In this course, students will examine contemporary philosophical, historical, aesthetic and epistemological topics by addressing the evolution of discourse from the Enlightenment into the 20th century. A comprehensive selection of theorists and critics who address visual semiotics and the taxonomy of imagery and ideas will be introduced. Active discussion and participation will be a core requirement.
In Rhetoric of the Image, Barthes breaks down the image into three components: the linguistic message, the denoted image (or the non-coded iconic message) and the rhetoric of the image (or the connoted image/coded iconic message). With today’s mass communication, the linguistic message is present in every image. Examples of the linguistic message include titles, captions and film dialogues. After you take away the linguistic message, you are left with the non-coded iconic message (the literal visual message) and the coded iconic message (symbolism). Bathes ends by comparing photographs to drawings; the photograph is a message without a code, and drawings are coded.
A Photograph by Umberto Eco
In this essay, Eco begins by comparing a person’s traumatic experience as if they were in a movie. Eco believes that if you are middle-aged, you learn experiences that are filtered through ‘already seen’ images. He also believes that if viewers do not understand symbolism in photographs, it can lead to mistaken politics. Eco ends by saying that nowadays (especially with news photography), we do not know if photographs are taken by professional photographers. Instead, the photograph could be the work of an unskilled person with lucky hands that just so happened to snap the photograph in time.
Looking at Photographs by Victor Burgin
In this essay, Burgin begins by saying that it is unusual for a day to pass by without seeing a photograph. He discusses that photography is in between painting and film; because of this, we encounter the medium of photography differently. Photographs are not seen by a deliberate choice. We pay to go to the movies or the gallery, but you do not necessarily have to pay to see a photograph. You do not even have to leave the comfort of your own house to access photographs. Burgin ends by breaking down the four basic types of “look” in the photograph: the look of the camera as it photographs the pro photographic event, the look of the viewer as they look at the photograph, the look exchanged between people depicted in the photograph, and the look the actor may direct the camera.
In the essay Roland Barthes talks about the linguistic message , denoted, coded iconic and no coded message about the advertisement. The linguistic message is around us every day when you see advertisement which victor Burgin talks about in looking at the photographs. I think that linguistic message is every where and that it refers to photographs and in film. Because every photograph has a title of the image. If you don’t have linguistic you will have just the image which is a no coded iconic image because you will just have the literal image with no text in the image.
A Photograph by Umbero Eco
He talks about news photographs and how we live our experiences through pictures that we seen before. This reading was interesting because it got me to think about news photographs because we really don’t know who takes the photographs of the events. It could be a professional photographer or it could be a someone was at the right place at the right time taking a photograph with their iPhone and it was published in the news paper and we wouldn’t know the difference.
Looking at the photographs – victor Burgin
Burgin talks about how it is unusual to pass a day without seeing a photograph. When I really thought about that its true because we are exposed to a lot of images on day to day because of all of the ads that we are exposed to. He also talks about how we encounter photography in a different way than we do paintings. Which is also true because we see photographs everywhere and we hardly see painting when we do see paints we either go to see them in a gallery / museum and that we pay to go see them. Burgin states that photographs are not seen deliberate chose for the most part photographs are free which is true you don’t pay to see the ads on the street but you do pay to see paintings at a museum. He also talks about photography has codes and the different types of looks that a photographs has.
Barthes - In this essay, Barthes brings of 3 different messages within a photograph. The first one is the linguistic message which is the text on the image, the caption and the label. The next is the symbolic message, this basically is the non-linguistic part, what we get from the symbols in the image. the symbolic message is the coded message of the photograph. Then there is the literal message, a message without a code. The tomato in the image is just that, a tomato. Barthes denies that there can be a denoted image, that is purely denoted. But in the connoted image the viewer can bring their own meanings to the image based on their previous knowledge. The signifiers of a connoted image help the viewer to create the meaning.
Eco - This essays topic is seeing in images. He talk about how we refer to movies to tell a story or how an event happened. He brings up that any lens-based media is now part of our memory and we look back to them to help express ourselves. That today, political news is nourished through the symbolic, but if we get it wrong, we may get the politics wrong as well. He talks about how civilization today thinks in images. The symbolic a producer of reality.
Roland Barthes, as we know now, was a French social critic and essayist, among other things, whose writings on semiotics helped establish leading intellectual movements Structuralism and the New Criticism.
Barthes talks about "the three messages" an image has in "Rhetoric of the Image." It's explained that when you analyze an image, you will be able to see a linguistic message, a coded iconic message, and a non-coded iconic message. The linguistic message is immediately separable from the other two, which he states are harder to distinguish from one another. He says the linguistic message has two functions: to anchor and to relay. The anchoring occurs when the literal message is digested by the reader by reading the description of the image, and is the most frequent function of the linguistic message. He then talks about the "Denoted Image" which is the symbolic message rather than the literal message of the image. This message, other than being symbolic, can also be either cultural or connoted. All in all, Barthes is explaining the nature of images, and the different ways in which images communicate specific messages.
Umberto Eco is an Italian literary critic, novelist, and semiotician who became internationally known for his Novel "The Name of the Rose."
In "A Photograph," Eco speaks about the power a photograph has by nature. A single photograph is a powerful instrument that can be used to convey concepts and surpass just the experience of the individual, when used. A single photo is many times more effective than written text, it can be an argument rather than just a description of an event. People will be more affected when they read about an event that happened, such as violence in war, than when they read about it; visual communication is more effective. An interesting point by Eco is whether or not a photo is purely "real" or not, it "works." By this, he means it still has the power to spark arguments, beliefs, and other things because of the power of visual communication, even if it may be a complete photoshopped lie.
Victor Burgin is a Professor of Media Philosophy and History of Consciousness at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He was a conceptual artist and called attention to himself by being a political photographer for the left during the late '60s.
In "Looking at Photographs," Burgin introduces us to the reality that photographs permeate our environment; images are everywhere. In contrast to paintings and films, most photographs aren't seen by deliberate choice. Most images we see are put out in the world for other purposes, such as advertising. There are four possible "looks" that can be developed in a photograph: the look from the camera, the viewer, the look exchanged by the people in it, and the one the actor may offer the camera. Later on, he speaks of semiotic codes and their significance in the activity of making sense of an image. Basically, the viewer of an image can only make sense of it by the semiotic codes he/she is familiar with to base it on. If the viewer looks too long at it, he/she risks losing their subconscious "authority" of creating its meaning, the "imaginary look." The subject of composition may be just a means of prolonging this imaginary look we hold.
Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes
ReplyDeleteIn Rhetoric of the Image, Barthes breaks down the image into three components: the linguistic message, the denoted image (or the non-coded iconic message) and the rhetoric of the image (or the connoted image/coded iconic message). With today’s mass communication, the linguistic message is present in every image. Examples of the linguistic message include titles, captions and film dialogues. After you take away the linguistic message, you are left with the non-coded iconic message (the literal visual message) and the coded iconic message (symbolism). Bathes ends by comparing photographs to drawings; the photograph is a message without a code, and drawings are coded.
A Photograph by Umberto Eco
In this essay, Eco begins by comparing a person’s traumatic experience as if they were in a movie. Eco believes that if you are middle-aged, you learn experiences that are filtered through ‘already seen’ images. He also believes that if viewers do not understand symbolism in photographs, it can lead to mistaken politics. Eco ends by saying that nowadays (especially with news photography), we do not know if photographs are taken by professional photographers. Instead, the photograph could be the work of an unskilled person with lucky hands that just so happened to snap the photograph in time.
Looking at Photographs by Victor Burgin
In this essay, Burgin begins by saying that it is unusual for a day to pass by without seeing a photograph. He discusses that photography is in between painting and film; because of this, we encounter the medium of photography differently. Photographs are not seen by a deliberate choice. We pay to go to the movies or the gallery, but you do not necessarily have to pay to see a photograph. You do not even have to leave the comfort of your own house to access photographs. Burgin ends by breaking down the four basic types of “look” in the photograph: the look of the camera as it photographs the pro photographic event, the look of the viewer as they look at the photograph, the look exchanged between people depicted in the photograph, and the look the actor may direct the camera.
Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes
ReplyDeleteIn the essay Roland Barthes talks about the linguistic message , denoted, coded iconic and no coded message about the advertisement. The linguistic message is around us every day when you see advertisement which victor Burgin talks about in looking at the photographs. I think that linguistic message is every where and that it refers to photographs and in film. Because every photograph has a title of the image. If you don’t have linguistic you will have just the image which is a no coded iconic image because you will just have the literal image with no text in the image.
A Photograph by Umbero Eco
He talks about news photographs and how we live our experiences through pictures that we seen before. This reading was interesting because it got me to think about news photographs because we really don’t know who takes the photographs of the events. It could be a professional photographer or it could be a someone was at the right place at the right time taking a photograph with their iPhone and it was published in the news paper and we wouldn’t know the difference.
Looking at the photographs – victor Burgin
Burgin talks about how it is unusual to pass a day without seeing a photograph. When I really thought about that its true because we are exposed to a lot of images on day to day because of all of the ads that we are exposed to. He also talks about how we encounter photography in a different way than we do paintings. Which is also true because we see photographs everywhere and we hardly see painting when we do see paints we either go to see them in a gallery / museum and that we pay to go see them. Burgin states that photographs are not seen deliberate chose for the most part photographs are free which is true you don’t pay to see the ads on the street but you do pay to see paintings at a museum. He also talks about photography has codes and the different types of looks that a photographs has.
Barthes - In this essay, Barthes brings of 3 different messages within a photograph. The first one is the linguistic message which is the text on the image, the caption and the label. The next is the symbolic message, this basically is the non-linguistic part, what we get from the symbols in the image. the symbolic message is the coded message of the photograph. Then there is the literal message, a message without a code. The tomato in the image is just that, a tomato. Barthes denies that there can be a denoted image, that is purely denoted. But in the connoted image the viewer can bring their own meanings to the image based on their previous knowledge. The signifiers of a connoted image help the viewer to create the meaning.
ReplyDeleteEco - This essays topic is seeing in images. He talk about how we refer to movies to tell a story or how an event happened. He brings up that any lens-based media is now part of our memory and we look back to them to help express ourselves. That today, political news is nourished through the symbolic, but if we get it wrong, we may get the politics wrong as well. He talks about how civilization today thinks in images. The symbolic a producer of reality.
Roland Barthes, as we know now, was a French social critic and essayist, among other things, whose writings on semiotics helped establish leading intellectual movements Structuralism and the New Criticism.
ReplyDeleteBarthes talks about "the three messages" an image has in "Rhetoric of the Image." It's explained that when you analyze an image, you will be able to see a linguistic message, a coded iconic message, and a non-coded iconic message. The linguistic message is immediately separable from the other two, which he states are harder to distinguish from one another. He says the linguistic message has two functions: to anchor and to relay. The anchoring occurs when the literal message is digested by the reader by reading the description of the image, and is the most frequent function of the linguistic message. He then talks about the "Denoted Image" which is the symbolic message rather than the literal message of the image. This message, other than being symbolic, can also be either cultural or connoted. All in all, Barthes is explaining the nature of images, and the different ways in which images communicate specific messages.
Umberto Eco is an Italian literary critic, novelist, and semiotician who became internationally known for his Novel "The Name of the Rose."
In "A Photograph," Eco speaks about the power a photograph has by nature. A single photograph is a powerful instrument that can be used to convey concepts and surpass just the experience of the individual, when used. A single photo is many times more effective than written text, it can be an argument rather than just a description of an event. People will be more affected when they read about an event that happened, such as violence in war, than when they read about it; visual communication is more effective. An interesting point by Eco is whether or not a photo is purely "real" or not, it "works." By this, he means it still has the power to spark arguments, beliefs, and other things because of the power of visual communication, even if it may be a complete photoshopped lie.
Victor Burgin is a Professor of Media Philosophy and History of Consciousness at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He was a conceptual artist and called attention to himself by being a political photographer for the left during the late '60s.
In "Looking at Photographs," Burgin introduces us to the reality that photographs permeate our environment; images are everywhere. In contrast to paintings and films, most photographs aren't seen by deliberate choice. Most images we see are put out in the world for other purposes, such as advertising. There are four possible "looks" that can be developed in a photograph: the look from the camera, the viewer, the look exchanged by the people in it, and the one the actor may offer the camera. Later on, he speaks of semiotic codes and their significance in the activity of making sense of an image. Basically, the viewer of an image can only make sense of it by the semiotic codes he/she is familiar with to base it on. If the viewer looks too long at it, he/she risks losing their subconscious "authority" of creating its meaning, the "imaginary look." The subject of composition may be just a means of prolonging this imaginary look we hold.