Course News

Beginning Semiotics

The next section of the class is Semiotics, a methodology that builds upon the framework explored in iconography/iconology, but introduces some significant differences. We will start this section with an introductory reading from Daniel Chandler's Semiotics for Beginners(the chapter on Codes). The reading, and a blog post that addresses it will be due Tuesday, 9.25. In your posts, I would like you to consider how semiotic methods (through the concept of "codes" presented by Chandler) differ from those of iconography/iconology as we've discussed them in class and in the readings. There is a shift in how meaning is understood that is crucial to understanding semiotics.
The first part of the second project will also be started this week, and will be due on Thursday 9.27. This project will continue our initial investigation of images through self-awareness, resulting in a "constructed self-portrait" that will be very different from those created in project 1. The assignment, as explained in the project section, is to collect 30 images from mass media forms that you find yourself identifying with - i.e. that reflect something of how you perceive yourself. These images can be collected from cinema, literature, advertising, television, art, historical narratives, etc. You must have a minimum of 30 distinct images, and half must be from a source other than the internet - your sources should reflect the diversity of media you actually consume. If it is a literary source, you should isolate the scene or character, using the vocabulary in the text to describe it (passages from a novel, for example). Bring these in some printed, or otherwise physical, form (no digital files).

posted by ryan griffis at 9:40 AM Thursday, September 20, 2007

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Course News

Beginning Semiotics

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