Semiotics, Semioticks, Semidiotics

The following is an excerpt from Semiotics, Semioticks, Semidiotics,a short semiotic analysis of Fashion Now, an anthology of contemporary fashion, edited by Terry Jones and Avril Mair.

Roland Barthes introduces semiology as a term given by a general science of signs, the existence of which was conjectured by Ferdinand Saussure, who is widely considered as the father of 20th century linguistics. Saussure was the first linguist who decided to call the science of understanding signs a semiology. Later on many sociologists and linguists developed on his work and settled upon a world of identifying cultural meanings from objects that possess signs.(Barthes, 2006) Whatever object or language it may be, they all indulge us into a Semiological analysis. The meanings that are to be found in a visual are not just personal views based on individual conscience, nor are they representations of a unanimous syndicate specialized in cultural interpretations. Shields (1990) notes that the ability of a visual text to communicate meaning involves an intricate interplay between the codes and messages encoded into the text at the time of its production and the cultural experience and subjectivity the spectator brings to the viewing of that image.(Shields,1990) The meanings of the visual picture, whether its characteristics be still or moving, transparent or substantial, heavy or light, dark or bright or all together combined, the hidden meaning(s) of an image can be found in the midst of such characteristics and the dominant ideological perspective of that individual. Semiological interpretations are not a science that is coded by natural laws, but a radical system of language, unlike the usual literature that constructs a loophole free from procedural laws. This is how the use of semiotics in this essay will attempt to challenge and analyze the popular culture and Fashion. So an interpretor must constantly and tirelessly separate the object from its meaning like a centrifuge. This is how the meaning is clear from the object that represents it and the object is made independent by the textual blindfold wrapped around it.

stonefree13 publications© Yaseen Z.

(The rest of the essay uncluding the citings are available upon request. If you would like to use my essay please let me know by leaving a comment below.)