or sporty things. Girls get a mixed bag. Feminist studies and the feminist movement have made great strides forward for women but the popular media young girls are exposed to is another story
The following is an excerpt from a paper by:
Monica K. Wendt, M.L.S (Hist.)
Fort Hays State University, U.S.A.
www.anistor.gr/english/enback/2008_2s_Anistoriton.pdf
"The Oath of the Horatii" by Jaques Louis David
King Louis XVI commissioned David to paint the Oath of the Horatii. Carlotta
Lenzi contends, “never before had the concept of neoclassicism been expressed so boldly
in painting.”2 Its subject is from the ancient Romans. The setting is solemn in contrast
to the color of the robes worn by those in the scene. The men stand to the left of the
painting as excellent specimens of heroism. The women who are to the right, in contrast
are grieving as the men prepare to go off to battle. The father stands in the center of the
painting portraying a combination of the emotions; he is both determined and distressed.
He has the swords raised in front of him taking the oath from his sons and praying to the
gods for his family. Oath of the Horatii signaled that virtue was no longer for the old; it
was now passed to the young.3 Thomas Crow believes that the painting’s message was
not the only nonconformist statement David intended to make, when it was
commissioned it was to be in square format, about ten feet for each side.4 This was a
typical size for second tier Salon paintings. David took it upon himself to expand the
horizontal length. Not only was this painting the wrong size but also it was not
completed on time. Despite this, the Oath of the Horatii established David as the
eminent painter of history.5
Though David would eventually hold office during the French Revolution he was
not always a political person. In 1789, David was only an art student and president of his
group of nonconformist artists. The following year he was invited to paint the mayor of
Nantes. Later that year he took part in the Oath in the Tennis Court. He would later
sketch his interpretation of this scene. This work earned him status as the “semi-official”
painter of the Jacobins.6 He already had many great salon works to display including,
Brutus, The Oath of the Horatii and Socrates. During the revolution David did little
painting, some drawing and some engraving. During the time the Jacobins were in power
he painted Death of Marat and LePeletier de Saint-Fargeau on his deathbed. He was
also the choreographer of the great events in the revolution such as the funeral for Marat.
Studio: Students work on class projects with Lecturer supervision.
Remember, your subject is about semiology you must consider the channel, noise, materiality, symbolism, historical and cultural context in your submissions and we we'll address those topics today.
Last week we learned:
Denotation: What is being pictured? Denotation means the same no matter who created the image
Connotation: How it is pictured? The reader is playing a part by applying their knowledge of the systematic coding of the image. The meaning is affected by the background of the viewer.
Connotation is arbitrary in that the meanings brought to the image at this stage are based on rules or conventions which the reader has learned. 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. As the conventions vary from one culture to another then it follows that the connotative effect of the conventions, the rules on how to read these images will also vary between communities.
Today's content:
What is Culture
Toys: Children are particularly vulnerable to the form and meaning of the visual communication in their lives. Traditionally they are gender specific with little boys favoring mechanical or sporty things. Girls get a mixed bag. Feminist studies and the feminist movement have made great strides forward for women but the popular media young girls are exposed to is another story
Consider the cultural context of these objects.
In the analysis of these objects we must consider the culture they come from and represent. So let's define culture. The meaning of culture shifts depending on why you want to use it.
3 useful definitions:
1. the process of a societies intellectual spiritual and aesthetic development.
2. The particular way of life of the people
3. The works and practices of intellectual and artistic activity.
Just as there is high art and popular art there is High culture and low (or popular) culture.Popular culture is generally perceived to be a cynical process for engaging the masses in a cycle of consumerist desire.
in their lives. Traditionally they are gender specific with little boys favoring mechanical or sporty things. Girls get a mixed bag. Feminist studies and the feminist movement have made great strides forward for women but the popular media young girls are exposed to is another story
These are read as 4 US flags on a denotative level; but on a connotative level it speaks in a tone of critical political discourse.
This poster is advertising a concert with wine. The connotation is of relaxation and even losing a certain amount of control or dozing off.
Symbolism and specific Cultures:The following is an excerpt from a paper by:
Monica K. Wendt, M.L.S (Hist.)
Fort Hays State University, U.S.A.
www.anistor.gr/english/enback/2008_2s_Anistoriton.pdf
"The Oath of the Horatii" by Jaques Louis David
King Louis XVI commissioned David to paint the Oath of the Horatii. Carlotta
Lenzi contends, “never before had the concept of neoclassicism been expressed so boldly
in painting.”2 Its subject is from the ancient Romans. The setting is solemn in contrast
to the color of the robes worn by those in the scene. The men stand to the left of the
painting as excellent specimens of heroism. The women who are to the right, in contrast
are grieving as the men prepare to go off to battle. The father stands in the center of the
painting portraying a combination of the emotions; he is both determined and distressed.
He has the swords raised in front of him taking the oath from his sons and praying to the
gods for his family. Oath of the Horatii signaled that virtue was no longer for the old; it
was now passed to the young.3 Thomas Crow believes that the painting’s message was
not the only nonconformist statement David intended to make, when it was
commissioned it was to be in square format, about ten feet for each side.4 This was a
typical size for second tier Salon paintings. David took it upon himself to expand the
horizontal length. Not only was this painting the wrong size but also it was not
completed on time. Despite this, the Oath of the Horatii established David as the
eminent painter of history.5
Though David would eventually hold office during the French Revolution he was
not always a political person. In 1789, David was only an art student and president of his
group of nonconformist artists. The following year he was invited to paint the mayor of
Nantes. Later that year he took part in the Oath in the Tennis Court. He would later
sketch his interpretation of this scene. This work earned him status as the “semi-official”
painter of the Jacobins.6 He already had many great salon works to display including,
Brutus, The Oath of the Horatii and Socrates. During the revolution David did little
painting, some drawing and some engraving. During the time the Jacobins were in power
he painted Death of Marat and LePeletier de Saint-Fargeau on his deathbed. He was
also the choreographer of the great events in the revolution such as the funeral for Marat.
"Trolly" A photograph by Robert Frank
Robert Frank photographed a New Orleans trolley car familiar from tourist brochures, but his image is a sonnet of unease, the passengers, racially segregated, staring at the camera with faces of suspicion and accusation. It is the best photograph ever taken in New Orleans. Frank had been photographing pedestrians, looked the other way and saw the trolley rounding Canal Street. As the contact sheet (a print containing all the exposures made on a single roll of film) on exhibition at the Met shows, he could only make two exposures of the trolley before it moved on; by the time he was able to take the second shot with what, from our perspective, was his slow-working equipment, it was already too late.
Quoted from the following site:
We will discuss the meaning of these two images and the cultures they came from. We will also discuss the images you have brought in yourself today.
Representation: (Re-presenting ) Not just an object, scene or person from the real world (often) sometimes artists re present their imagination and fantasies. Not just the artists ideas etc but the feelings and ideas of a culture within which the artist lives. You have to understand the culture of the artist to read the work. Context is very important and allows us to read the work. The 2 parts of this 'reading' are Denotation and Connotation. Meaning is constructed by the people who read it. Images relate to other images. Meaning is more complicated than just denotation and connotation. Meaning is not a copy of something it is constructed within a system. The image will relate to a series of other ideas and other images and facts about society etc. Meaning is always plural and it changes over time. The way you read the painting above will be different to the way it was read in the time it was painted.
An image if often intended to change people to affect they way they act. Who does the representing? The power structure? What is the effect of the representation on those in power and those without power.
Practices of looking. Seeing and Looking. (Looking is purposeful)
What is representation? Is it a reflection of reality? nemesis a copy? or is it a construction of reality an interpretation of reality something that mediates or changes reality. Way would want to construct reality in a particular way. Each society has different needs. Representation constructs reality according to the needs of the society. It makes sense of the world and reality. Meaning is socially specific. Freedom means something different in Japan and in Saudi Arabia.
http://visualcommunicationonengairebeckett.blogspot.com/
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