LECTURE - vis comm

'THE RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE'

- Theorist: Roland Barthes

- Images there to communicate ideas, apply ideas to area of practice

1. POPULAR CULTURE

- 'The Only Way Is Essex' 

- Layers of meaning

- Context

- Shaping our understanding (Roland B. - unpack meaning)

- Denotation = photo of young men and women enjoying themselves, this is how they're viewed by those who don't know the show, one level of understanding

- Connotation = understanding and other knowledge, William Langley, the Telegraph

- The Only Way is Essex: the worst address in England?

2. ROLAND BARTHES

- Denotation, connotation and myth

- Linguistics

- Semiotics, signs that carry meanings, unload and unpack images with meaning

*aber.ac.uk*

3. DENOTE/CONNOTE

- Barack Obama

- Denotes = a man standing in front of a building

- Connotes = power, buildings of Ancient Greece, seat of power (gov. buildings take this style because it stands for democracy)

- Symbol = signifies all that is good about democracy

- The Roman Pantheon (link)

- Power of Ancient Rome

- Link to status

- The Reichstag

- Nazi regime, classicism, expression of power

- When Germany was unified there was a change in connotation 

- Christo wrapped it up in silk - no longer held Nazi connotations - became 'the building that Christo had wrapped'

- Signified break with past and start of a new Germany

4. ALLEGORY AND MIGRATION OF SYMBOLS

- Rudolf Wittkower

- Art communicates experience

- one culture picks up and transforms the images of another

5. CULTURAL CONTEXT

- Pierre B.

- Interested in upbringing and education

- How equipped they are to understand image

- Cultural context dictates meaning 

e.g. dragons

World of Warcraft, Welsh flag and St George killing the dragon

*Myth to convey meaning*

- "How does meaning get into the image? Where does it end? And if it ends, what is beyond?" - Roland Barthes, 1977

6. SYMBOLS

- Constantly used

- "Another difficulty in analysing connotation is that there is no particular analytical language corresponding...."

- Images convey values and beliefs of society in which we live in