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Intro to Semiotics

Homework1/18/2017

visible signs by david crow 
Objects and ideas aren't named at random. A name for one thing cannot be exchanged with another, since some words can contain different meanings. Especially with different languages, not everything in the world can be represented with one word.
"Languages do not just find names for objects and ideas which are already categorised; languages define their own categories." (3)
Language is constructed from small set of units called phonemes. They are sounds used to pronounce and construct words. 'dog' has three phonemes: d, o, and g, which all represent the sound even in written form.
"A sign is produced when these two elements [signifier and signified] are brought together." (5)
"This idea of arbitrary representation based on agreement freed visual artists from a tyranny of words and was explored with much invention in the visual arts." (8)


visual communication by baldwin and roberts
Semiotics started as the study of linguistics, then history and sociology. Visual communication uses semiotics as well. Obviously the word 'dog' does not necessarily mean a domesticated four legged animal, because in other languages other words represent it. The color red is often used in traffic lights and warning signs to convey danger or to stop, but if this color red was on someone's shirt or someone's hair color, it doesn't convey the same meaning. So, traffic lights and warning signs could be completely different colors, but still hold the same meanings if everyone understood what those colors represented on the road. It all depends on the context."Signs have two levels of meaning, the one intended (denotation) and the one that is understood (connotation)."An image is an 'open text'. The moment you add text to an image you make it 'closed', no longer open to interpretation. Text fixes meaning.

Define
Semiotics: How something can be understood through signs and symbols.
Sign: A representation of something / someone.
Signifier: The sign or symbol doing the representing.
Signified: The actual thing being represented.
Icon: A well-recognized symbol for something.
Index: An indication or clue that relates to the sign and object.
Symbol: A somewhat random connection between sign and object that isn't necessarily well-recognized.
Polysemy: A word or phrase with several meanings
Phonemes: Sounds used to pronounce and construct words
Syntagm: A group of signs that are sequentially organized in relation to each other
Denotation: An intended meaning
Connotation: An understood meaning

Determine
Social Issue: Factory Farms
Iconic Representation: Animals, cages, bars, overcrowding
Statistics: 
1. A typical supermarket chicken today contains more than twice the fat, and about a third less protein than 40 years ago
2. Hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states.
3. Egg-laying hens are sometimes starved for up to 14 days, exposed to changing light patterns and given no water in order to shock their bodies into molting. It’s common for 5% to 10% of hens to die during the forced molting process.
4. According to one study, 65 percent of all hogs tested had pneumonia-like lesions on their lungs. Researchers believe this is due to ammonia and other gases released from the massive amounts of manure that the animals come into contact with every day.
5. In 2009, Mercy For Animals went undercover at a Hy-Line Iowa egg factory and discovered that baby chickens who were of no egg-laying use to the buyers (read: male chicks), were put on a conveyor belt and sent directly to a grinder.
6. Many dairy cows living in factory farms are sent to slaughter before they reach the age of five. Though cows can naturally remain productive for 12-15 years, the intensive conditions of industrial dairies can take a toll on their health.

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