Our understanding of language both written and visual depends on..
- The sign itself
- The way signs are organised into systems
- The context in which the sign is placed
- A sign is something we recognise - replace words with symbols
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and collagist. Most of her work consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captions, stated in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text.
Ferdinand de Saussure
"In a language state, everything is based on relations"
Created the system for semiotics, believing that all people process language in the same way.
The signifier - The dog
The signified - Image of a dog
In other countries a dog isn't called a dog as it is in english.
This means that the link between the word and the object is arbitrary
This means that language is about an agreed set of rules in any community, not words.
Semiosis (Peirce)
Think HSBC adverts, what works for one culture is different for another. It depends on what you have been taught.
Value (Saussure)
Not about the object etc. in its entirety, but its relationship between one piece and another.
We decide what words go together to create meaning (paradigm)
We can change the meaning by substituting one accepted thing with another (metaphor)
Roland Barthes
followed the idea of Saussure
Denotation - what is actually pictured
Connotation - what is implied by the image
Consider:
How we respond to something.
Official and unofficial language. Slang etc.
The artist controlling what you see.
How things can change meaning.
References:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/barbara-kruger
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/barbara-kruger
https://www.vincentborrelli.com/pages/books/108940/barbara-kruger-lynne-tillman-carol-squiers-steven-heller-ann-goldstein-katherine-dieckmann/barbara-kruger-thinking-of-you