How do we make sense of what we see? We previously looked at this question from the perspective of visual perception and how our brains create meaning from what our eyes take in. We return to this question from the cultural context of semiotics, which is about how we create meaning from signs.
Semiotics
Semiotics is not just about visuals. It is about how signs represent ideas and the shared meaning we create culturally, and this includes signs such as distinctive sounds, flavors or gestures. For our focus on visual communication, it’s helpful for understanding how we create meaning from visuals and words.
Key ideas:
- We use signs, including visuals and language, to represent and describe.
- Semiotics organizes visual signs into three categories based on how closely they resemble the thing being represented.
Three types of signs:
- An icon resembles the thing being signified
- An index shows evidence of the thing being signified (smile = happy)
- A symbol has no resemblance and must be culturally learned
Related slides for reference
✓ In Rene Magritte’s painting that says, “This is not a pipe,” would it change his intended meaning if he used a photograph of a pipe instead of a painting? Would it change his intended meaning if he used a different object?
🗨 What’s an example of a symbol you know about that some of your classmates may not know about?
Let’s look at another example with this photo from a current events collection. This photo by AP photographer Daniel Cole shows soldiers in Kyiv, Ukraine, carrying the coffin of a man who died in combat. What elements within the photo help us understand the meaning?
✓ Using semiotics definitions, what are at least three signs within the photo above? Is each sign an icon, index or symbol? (Often a sign can be more than one.)
Intercultural Signs and Google Quick Draw
Next we have an activity about visual signs and cultural standards. First, get a piece of paper and draw these three items:
- A circle
- A chair
- An electrical outlet
(Quickly, doesn’t need to be perfect!)
Now go to Google Quick Draw, which will prompt you to draw items. Play at least one complete round.
🗨 What was the most challenging item you had to draw? Did the game guess correctly most of the time?
Watch this video from when the project first launched. It explains why Google developed this game and how it serves a purpose in studying how people write and draw.
Look back at your circle, chair and electrical outlet drawings. Once interesting outcome from this game so far is that there are national and cultural differences in how people draw some things.
Most people in the United States draw circles counter-clockwise.
In most countries people draw chairs every which way, but in certain countries they tend to point to the left.
Most other countries do not draw two electrical outlets stacked on top of each other, in part because electrical outlets are designed differently in other places.
How we draw circles or electrical outlets may not matter too much in how we visually communicate with one another, but similar differences matter a lot for commonly used signs such as emoji. Any given emoji is a sign that can have multiple meanings.
For example, the folded hands emoji is an icon of two hands touching palm-to-palm. Some people use this as an index of a high five, which is its own symbol associated with teamwork or appreciation when working together. Other people use this as an index of praying, and then use the emoji as a symbol of personal faith, concern, or support. It can also be a symbol of gratitude or thanks, particularly in Japan where many people say ‘itadakimasu’ with touching palms as a form of thanks before meals.
Examples of stock photos that come up when searching for ‘itadakimasu’ show how visual representation of this concept includes the folded-hands gesture. What other similar signs do you notice in the photos?
This Rest of World article includes some other examples of emoji with different meanings across cultures.