Semiotics

Semiotics is the science of studying signs and their meanings. 

The signified (experience) and signifier (spoken or written language) are the codes that help us as individuals to understand signs. The relationship between them is arbitrary and the signs are organised into codes. 

According to Barthes (1957), signs signify on two different levels which are denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (cultural associations).

Saussure believes that a sign's meaning is determined primarily by its relationship to other signs. 

CODES
- 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

- they have a number of units to choose from )paradigmatic dimension) which are combined by rules or conventions (syntagmatic dimension).
- all codes convey meaning
- all codes depend upon agreement and a shared cultural background
- codes perform an identifiable social or communicative function


Saussure defined codes to be organised into:
PARADIGM - a set of signs from which one is to be chosen 
SYNTAGM - the message into which the chosen signs are to be combined
All messages involve selection (from a paradigm) and combination (into a syntagm).

PARADIGM
Every time we communicate we select from a paradigm. All the units in a paradigm must have something in common and each of the units in a paradigm must be clearly distinguished from the others. 
Where there is choice there is meaning, and the meaning of what was chosen is determined by the meaning of what was not. 

SYNTAGM
Once a unit has been chosen from a PARADIGM it is combined with other units. This combination is called a syntagm. 

- a sentence is a SYNTAGM of words
- our clothes are a SYNTAGM of paradigmatic choices of hats, gloves, ties ...
- interior décor is a SYNTAGM of choices from the PARADIGM of chairs, wallpaper, carpets etc. 
- an architect makes a SYNTAGM out of doors, windows etc. and their positions

The PARADIGM is the choice and the SYNTAGM is the relationship.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a reaction to modern life, technology, new materials and communication. The origins of postmodernism -->

• 1917 - German writer Rudolph Pannwitz, spoke of ‘nihilistic, amoral, postmodern men’ 

• 1964 - Leslie Fielder described a ‘post’ culture, which rejected the elitist values of Modern Culture

Uses of the term 'postmodernism' -->

• after modernism 

• the historical era following the modern 

• contra modernism 

• equivalent to ‘late capitalism’(Jameson) 

• artistic and stylistic eclecticism 

• ‘global village’ phenomena: globalization of cultures, races, images, capital, products

• Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions (especially those set out by Modernism) 

• Postmodern aesthetic = multiplicity of styles & approaches 

• Space for ‘new voices’

• Postmodernism is a reaction to these rules 

• Postmodernism starts as a critique of the International Style – Robert Venturi, Learning from Las Vegas, 1972 – Ideas developed by Charles Jencks, 1977 • Postmodernism's only rule is that there are no rules 

• Postmodernism celebrates what might otherwise be termed kitsch

There is something at the core of Postmodernism, it is a time period. Charles Jencks says modernism died 1972 which is also when Postmodernism began. Symbolised by the destruction of Igeo development in St Louis, 1977. Instead of solving a social problem, it creates one. Modernism is dying because it was bored from the start, revel in the destruction of dream. Postmodernism is about criticising cultural authority and finding ways in which to solve stuff not just following the one path. Postmodernism is looking like a neutral style and is criticism of rules, the only rule is there is no rule. Park Hill Flats in Sheffield added colour and so is no longer a "slum". Roy Lichtenstein creates massive screen prints in which are high end art. High end art and low end art divide is beginning to crumble. Andy Warhol is the ultimate figure of Postmodernism, the opposite of the modernist figure, a self professed to having no talent - anyone can be famous, just a constitution.

J-F Lyotard ‘The Postmodern Condition’ 1979 

• ‘Incredulity towards metanarratives’ 

• Metanarratives = totalising belief systems 

• Result – Crisis in confidence

Postmodernism is the opposite to modernism. It was initially born out of optimism, an aspirational reaction to WW1. It is about progress, celebrating the new and not thinking that new inventions would improve the world. Modernism is function is first and beauty if second, it is a blind obedience that loses something. Whilst Postmodernism is more about form over function, stripping back everything. Postmodernism is the opposite to whatever the characteristics of modernism is. 

- Postmodernism - Modernism attitude of questioning conventions (esp. Modernism) 
- Postmodernism - Modernism  aesthetic = multiplicity of styles & approaches 
- Shift in thought & theory investigating ‘crisis in confidence’ Eg. Lyotard 

Modernism

Modernism -->

1. Terms- ‘modern’, ‘modernity’ 
2. Modernity – Industrialisation, Urbanisation – the City 
3. Modern artists’ response to the city 
4. Psychology and subjective experience 
5. Modern art and photography 
6. Defining ‘modernism’ in art 
7. Modernism in design

If we start to think about subjective experience, the experience of the individual in the modern world, we start to come close to understanding modern art and the experience of modernity. 

Modernism emerges out of the subject response of artists / designers. Modernism can be about embracing modelled techniques, making images that responded to sensations / energies of the modern world, how the modern world helps us understand ourselves and reinstating order and control.

Modernism in design -->
- Anti-historicism -
Doesn't look backwards at historical atheistic, pushing things forwards. Modernism is about creating the new.

No need to look backward to old styles, Ornament is crime - Adolf Loos (1908).

- Truth to materials -

Embrace the new world such as new materials for example concrete, steel, new paint technologies. Modernism tends to celebrate these materials and celebrate what they are. 

Form follows function -

Places functionality before aesthetics as you solve a problem with the design and if solved efficiently the design will have beauty/ an aesthetic. Don’t design something to be pretty.

Quarry Hill Flats, Leeds 1938-78

Attempt at modernism as the utopia hasn't materialised. Modern world hasn't provided equality.

Internationalism -->

Modernist practices aim to create a neutral yet universal language, culture that is available to all. Tend to get styles of making that don't seem to belong to a particular country but could belong to any country.

Harry Beck underground map -->

Form follows function, to understand London at a glance therefore not typographically correct. Doesn't use the exact way the lines run of distances, strips system down to the bare minimum to be legible and easily understood by all.

Aesthetic that doesn't belong to a specific time period

If you try and make your work fit a specific style at a particular moment your work will look out of fashion and old in a matter of years. Modernism looks to strip things down to their essentials which creates timelessness which shows the success of modernism. 

The Bauhaus -->

Re-invented the way art and design is taught in the spirt of internationalism. Interdisciplinary approach with photographers teaching typography etc. Created a diffusion of high art into everyday life, not just principles of craft objects but that would transform into everyday life. 

Russian Revolution 1917 -->

set up worlds first socialist country, workers take control and distribute wealth so all would be equal and no-one would starve. During this time you can't have a style of communicating that uses old styles, need to communication. 

El Lissitsky 1924 -->

Reduces photography down to it essence of light but getting rid of the camera. 

Colour Theory: Colour and contrast

How we perceive colour -->

Spectral colour = a colour that is evoked by a single wavelength of light within a visible spectrum. A single wavelength or narrow band of wavelengths generates monochromatic light. Every wavelength of light is percieved as a spectral colour in a continuous spectrum. The colours of similar or sufffiecently close wavelengths are often indistinguishabe by the human eye.

Our perception of colour is based on the eye recieving light that has been reflected from a surface of an object.

White Light:

cant see individual wavelengths, see as a mix of white light

interpret colour when white light is reflected of a surface.

different materials create different wavelengths 

Shorter wavelengths produce blue light, why the sky is blue. 

Everything to do with colour is based on how we see it.

Rods: conveys shade of black, white and grey 

Cones: colours

Type 1: sensitive to red-orange light

Type 2: sensitive to green light

Type 3: sensitive to blue-violet light 

When different cones are stimulated we will see different colours such as if our green cons are stimulated we will see green. The eye if folded due to the physiological response which allows the eye to see a full range of colours through the adjustments of red, green and blue. 

Spectral colour is where the eye can not differentiate between spectral yellow and some combination of red and green. The same effect accounts for our perception of cyan, magenta. Different colour modes are needed to be able to understand colour which relate to physical colour and spectral colour to do with light. 

Subjective Colour

Chromatic Value:

 - tone, hue and saturation is what is spoken about when we discuss colour, as these make up colour. Give each colour a chromatic colour, 

• neutrals created my mixing more colours together to reduce the colour values, mixture of primaries and secondaries with more white added to reduce there values. 
• complementary colours are those opposite colours on the colour wheel this is because the complementary is made by combination of two primaries. 
• Everything we see has a colour value but depends on its hue, tone and saturation which can be altered to create different colours. 

Series of Contrasts in:

Tone -->

 This can be seen by looking at black and white, series of colour contrast that allow different colours to be visible through the contrast which allow for differentiation. Contrast and tone allows for things to be seen easily as black and white are quite high contrast. However using tones/shades of the same colour make it more difficult to see due to little contrast. 


Saturation -->

Juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relevant saturations. The variation effects how the eye sees the shades as colours can appear lighter and darker. Tone, hue an saturation work together within the contrast of saturation to see how pure a colour is. 

Hue -->

The contrast in hue allows for colour to be recognised based on the wavelengths. Contrast of hue looks purely at the tonal value and the colours they create, closer in hue the colours, lower the contrast. 


Temperature -->

Relates to the hues that can be considered warm or cool. Oranges and reds are associated with warmth whereas blues are perceived as cold colours. The use of different tones of red can create a cooler red based on the contrasts created when they are overlapped or placed next to each other. 


After Image -->

How are eye see and perceive colour as well as the memory of the eye. When you look at something that is bright and look away you can still see aspects of the image. Eye remembers colour that it’s seeing, as information seen by rods and tons burns information into the retina. Eye seeing saturated light to the eye flips the colour in order to balance the colour. 

Consumerism

Consumerism -->

- is an ideological project
- too what extent are our lives free under the western consumer society
- we believe that through consumption the desires we have will and can be met
- the legacy of Bernays can be felt in all aspects of the 21st century society

Freud was the inventor of a method of treatment focused n the interpretation of dreams as a way of accessing the subconscious mind. Our desires (sexual forces and animal instincts) that need controlling are incompatible with society today as we are consitently going against what we truly want to do in oder to comply with the society. If we believe that our desires are being met then we are momentarily happy. 

Freud saw the conscious mind as the tip of an iceberg. The conscious is contact with the outside world. THe Pre-Subconscious is material just beneath the surface of awareness. The unconscious is the difficult to retrieve material well below the surface of awareness.

1891-1995 Edward Bernays -->

Freuds nephew produced propaganda during WW1, he used his background in propaganda and knowledge of freuds theory. He created a new form of advertising to manage public opinion. This was the birth of public relations. 

Public relations is a mix of freuds theory and propaganda to persuade a group of people to believe something which then in turn makes companies more popular. 

Fordism -->

he use in manufacturing industry of the methods pioneered by Henry Ford, typified by large-scale mechanised mass production. This is where society becomes filled with things, overproduction becomes a crisis as market becomes overstated - thus meaning that people no longer want to buy. Brands then become very important as companies need to distinguish their product from that of their competitors by giving their products individual identity. TO do this they give products names such as a persons name making the product more human and hand made.

Bernays -->

A way to sell was to give off the impression that something you were selling would give increase something that was desired by the client. For example selling a car to a man with the impression that it would increase their masculinity. 

Some products are marketed on the potential for you to realise your unconscious desires. 

1920 --> 

Walther Lippmann. Advertising government on society to avoid wars, stop eruptions of society and revolution. Theories can be applied to organise the society instead of just marketing. 

1917 --> 

The rise of comminism, creating a world where we seem happy. Due to inequality there is an extent to where we can do this. The quality of life shows that people in the west aren't really happy at all.

Print Culture and Distribution 2

Theory -->

Recently there has been a return back to old methods of hand made production such as letterpress as it’s more personal and rewarding than the instant gratification achieved through digital design. Consequently this return to slower methods of production is not about nostalgia but about changing society to focus on quality not quantity.

Slow food movement -->

Returning to local sourced methods of production and small scale production relationships has become a global trend/following in order to rebelling against what fast food stands for within our  cultural to return to quality. 

Slow Design -->

Focus on how practise relates to other people within the world and their individual environment.

This can be seen in the work of Anthon Burrill who placed his prints into circuits of market/advertising in order to comment on publicity and society. It can also be seen in the Print revival project which marks a return to old fashioned print mediums taking on digital media on its own terms.

Nicolas Bourriaud believes there is a tendency in contemporary arts to move away from creating things to focus on a message/issue to make social relations happen, create networks and collaboration. Barbara Kruger used her work with mass media ‘I shop therefore I am’ to contradict mass media based on the Latin phrase cogito ergo sum meaning I think therefore I am. Slow design is important as its re-humanising society that has been dehumanised due to digital age.

Post Print Culture -->

Technological reproduction of art removes aura/ air of importance surrounding art to create new hand made methods of production to create aura again. Post print culture shows a move beyond print culture to potentially digital due to the capacity for computer to create still image accurately, 

Print Culture and Distribution 1

The 'late age of print' comes from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan in around 1450. 

1760-1840 the industrial revolution happened. Because of the industrial revolution production sped up and became more mechanised which caused a shift in labour and cities began to grow. This meant that there was a need for more products at a faster rate as the industry was expanding quickly. This made a more divided class system which caused the working class to form and come together. The majority of products produced during this time now came from mechanised machines and were produced in mass. The working class created new forms of popular entertainment of which the upper class looked down on. 

In 1820 John Martin was one of the first artists who put his work in a commercial exhibition and charge a larger number of people an entrance fee to see his work rather than work for one paying client. Mass image culture further aided the working class as it made art available to the masses and was not just for the upper classes to own. 

Culture vs popular culture  -->

Levisism says that culture has always been in minority keeping. F.R. Leavis believes that there needs to be an educated few to maintain culture, as only a few can truly understand culture. He thinks that popular culture creates an addiction that does not refresh attitude to life where 'art' makes you question the world.

Aura -->

'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction' was explored by Walter Benjamin and he questions how art responds to the popular culture of design. Fine art is thought to keep the creativity, authority, mystery and authenticity that technological reproduction of art can't provide, this is knows as the 'aura'. Artists try to tell you how to feel about their art. 

Contemporary print culture -->

Philip James de Loutherbourg introduces a new form of art which was based on perspective as it is framed, however there are moving objects in the gap.

In 1829 the panorama was made famous by Thomas Hornor. The panorama became more popular than pieces of art as they allowed for an immersive experience. 

The use of photography meant that there was no need for portrait painting as photography was a much cheaper, quicker and accurate than hiring a painter. 

Print Cpaitalism -->

In 1842 the idea that images are made for the purpose of profit and the system evolved from the industrial revolution, with its own rules and creates its  own markets centred around images made for purpose of profit.