Another attempt at explanating the 'idea' of semiotics

Semiotics as I understand it represents the relationship between things. These relationships are complicated and varied and often overt particularly in the case of road signs, then comparatively very subtle for example a sight or smell which triggers a emotional response. Anything that presents to us as a significator allows us to make connections.

Below I will list a series of signifcators that express this idea of relationals. They will also illustrate to some extent the vastness of the subject and how important this ‘semiotic’ ‘foundation’ (of which there are many) is to our existence.

Slippery Snake – Onomatopoeias

Family – Love, security

£ - Sterling, money

Apple – The Apple Macintosh

Yellow - Yellow is the colour of sunshine

Immediately the mesh becomes inexorably complicated, these relationships underpin the way we learn the way we react, and basically shape society with concrete yet infinitely elastic junctures. Everything in life can be examined through the ‘semiotic’ magnifying glass. What springs to mind is literally a mind map or the roots of a tree, sometimes winding their way into swelling river then evaporating, to be found later tracing their crystal clear vision toward the damp sill. Oh dear, I’ve lost my thread. But anyway this does relate to design – somehow. Tbc…. With some references!!

Semiotics

Semiotics is a subject which I am interested in and looked at during my degree, but I know that I never fully understood it so I am now taking another look in the hope that it makes a bit more sense.

I'm looking at a book called Structuralism and Semiotics.


The book examines the use of language, and how language fundamentally affects the way we think and behave. An example of this might be, when two people from different regions or countries say the same thing and what they say is varied by an accent, language or by the intonations in speech. The 'changes' may be subtle, but distinct enough to carry colloquialisms (or systems of information) which effectively set apart the language from a neighbouring district so-on. This difference is what gives us identity (within language eg. gaelic, or welsh) and therefore individuality. We also find that these meanings can be 'lost in translation', the result of this clearly changes the meaning of the sentence, not unlike that of Chinese whispers.

"..There is therefore, concluded Sapir in a classical statement no such thing as an objective, unchanging 'real world':

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the real world is to a large extent built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different label attached....We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. (Selected Writings in Language, Culture and Personality, p162) "

Liinguistics and Anthropology pg 31.Terence Hawkes, 'Structuralism and Semiotics'

Manifesto Piece

Creating a piece for the manifesto was fun, I wanted to do something which I felt would embody the idea of a manifesto. What made me decide to do the piece “Authenticity and Meaning” was a series of ideas that initially based on a lecture from Augustus Casely-Hayford, he said something about people searching for ‘authenticity and meaning’ in the world, and things around them, as though somehow this is an aspect of our lives that we loose through over- exposure to life and it’s objects.

I know that this is something that I experience, kind of loosing the thread. So I thought if I could ‘harness’ the idea of authenticity and meaning, then I would solve the problem, sort of new world order!! The other thing that he talked about was how the with the advent of the internet, our lives have changed and will continue to do so. With people living their lives vicariously through the internet, achieving both good and bad results.

So I had the phrase ‘authenticity and meaning’ and a computer, I wanted to portray this idea of suddenly understanding, which is why in the end I chose to use lights which would only appear when you typed in the keyboard.


Initially I wanted to do a wooden copy of my keyboard, because it’s really cool looking - and of course part of my mac. This would represent ‘good design’, but instead I ended up going for an old keyboard which could be dismantled and rewired (...!?..)

The words A&M link into my interest of language, and semiotics. For example going to the dictionary and looking up the word ‘meaning’, you come back with a definition, and then, putting ‘meaning’ into the thesaurus, you come up with a series of alternatives and of course they are all different, and change the way you can understand something.

And it is interesting because Heidegger said:

Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_heidegger.html

Which means that when we think, the thoughts don’t magically attach words, the words magically attach thoughts. All very convoluted.

This is a piece by Robert Smithson, called ‘A Heap of Language’


'...it appears not as an objet d¹art but as a piece of "writing," occupying the same page as a text entitled: "Press Release / Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be Read"-a pairing also observed by Jack Flam's more recent edition of Smithson's "Collected Writings". Thus: depending on the frame or context one wants to bring to it, "A Heap of Language" can be viewed either as an artwork or as a wordwork, as an "essay" or an "illustration." Or as both, for Smithson¹s playful chiasma-"Language to be Looked at/Things to be Read"-asks us to engage in a crossover in which reading and looking, language and things dialectically reverse positions.'

‘A Heap of Language: Robert Smithson and American Hieroglyphic by Richard Sieburth, Professor of French and Comparative Literature, New York University ‘ http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/heap.htm

It is one of my favourite pieces because Robert Smithson has managed to express himself and his beliefs through his art, which must be the aim. As well as that I can really identify with the work because I feel that he has already said a lot of the things which I think and believe.

My sister got an Etch a Sketch for xmas off her husband because it was one of the toys she always remembered as a kid and we played on it, I think it reinforced my idea of using a computer to convey the message ‘A&M’


My final piece was made up of latex canvas, acrylic laser cut letters, metal, wood, light bulbs, keyboard and electricity. Making the words ‘pop out‘ was a big thing and which is why I decided to use the latex. The words were not spelt properly, to illustrate the ‘search‘.... for authenticity and meaning, as well as this although the keys of the keyboard would make the lights work, only a few of them did, and these were the letters which illuminated the piece; WHAT IS.

I especially liked the stretched canvas, and the letters popping out.


With the lights on

It was great fun using the lights in the work, making them key to the piece, so that they were integral in the understanding of it.

Writing the manfesto itself was also fun, but all I had was a scrappy bit of paper with ideas on it, which I couldn't seem to improve. So in the name of art I decided to exploit the fact, and below is the final draft:


Although I spoke about environmentally friendly design in my manifesto, I don't think that my piece necessarily fell into this category because the latex and the letters, are both made from plastic - so, I missed the point there a bit, but next time...