Semiotics
Understanding the importance of meaning in the study of art, design and culture. Semiotics can make you a better communicator.
1917 Ferdinand De Saussure looked at how language operates which lead him to develop semiotics and the science of studying signs.
Structuralism
the thought that everything had an underlying sense of order and rules.
Sign
Semiotics is the study/ investigation of signs. A sign = a letter, an utterance, a colour, anything that communicates something. To understand meaning we need to understand how signs work together. A sign has two sides, the signifier and the signified. Signifier an utterance Signified the experience. The signifier signifies something, the relationship between them is arbitrary.
1957 Barthes stated that signs signify on two different levels, the Denotation (literal meaning) and the connotation (cultural associations).
Saussure said that signs work in systems/codes. As designers we answer a brief in a certain way because we think about the audience. Semiotics is about understanding codes of meaning.
Codes are found in all forms of cultural practice. In order to make sense of cultural artefacts we need to learn and understand their codes. We need to acknowledge that codes rely on a shared knowledge/ understanding.
Paradigms & Syntagms
Signs are organised into codes in two ways:
Paradigm = (CHOICES) a set of signs from which one is to be chosen
Syntagms = (STRUCTURE) the message into which the chosen signs are to be combined.
A classic Paradigm is the alphabet, every time we want to communicate we choose letters from this and arrange them syntadgmatically.
Other types of paradigms:
> the different ways of changing shot in film
> the typefaces available
> Headgear - trilby, cap, beret
> The type of car we drive
> The colour of our front door
> The swear words we choose to use
Where there is choice there is a paradigm
Once a unit has been chosen from a PARADIGM its is combined with other units. This combination is called SYNTAGM.
> A sentence is a syntagm of words
> Our clothes are a syntagm of paradigmatic choices of hates, gloves etc.
> Interior decor is a syntagm of choices from the paradigm of chairs, wallpaper and carpets etc
Syntagmatic analysis seeks to establish the surface structure of a text and the relationship between its parts.
The study of syntagmatic relations reveals the rules underlying the production and interpretation of texts.
Paradigmatic analysis = a structural technique which seeks to identify the various paradigm which underlie the surface structure of text.
If the paradigmatic choices were different what would have been said?
Wednesday, 22 March 2017
Tuesday, 21 March 2017
Study Task 4
1. Research Focus
The COP theme I looked at in my essays was aesthetic:
Stefan Sagmeister - www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/answers
More specifically Post Modernism. The area of design I am interested in is editorial therefore I want to develop on this and create work related to editorial.
Stefan Sagmeister - www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/answers
If graphic design
works as a visual language, can trends enrich the design?
Stefan: 'Yes, of course. So much of what we design is ephemeral and has to be
of its time. If I see a magazine from the 60-ies now, I find it enriched by the
style of its day. The same is obviously true for current work.'
2. Defining The Design Problem
The idea I have decided to go with for my work is to look at the standard layout of a well known fashion magazine such as vogue and redesign it in a post modernism style similar to the style of David Carson for Ray Gun magazine.
3. 'Clients' Needs/Requirements
Redesigning the front cover of vogue magazine to make it less intimidating and attract a new audience.
4. Audience
researching the existing audience for Vogue
GENDER
Female — 85%
Male — 15%
AGE
16-24 years — 36%
25-34 years — 32%
35-44 years — 15%
45+ years — 16%
Work – 64%
Business owners, managers, specialists, white-collars – 53%
High income and above average – 78%
57% buy clothes and shoes once a month or often
67% buy cosmetics and perfumes once a month or often
52% make time for reading Vogue
49% save favourite issues of Vogue
Source: Mediascope (TNS), NRS – Russia, September 2016 – February 2017;
Quantitative survey of Vogue readers, Toluna, June 2016.
https://www.condenast.ru/en/portfolio/magazines/vogue/circulation/
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
COP Lecture 12 - Post Modernism
The opposite of modernism, the new isn't going to make everything better.
Le Corbusier 'a machine for living in' redefining what a building is.
Berlin, eastern half flattened in the world war. Giant grand buildings sit amongst Russian concrete buildings.
Post Modernism recycles ideas from the past and questions if there is anything 'new' to actually make, hasn't it already been done?
Characteristics of Po-Mo:
> Exhaustion
>Pluralism
>Pessimism
>Disillusionment
Modernism expressed the new technologies and modern life where as post modernism is a reaction to new technologies and modern life.
1960
Jean Tingualy 'Homage to New York'
A giant mechanical contraption of multiple pieces moving around which eventually blew up (on purpose) A gesture of post modernism, reacting to technology
1960 - Po-Mo began
1970 - Established as a term
1980 - Recognisable style
1980/90 -Dominant theoretical discourse, taught in art schools
Today - Tired and simmering
We are now described as being 'late modernity'
Charles Jenks believed modernism died on the 15th July 1972 at 3.32 pm after the demolition of the Pruitt - Igore development in St Louis
Post Modernism questioned conventions (especially those set out of modernism) Embracing many ways of doing things rather than following one path, the only rule is there are no rules.
Sheffield Park Hill Flats, regenerated by Urban Splash. Gone from undesirable and run down to desired by young professionals.
1982 NYV AT + T building follows a grid until the top of it which resembles a grand father clock.
1997 Frank Gehry Bilbao was a run down fishing town until this building was built, it attracted tourists.
The Leeds look of architecture came about as Leeds tried to be revolutionary in the post modern era. The combination of red brick and sandstone was very iconic at the time.
Quinlan Terry, an architect who designs buildings in a classic style
NYC - modernist
VEGAS - post modernist, anything goes, very random
Blade runner portrays a stereotypical post modern city.
Ultimate figure of PoMo is Andy Warhol. the exact opposite of modernism. Didn't really know what he was doing. It was about a production line and making things on mass, a project of anti-art.
This is the opposite of someone like Pollack who was very expressive in his work and created work with emotion behind it.
Le Corbusier 'a machine for living in' redefining what a building is.
Berlin, eastern half flattened in the world war. Giant grand buildings sit amongst Russian concrete buildings.
Post Modernism recycles ideas from the past and questions if there is anything 'new' to actually make, hasn't it already been done?
Characteristics of Po-Mo:
> Exhaustion
>Pluralism
>Pessimism
>Disillusionment
Modernism expressed the new technologies and modern life where as post modernism is a reaction to new technologies and modern life.
1960
Jean Tingualy 'Homage to New York'
A giant mechanical contraption of multiple pieces moving around which eventually blew up (on purpose) A gesture of post modernism, reacting to technology
1960 - Po-Mo began
1970 - Established as a term
1980 - Recognisable style
1980/90 -Dominant theoretical discourse, taught in art schools
Today - Tired and simmering
We are now described as being 'late modernity'
Charles Jenks believed modernism died on the 15th July 1972 at 3.32 pm after the demolition of the Pruitt - Igore development in St Louis
Post Modernism questioned conventions (especially those set out of modernism) Embracing many ways of doing things rather than following one path, the only rule is there are no rules.
Sheffield Park Hill Flats, regenerated by Urban Splash. Gone from undesirable and run down to desired by young professionals.
1982 NYV AT + T building follows a grid until the top of it which resembles a grand father clock.
1997 Frank Gehry Bilbao was a run down fishing town until this building was built, it attracted tourists.
The Leeds look of architecture came about as Leeds tried to be revolutionary in the post modern era. The combination of red brick and sandstone was very iconic at the time.
Quinlan Terry, an architect who designs buildings in a classic style
NYC - modernist
VEGAS - post modernist, anything goes, very random
Blade runner portrays a stereotypical post modern city.
Ultimate figure of PoMo is Andy Warhol. the exact opposite of modernism. Didn't really know what he was doing. It was about a production line and making things on mass, a project of anti-art.
This is the opposite of someone like Pollack who was very expressive in his work and created work with emotion behind it.
Wednesday, 8 March 2017
COP LECTURE 11- modernity and modernism
Modernism in design
-Anti historicism
Inventive, progressive, pushing things forward
- truth to materials
Embracing the new world as well as new materials to work with eg cameras, experimenting with shutter speed
- form follows function
Truth to aesthetic eg floor to ceiling Windows
- technology
Celebrating new technology
- Internationalism
One style of making/ responding would be common across the world, brining everyone together
Anti historicism, no need to look backward to older styles
"Ornament is crime"
1958 . Seagram building
No historical connotations
A universal design
1938-78 quarry hill flats Leeds
An example of universal design not working
Concrete was used a lot around this period as it was seen as beautiful and versatile.
Form following function
Shown in design of London Underground map. Stripped down to its bare essentials to make it easier for people to use. The stations are placed equidistant from each other for design purposes. This bares no resemblance to the distances away from each other they are.
Modernists ditched decoration such as serifs and created new typefaces ready for machine use. Capital letters were questioned as they are not necessary in terms of reading
1930 . Laszle Moholy Nagy
Changing the way we see film making
1917
Russian revolution, an attempt go modernise the way a society is
El Lissitzky, beat the white with a red wedge
. Red used in revolution to represent the people
. Had to represent a movement without words for illiterate people
Rodchenko, books. Used to encourage people to eductate themselves and read
1925. Odessa Stepd montage of film footage. A new way to make films
1925. Paris expo USSR pavilion purpose built modern building to display am exhibition
Vkhutemas
Art school
Similar to Bauhaus, but not as celebrated because of the hostility towards Russia after the war and the fact Russia were very closed and private at the time, no western reporters allowed in.
Modernism failed because they pushed elements too far, it began to lack individuality. It was dehumanised and everyone became the same.
-Anti historicism
Inventive, progressive, pushing things forward
- truth to materials
Embracing the new world as well as new materials to work with eg cameras, experimenting with shutter speed
- form follows function
Truth to aesthetic eg floor to ceiling Windows
- technology
Celebrating new technology
- Internationalism
One style of making/ responding would be common across the world, brining everyone together
Anti historicism, no need to look backward to older styles
"Ornament is crime"
1958 . Seagram building
No historical connotations
A universal design
1938-78 quarry hill flats Leeds
An example of universal design not working
Concrete was used a lot around this period as it was seen as beautiful and versatile.
Form following function
Shown in design of London Underground map. Stripped down to its bare essentials to make it easier for people to use. The stations are placed equidistant from each other for design purposes. This bares no resemblance to the distances away from each other they are.
Modernists ditched decoration such as serifs and created new typefaces ready for machine use. Capital letters were questioned as they are not necessary in terms of reading
1930 . Laszle Moholy Nagy
Changing the way we see film making
1917
Russian revolution, an attempt go modernise the way a society is
El Lissitzky, beat the white with a red wedge
. Red used in revolution to represent the people
. Had to represent a movement without words for illiterate people
Rodchenko, books. Used to encourage people to eductate themselves and read
1925. Odessa Stepd montage of film footage. A new way to make films
1925. Paris expo USSR pavilion purpose built modern building to display am exhibition
Vkhutemas
Art school
Similar to Bauhaus, but not as celebrated because of the hostility towards Russia after the war and the fact Russia were very closed and private at the time, no western reporters allowed in.
Modernism failed because they pushed elements too far, it began to lack individuality. It was dehumanised and everyone became the same.
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