mandag, september 01, 2008

Iconography vs semiotics

Tuesday September 2nd 2008, 10.15.

Iconography: Images contain
  • Primary meaning or natural subject matter. This divides into factual and expressional.
  • Secondary meaning or conventional subject matter. Motifs, themes and concepts.
  • Intrinsic meaning or content. Iconography, Panofsky.


Primary, secondary and intrinsic meaning
  • Phenomenal meaning: Known or derived through the senses rather than through the mind.
  • Essential meaning: Constituting or being part of the essence of something.



Analysis examples are taken from diesel.com.
Diesel kids: fantastic and sci-fi environments

Semiotics
Piece from Barthes' Mythologies: Wrestling

Elements of semiology.

"Cutting off the nose to spite the face."
Political cartoon

Primavera by Botticelli is well described on wikipedia, and gives much of the contextual, or historical and cultural, meaning of the image.