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The Semiotics of Love…and Other Investigations Applied Semiotic Analysis. Arthur Asa Berger Professor Emeritus Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts San Francisco State University. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The Semiotics of Love…and Other Investigations
Applied Semiotic Analysis
Arthur Asa BergerProfessor Emeritus
Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts
San Francisco State University
Students at a lectureIf you shot off a gun at sporadic intervals and asked students what they
were thinking when the gun went off you’d find:
20% pursuing erotic thoughts
7% described mood as “love.”
20 % reminiscing about something
20% paying attention
12% actively listening
Rest of students: worrying, daydreaming, thinking about lunch or religion
20% said they were happy
12% said they were sad
68% were neutral
Investigations into:
Semiotics of “Frenchness”
The meaning of facial expressions
Objects as a reflection of our personalities
Signs and symbols in a perfume advertisement
Love as a game (play song)
Conclusions: cartoons I’ve drawn
Saussure’s Theory
• Signs are sound/objects + concepts
• Sound/object is Signifier
• Concept is Signified
• Relation between signifier/signified is arbitrary, based on convention
• Concepts are relational
Semiotics: Science of Signs
Signs: Signifiers and Signifieds, icons, indexes, symbols.
Signs: Anything that can stand for something else.
Signs: Can lie or mislead.
We are always sending messages (signs) about ourselvesand interpreting signs others send about themselves.
We “read” everyone we see in mediated texts…but do we read them correctly?
Peirce on Signs
Kind of Sign Way Works
Icons Resemblance
Photographs, Statues
Index Cause and Effect
Smoke and Fire
Symbol Must be Learned
Flags, Sacred Objects
Signifier/Signified Game
Secret Agent (Signified)Signifiers:
Dark Glasses
Revolver with silencer
Trench Coat
Sports Car
Slouch hat
Beautiful Women
Etc.
Frenchness (Signified)Signifiers:
Facial Expressions ShownSeven Universal Emotions (Paul Ekman)
Determination
Pouting (show displeasure, disappointment)
Fear
Neutral (no emotion)
Sadness
Anger
Surprise
Disgust (repugnant)
Paul Ekman on Facial Expressions
1. Neutral 2. Disgust 3. Sadness
4. Fear 5. Pouting
6. Anger 7. Surprise 8. Determination
Reading People in Mediated TextsApplied Semiotic Analysis
Hair Color Body Language
Hair Style Makeup worn
Eye Color Clothes worn
Eye Pupils Eyeglasses/sunglasses
Facial Structure Jewelry
Body Type SettingAge Occupations of People (guessed?)
Gender Activities Suggested
Race Language Used, Dialogue
Facial Expressions Music, Sound Effects, etc.
Interpreting Signs: A Class Exercise in a Semiotics Seminar
Students brought object in brown paper bag.Nobody knew who brought which object.
Qualities of person as reflected in sea shellfound by students in seminar:
SterileEmptyDeadLifeless
What Student Who Submitted Sign Wrote:
Delicate, Beautiful, Natural, Lovely.
MORAL: Signs you are sending aboutyourself may be misinterpreted.
Interpreting Signs
Fidji Perfume Advertisement
• Snake is a phallic symbol (Freud)• Flowers are sexual organs of plants• Myth of passion in Polynesian islands (Gauguin)• Adam & Eve (and snake)• Dark hair and ideas about sexuality • Perfume as magic (and like venom?)• Fidji and sophistication: cost and advertisements• Design of ad: leads eyes to perfume• Fingers grasping perfume in strange way• Sex found hidden in images
Power of Metaphors in Music
“All in the wonderful game called love...”
Love is a Game MetaphorLove is Like a Game Simile
Analogy is basic to metaphor, similes
Love is a Game….
Games have winners and losersGames have rulesPeople cheat at gamesTrickery and deceit in gamesGames end eventuallyPeople aren’t serious about gamesGames take place in certain spaces
Summary
Semiotics is one of the most important ways to analyze texts and culture
Cultures can be read as texts
Semiotics sees itself as the master science
With some basic semiotic concepts one can analyze just about everything
“The world is perfused with signs if not made up entirely of them.” C.S. Peirce.