Semiotics, pt. 2

1. Class 6.2
Semiotics, Part II

2. Saussure on meaning

3. sign
▪ Sign=signifier + signified
▪ Signifier (discrete visual element)
▪ Signified (meaning)

4. can be laid out like this:
signifiers: range of possible
signifieds:

5. keep a careful
eye on context!

6. The meaning of any one visual
element will change as the
elements surrounding it change.
So it's not enough to attend to
formal elements independently of
each other—eventually you need
to bring them into relationship with
each other.

7. Gerhard RICHTER, Party, 1963
Oil, nails and cord on canvas and newspaper, 72 x 60 inches

8. Lucas CRANACH the Elder (1472-
1553)
Adam and Eve, 1526
oil on panel
46 x 31.5 inches (117 x 80 cm)
Courtauld Gallery, London
http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collectio
n/renaissance/lucas-cranach-the-
elder-adam-and-eve

9. Charles Saunders PEIRCE (“purse”)
(1839-1914)
American thinker, mathematics, science, logic, semiotics
http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/

10. three types of signs
types
• icon: represents the
object through some
similarity or
resemblance
• index: represents the
object by being a
physical trace of it
• symbol: represents the
object by convention
(social agreement)
examples
• example of icon: smiley
face, representational
art
• example of index:
fingerprint
• example of symbol:
pretty much all of
language, in which words
have no necessary
relationship to the concept
they represent

11. explanation of three of Peirce’s sign types

12. index: a type of sign that is
physically connected to its making

13. index: a type of sign physically connected to its
making

14. Robert RAUSCHENBERG, Automobile Tire Print, 1953
paint on 20 sheets of paper mounted on fabric, 16 1/2 in. x 264 1/2 inches, SFMOMA,
© Robert Rauschenberg Foundation / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
use of indexical marks in
art

15. Gabriel OROZCO
Chicotes (Whips)
2010
installed at the Tate
Modern
use of
indexical
marks in art

16. Christoph NIEMANN, Coffee, New York Times blog, December 2, 2008

17. quick review
• Saussure:
• it links sounds (or images) with mental concepts
• language is arbitrary and culturally bound
• terminology
• every sign consists of two parts:
• a signifier (pattern of letters, sounds, or forms)
• a signified (a set of concepts and associations that those
forms trigger in the viewer's mind

18. quick review
• Peirce ("Purse")
creates terminology for different types of signs
they are differentiated based upon the relationship of the sign
to reality
• symbol (all of language): arbitrary relationship to what it
represents; to understand you have to know the convention
• icon (would include a lot of imagery): in some way looks like
what it represents
• index: is a physical trace of the process that produced it