Semiotics and the Sign

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Semiotics and the Sign

• In contemporary Art

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Semi What?

• Semiotics is the study of how meaning is created.
• Our brains make meaning out of what we
  experience.
• One way of studying the things we experience is
  to see them as SIGNS.

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The Sign

• Signifier
• Signified

tree
Thing with branches, leaves and a trunk
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Theres no automatic link between signifier and
signified

• So
• etc

Giver of life
longevity
Photosynthesis
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Its just a shark, innit?
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The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind
of Someone Living
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Signifer Shark

• Danger
• Predator
• Violence
• Sudden unseen attack
• Indiscriminate
• Uncontrollable
• Unstoppable
• Emotionless
• A primal fear

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Signifier Tank

• Tame
• Controllable
• Domestic
• Harmless
• Powerless
• Dependent
• Glass is a barrier
• Safe
• A fragile barrier???

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Signifier Dead Creature

• Powerless
• Pitiable
• Repulsive
• Out of its element
• Shocking
• Impotent
• Decaying
• Stinking
• Consumed/consumable

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So many signifiers, so many possible meanings!

• Your interpretation here
• Your interpretation here
• Your interpretation here
• Your interpretation here
• Your interpretation here
• Your interpretation here
• And so on
• to infinity!

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A Clash of Signifiers

• This is Marcus Harveys painting of child
  murderer Myra Hindley.
• It is a copy of a famous photograph of her.
• The paint was applied using stamps shaped like
  children's hands.

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A Clash of Signifiers

• Myra Hindley
• Calculating evil
• Antithesis of maternalism
• Cruel
• Ruthless
• Torturer
• Etc
• Etc

• Childrens hands
• Innocence
• Pleading
• To be held and protected
• Dismembered body part
• Have the hands created her?

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Powerful Signs Provoke

• Soon after it was exhibited, a protester entered
  the Tate gallery and threw a tin of paint all
  over Harveys Myra. Which goes to show the
  power that certain signs have.