This paper outlines a course for a new visual semiotics based on dynamic versions of semiotics (Thom, PetitotCocorda, Wildgen, Brandt). After considering the way in which visual semiotics functions in art history as a sort of privileged form of interpretation, I argue instead for a dynamic, naturalized project in which semiotic meaning emerges through a complex process of stratified semantic processes. After sketching the new approach, I consider the way it adjusts our understanding of the (...) linguistic analogy, our understanding of code, arbitrariness, convention, the Peircean triad of icon, index, and symbol, and finally sketch the new topics that the dynamic outlook allows. (shrink)

In this article we explore the relationship between semiotic analysis of images and quantitative analysis of vast image corpora, in particular the work produced by Lev Manovich and the Cultural Analytics Lab, called “Media Visualization.” Media Visualization has been chosen as corpus because of its metavisual operation (images are visualized and analyzed by images) and its innovating way of conceiving analysis: by visual instruments. In this paper semiotics is used as an approach to Media Visualization and taken as (...) an object of study as well, especially visual semiotics. In this sense, a comparison between visual semiotics (close reading of small corpora) and quantitative analyses of images (distant reading of vast collections) are conducted from a semiotic point of view. Post-Greimassian semiotics guides this study with respect to the issue of the image-within-an-image and metavisual visualization; Peircean semiotics is employed to explain and develop the notion of diagram. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2015 Heft: 207 Seiten: 657-673.

Signs and things -- How Shall a Sign be Called? -- Peirce -- Modes of Representation -- Medium Matters -- The Mute Poem -- Rhetoric of the image.

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2014 Heft: 202 Seiten: 533-553.

Identification is a primary need of societies. It is even more central in law enforcement. In the history of crime, a dialectics takes place between felonious attempts at concealing, disguising, or forging identities and societal efforts at unmasking the impostures. Semiotics offers specialistic skills at studying the signs of societal detection and identification, including those of forensics and criminology. In human history, no sign more than the face is attached a value of personal identity. Yet, modern forensics realizes that (...) the face can mislead and, inspired by eastern models, adopts fingerprinting. In the digital era, however, fingerprinting first goes digital, then it is increasingly replaced by facial recognition. The face is back in digital AI forensics, together with a tangle of sociocultural biases. Semiotics can play a key role in studying their surreptitious influence. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 210 Seiten: 209-214.

We focus on a key IR Theory article by Alexander Wendt (1992) and two Jackson Pollock paintings. Our aim is to identify meanings Pollock’s art communicates and reveals for Wendt (1992). It derives from an appeal to visual imagination and a desire for semiotic interpretation of Constructivist view of anarchy. The visual sign is an association such that there is Wendt’s theoretical claim on the one hand and an abstract painting on the other. We do not gaze at (...) Wendt’s claim, we read it. We do not read a painting, look at it. This remark does not imply a one-way relationship. We can argue that a specific painting comes to life in our mind where colored movements are inextricably mixed up when we read the constructivist claim. Both Pollock paintings selected for our sign-making effort confirm the dynamic character of Constructivism and reveal not only three but countlessly many anarchies in international relations. They foment our assessments of abrupt changes of intersubjectivity among states. Cyclicality of dripped paints provides an anchor to fix Wendt’s anarchy conceptualization in these structural-abstract paintings. As to Wendt’s concept of anarchy, it acts as a helper, as a standard, against which interpretations of Pollock’s artwork construct meanings. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 210 Seiten: 215-234.

The public transport sector in the urban landscape in Nigeria is a prominent social site for the spatial distribution of automobile graffiti signatures. Transporters have various kinds of symbolic tags on their vehicles that convey different messages which represent their local attitudes, beliefs, religious identities, folk psychology, and safety precautionary measures to recipients (other road users and passers-by). This article, based on two case studies, examines the practice of automobile graffiti on trucks and lorries in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, (...) south-eastern Nigeria. It investigates the motivations, thematic categories, and subjective semiotic interpretations of these verbal signatures from the perspectives of visual semiotics theory using participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations. The study demonstrates that truck drivers/owners use their vehicles as visible artistic platforms in the public space to express their thoughts and sentiments on personal, social, and religious issues affecting the society. The study concludes that these inscriptions and imageries are artistic subcultures that mirror wide ranging value categories and provide outlets for spatial transformation, creative agencies, and social commentaries. (shrink)

The rules of the road form part an international willingness to simplify the understanding of road regulations worldwide. There is still an attempt to harmonise all regulations, but some countries are reluctant to do so as they fear a loss of their domestic sovereignty. Indeed, with the increase in car use for private or professional reasons, accidents have become one the central issue in international politics; and one way to curb accidents is said to have a universal visual road (...) semiotics. However as this cultural discernment of road signs in civil society (i.e. visual encoding) has become popular, many other forms of use have derived from it for other purposes than road regulations. (shrink)

In January 2019, What is Peppa?, a promotional video for a Chinese New Year movie, received widespread attention in China immediately after its release. This paper explains the success of the video from the perspective of visual framing, and employs Systemic Visual Grammar to analyze how visual semiotics are applied to frame prominent topics so as to achieve promotional purposes. The results show that: (i) visual semiotics are used to frame the topic of empty (...) nesters, implying that this issue brings negative consequences and evoking the audience’s empathy and concern; (ii) visuals frame the topic of family love, in which the main protagonist’s actions are highlighted; and (iii) the topic of family reunion is mainly framed and realized by delicate compositional arrangements. Using various visual semiotics at the denotative, stylistic-semantic, connotative, and ideological levels, this video establishes both visual and emotional communication between the main character and the audience, making the promotional purpose more successful. The results highlight and specify the important roles of visual frames in promotional videos, and the integration of Peppa with traditional Chinese culture, love, and family reunion represents a visual approach to glocalization. (shrink)

The paper will discuss the role of the visual in French urban space. It will reveal the close connections between visual and semiotics where the visual dimension is central rather than marginal. We will evaluate altogether the psychological, legal and social impacts of the new shapes of our own environment. Rethinking our public space shapes our identities, unveils the ‘hidden’ powerful discourse behind these new urban models.

How does a picture teach a viewer to look at it, understand it, and make meaning?. “Cross-mediality and narrative textual form: A semiotic snalysis of the lexical and visual signs and codes of the picture bnook.” Semiotica, 118 : 1–70 and Peter Pericles Trifonas.. “Texts and images.” In International handbook of semiotics, Vols. 1&2, edited by Peter Pericles Trifonas. The Netherlands: Springer. Pp. 1139–1154.) The suggestion for a pictorial grammar has been derived from the fact that pictures have (...) no unique visual metalanguage and therefore require recourse to language as an instrument for pictorial analysis. The lexical-visual relationship in a text is more complex than is suggested in the question. Proponents for the semiotic autonomy of pictures have objected that the commentaries of crossmedial contexts have not asserted the semiotic priority of the lexical over the visual message. ‘Is an autonomous semiotics of visual perception possible, or does the semiotic analysis of pictorial text always require recourse to the model of language?’. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2017 Heft: 216 Seiten: 201-224.

What does it mean to communicate with visual messages and to convey ideas with the help of images? Is the visual sign capable of substituting the subject when he or she is not present? Can it be relied upon in communication? Can it happen that a gap between the subject’s visual image and identity becomes an insurmountable barrier on the way to understanding? This paper attempts to discover visuality as a weighty addition to the spoken word, to (...) reconsider its role in communication so that it is treated not as a deceptive simulacrum but a representation of the subject in dialogical space, an embodiment of an eternal pure impulse, an aspiration to unfold oneself in front of the other. (shrink)

This study investigates affective meanings expressed in facial expressions and bodily gestures from a semiotic perspective. Particularly, the study focuses on disentangling relations of affective meanings and exploring the meaning potential of facial expressions and bodily gestures. Based on the analysis of over three hundred screenshots from two films (one animation and one live-action film), this study proposes a system of visual affect, as well as a system of visual resources involved in the expression of visual affect. (...) The system of visual affect makes a further step in the investigation of affective meanings afforded by facial expressions and bodily gestures, and can provide methodological insights into the examination of affective meanings expressed visually. The system of visual resources provides a more meaning-motivated framework for systematic tracking of the visual resources, which may be applied to the analysis of other visual media apart from films. (shrink)

This paper aims to understand how and why tree diagrams are of central importance to microbiome scientists in their practices of meaning making. The interfaces that scientists use are, in fact, topological structures that organize the genetic data generated by sequencing technology. They establish relationships among microbes and also between microbes and the conditions of the ecological niche they help construct. The tree structure is a powerful _topos_ of knowledge organization in Western culture. However, biomolecular research has revealed the existence (...) of horizontal gene exchange among microbes and other merging forms; these cast doubt on the tree as a valid representational metaphor for the tangle of the microbial world and help to overcome neo-Darwinism. This essay analyzes the software and interfaces used by microbiome scientists as tools for organizing knowledge that shape how we see human-microbe relationships, while escaping a representational function. While trees have long been considered representative forms of visualization of an evolutionary paradigm, we emphasize the non-illustrative and heuristic power of these interfaces, which, although steeped in centuries of reflection and debate on evolutionary theories, respond more to a diagrammatic logic: tools for discovering the new from genetic “black matter” and for exploring new forms of relationships between microbes and humans. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

Culture serves as the spiritual foundation of a nation, shaping collective identity, memory, and meaning. As modern cities evolve into complex urban environments, the interplay between cultural representation and spatial navigation becomes increasingly significant. Public wayfinding systems, particularly subway guide-visual systems, serve not only as functional tools for spatial orientation but also as carriers of cultural symbolism, shaping human perception, experience, and interaction with the built environment. This study explores the deeper philosophical and religious dimensions of regional visual (...) symbols in subway guidance systems, examining their role in reinforcing collective memory, sacred space, and cultural continuity. Drawing upon theories from environmental psychology, semiotics, and religious aesthetics, this research investigates how subway guide systems serve as conduits of regional identity, visual semiotics, and metaphysical interpretation. By conducting comparative case studies of the London Underground and Mexico City subway visual guidance systems, this study examines how urban wayfinding incorporates elements of religious symbolism, cultural heritage, and sacred narratives into public spaces. These systems, beyond their practical function, act as modern representations of pilgrimage routes, sacred geography, and collective memory, offering insights into how visual semiotics influence human cognition and spiritual orientation in urban life. This research argues that subway guide-visual systems are not merely technical tools but also vehicles of cultural and religious significance, shaping contemporary experiences of sacred and symbolic spaces. By integrating regional cultural symbols into public navigation infrastructure, cities can preserve and transmit cultural heritage while fostering a deeper connection between individuals and their spiritual and historical landscapes. The study provides a philosophical and theological perspective on the semiotics of urban space, offering insights into the role of visual guidance systems in the broader discourse of religious philosophy, cultural identity, and metaphysical representation. Future research should further explore how spatial design, symbolism, and sacred narratives intersect in the formation of modern urban experiences. (shrink)

Visual identity systems allow a visual object to stand for, and provide suggestive expression of, a host. The primary graphic element in a visual identity system is the logo. In three sections, this article explores inportant semiotic mechanisms by which logos perform the work of identifying. The first section points to the difference between basic visual differentiation (boundary coherence) and affective/cognitive reference (semantic coherence). It makes a distinction between two kinds of reference that occur simultaneously in (...) logos: (1) an immediate referencing of the host entity (the entity for which identification is sought), and (2), indirect, reference that is often metaphoric in character. The second section offers a four-part classification scheme for logos based upon a Peircean icon/index/symbol division with the addition of an axis of syntactical detail. A “hidden” class of logo is predicted by this Peircean framework; examples are identified and this class is named “gesturegraphs”. It is argued that this four-part classification scheme is both semiotically necessary and sufficient. Any further classes of logos can be considered subclasses within the four semiotic factors proposed. These classes are not judged to be discrete, but rather to afford blended and combinatorial situations. The rhetorical tropes of metonym and metaphor are discussed in terms of their value to the pictographic mode of logo design. Finally, in the third section of the article, genre is defined as the coherence of stylistic features in relation to the sector of the host’s activity. Two case studies are given as examples of how genre influences the semantical context of logos. (shrink)

In this study, we construct a general semiotic model representing the physiological and mental processes involved in visual perception. The model has the form of an ordered typology of perceptual processes, where the ordering is determined by the Peircean categories of thought. This method of semiotic modeling is then applied to the specific mental processes involved in the perception of camouflage and visual illusions. The typology of visual illusions includes a unified explanation for the perception of static (...) visual illusions that is based on semiotic principles. (shrink)

This study is an attempt to bring the notion of the ‘semiotics of silence’ to the discussion of social movements’ agency and legitimization. By examining the semiotics and modalities of silence embedded in the landscape of Rabaa sit-in protests, as visualized in _Getty Images_ photo gallery, this paper situates silence as an agentive presence. Drawing on Foucault’s heterotopia, Kurzon’s modalities of silence and Jaworski and Thurlow and Jaworski’s semiotics of silence, the analysis reveals how silence operates as (...) a mode of defiance, alteration, and critique in social movements spaces. Whether it is imposed on or by the protestors (I/[_you_] must say anything), chosen (I should not say anything), strategically deployed (I will not say anything), silence agentively challenges hegemonic narratives. These modalities engage in a dialogic interplay with silence tropes, including metaphorization, non-interactive represented participants, disengaged viewers, as well as spatial inactivity. It is found that the _Getty Images_ gallery itself serves as a heterotopia of representation. After instantiating the sit-in within the digital domain, it juxtaposes these transformed spatial and temporal realities. The photographs serve as a mediating tool to legitimize the protest, capturing both the heterotopic nature of the space and the silent, revolutionary disruptions of its rhythms. (shrink)

This research aims to study art and religious philosophy by analyzing the significance of Aboriginal dot painting, Sichuan opera makeup, Chinese traditional sculpture and Shu embroidery. A particular emphasis is placed upon their crucial importance for understanding the essence of various societies as well as their main spiritual and cultural tenets. The data for this study was gathered using a qualitative approach, targeted toward online museums and cultural websites, focusing on images of artworks to determine the parameters of symbolic elements (...) in terms of culture and religion. Purposeful sampling was used to identify pieces of art that not only have meaningful religious symbolisms but also different cultural backgrounds. Such sampling assures that the study embodies a wide representation of religious semiotics and a better understanding of the interaction between art and spirituality. This study shows that irrespective of culture, one can identify an analogy of how signs and icons work with the message from the divine, which is further preserved from the sacred. These art symbols embody theological metaphors on ethical, aesthetic, and cultural dimensions and express semantic meanings across cultures. Since the data for the study was limited to only online sources and predefined cultural artefacts, it may lack the field intensity of first-hand observation across cultures. Future research should identify multiple data sources and conduct additional cross-cultural comparisons of more cultures and other forms of art. (shrink)

The article’s aim is to present plastic semiotics, one of the most recent branches of the Greimassian School. In his Structural Semantics: An Attempt at a Method (1966) Algirdas Julius Greimas stated that sensorial perception was the dimension in which the grasping of meaning takes place, but explicit principles of the analysis of this nonlinguistic dimension were published only years later, in his article “Figurative semiotics and plastic semiotics” (1984). Since then, plastic semiotics has been leading (...) independent existence, focused on the eff ects of sense generated by the form and the substance of expression. Plastic analysis has turned out to be a fruitful approach not only in the field of visual studies, but also in the research into other sensorial expressions.Статья знакомит с одной из наиболее молодых ветвей греймасовской семиотики – пластической. В книге Греймаса ≪Структурная семантика: поиск метода≫ (1966) чувственное восприятие было определено как измерение, в котором осуществляется схватывание смысла/значения. Основы анализа этого неязыкового измерения были изложены им позднее в статье ≪Фигуративная семиотика и пластическая семиотика≫ (1984). С тех пор пластическая семиотика превратилась в самостоятельную дисциплину, которая фокусируется на сенсорных эффектах смысла, произведенных формой и сущностью выражения. Пластический анализ оказался плодотворным подходом не только в области визуальных исследований, но и в исследованиях других сенсорных выражений.Artikli eesmargiks on tutvustada plastilist semiootikat, uht Greimase koolkonna uuemat haru. Greimase teoses “Strukturaalne semantika: meetodi otsingul” (1966) nimetati meeletaju selleks mootmeks, milles leiab aset tahenduse tabamine. Selle mittekeelelise mootme analuusi sonaselged pohimotted ilmusid aga aastaid hiljem Greimase artiklis “Figuratiivne semiootika ja plastiline semiootika”. Sestsaadik on plastiline semiootika muutunud iseseisvaks distsipliiniks, keskendudes meelelistele tagajargedele, mida tekitavad valjenduse vorm ja sisu. Plastiline analuus on osutunud viljakandvaks lahenemiseks mitte uksnes visuaaluuringute vallas, vaid ka teiste meeleliste valjenduste uurimisel. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2017 Heft: 216 Seiten: 63-88.

The analysis of works of visual art illustrates typical groups of elements and interrelations, which form semiotic systems of these works. Specific systems of connotations and their relations with semantic structures, paradigmatics, and typical signal structures are described. Like in linguistic texts, different levels are formed in complex images. The following basic level types are distinguished: sems and other units of semantic level; signs subdivided into: icons of represented objects and connotative sign formations; representamens of basic signs as interpreted (...) by Charles Peirce, including those of connotations, and signals referred to as basic perceptive integer units forming an individual level. (shrink)

The systemity of visual artworks can be described by the interrelation of several semiotic models as: (a) interrelations between verbal and nonverbal systemities; (b) interrelations of the three semiotic aspects, both internal ones and those with the three semiotic aspects of artwork verbal basis; (c) signs formed by codes, systems of linguistic type, text, and context; (d) sign form including denotations, connotations, and organizing structures, and finally, (e) sign system of individual elements and details. The Holy Trinity painted by (...) Rublev illustrates developed interrelations of these models. (shrink)

At the turn of the twentieth century, French society was shaken by a scandal that affected it at many levels to varying degrees and that is still considered as a symbol of injustice, miscarriage of justice and antisemitism. The Dreyfus Affair started in 1894 when an artillery officer of Jewish descent was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating military secrets to the German embassy in Paris. Only years later was Alfred Dreyfus exonerated and rehabilitated, due mainly to the (...) role of the media and the famous article by the novelist Emile Zola, “J’accuse”. The press, in general, played a fundamental role in the narration of the event and in the complex chemistry that led a confidential case of espionage to become a broad public debate, exemplifying the constant struggle against prejudice and irrational impulses that implies democracy. From the impressive volume of publications, I selected two drawings issued when the truth about captain Dreyfus’s innocence began emerging. One is by Félix Vallotton, “That’s why she was not coming out!”, the other by Gustave-Henri Jossot, “She was too naked”, and they both give an interpretation of the truth and of the reasons why it—the truth—came out so late. The semiotic approach of the drawings and of Zola’s pamphlet in terms of visual message leads us to distinguish three aspects. The first is iconic and consists of establishing the links between a signifier, a signified and a referent in order to recognize the immediate message but also the connoted signification; the second is linguistic and consists of the captions; and the third is plastic, focusing on size, colors and shapes. These analyzes of the mode in which visual artefacts produce meaning and provoke an interpretative process are made in terms of rhetoric insofar as rhetoric is considered, not only in terms of figures of speech, but as a method of persuasion and argumentation. (shrink)

This paper aims to study the role of generic reuses of archival material as a form of misinformation. It looks at how fake news is the epiphenomenon of a media infrastructure based on a general inaccurate reuse of audiovisual archives that can lead to stereotypical or emblematic representations. We call these instances visual rough news. In order to understand their semiotic effects, we propose to conceptualise a polarity between specific and generic uses of images. Whereas the former precisely indicates (...) the spatio-temporal coordinates of the represented event, the latter does so in an approximate or vague manner. Based on a corpus of 35,000 reuses of video content in French and Italian TV news about the EU, we observe how generic uses of images are dominant and can produce problematic visual forms. We argue that such uses constitute forms of disinformation, as they frame information in a biased manner. Three case studies in which different figures are stereotyped due to the approximate use of stock shots will be analysed. (shrink)

The defamation action between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard exposed a jurisprudential puzzle within adjudication. Although the trial formally resolves disputes through propositional proof—testing statements capable of being true or false—public attention centred on demeanour, affect, and the visual force of photographic exhibits. No logical contradiction appeared sufficient to determine credibility; instead, attention shifted to features of the proceedings that did not themselves take propositional form. This Article argues that the tension, as experienced in practice, reflects an unexamined assumption (...) about how correspondence must be tested. Drawing on Peircean semiotics, it reconceives the common law trial as an institutionalised inquiry into the durability of truth-claims. Propositions articulate representational claims about past events, but because those events are absent, correspondence cannot be verified by inspection. Adversarial procedure instead subjects articulated claims to structured normative testing. Non-propositional elements—such as demeanour, tone, and visual presentation—do not function as independent truth-makers; they bear on whether a proposition can sustain its representational status under disciplined challenge. Reinterpreting doctrines governing visual evidence and hearsay through this durability model, the Article shows that evidentiary law regulates rather than suppresses non-propositional force as part of mediated correspondence. Truth in common law trials thus emerges through the endurance of propositions under adversarial inquiry. (shrink)

This article presents a fresh perspective on the interplay among visual, verbal, and auditory modalities, positing that these modalities, as semogenic resources, compete to express dynamic meanings. The theoretical paradigm emphasizes that whether a modality or an element within a modality gets or loses semantic status, it will elicit an additional layer of social meaning to depict a comprehensive picture of a story together with an explicit semiotic meaning. The article adopts a qualitative method to analyze the data, which (...) are drawn from The Good Wife and My Roommate is a Gumiho and annotated in ELAN 6.3. It was found that modal competition can shed light on the dynamic meaning-making processes in semiotic and societal orientations. Modal competition may distort space and time of different stories, and reconstruct a different discursive spatio-temporal dimension in the TV world. It can diversify the dynamic orientations from New to Given in visual, verbal, and auditory texts of multimodal discourses to tell stories. Modal competition provides a lens to understand the multidimensional reality and to appreciate the aesthetics of a modern TV series. (shrink)

Social semiotics is now widely regarded as one of the leading research areas. This study is the first attempt to present a holistic overview of social semiotics based on the data in the Web of Science core collection database from 2001 to 2020. The study investigates, among other issues, social semiotics’ publishing tendency, the most productive authors, countries, institutions, and hotspots. The results exhibit a steady rise in its publications and citations. The current analysis verifies the growing (...) quantitative and qualitative research contributions and influences of this field. Furthermore, what the journals focus on are the innovative and contemporary themes, manifested predominantly in sign, multimodality, gender, experimental semiotics, advertising, culture, and social media, which involve a wide range of methodologies to make the research more acceptable and constructive. These results are expected to offer refreshing insights that inspire scholars in formulating scientific agendas and advising their research strategies, thereby facilitating substantial contributions to the domain. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Revue de l'Association Internationale de Sémiotique Volume: 2013 Issue: 195 Pages: 69-95.

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2014 Heft: 202 Seiten: 631-640.

Most contemporary approaches to meaning presume the limitation of semiotics (Didi-Huberman, Gumbrecht, Belting). The question of what kind of “semiotics” is required has not been asked. However, without some general science of meaning it is impossible to reform theory without committing past errors or ignoring progress. In the interest of reconnecting contemporary interests in “presence” to long-evolving needs, I review the ossification and decline of one theory of semiotics that serves as the tacit model rejected today. I (...) return to problems of the nature of the sign – whether it is “digital” or “analog” and conceived as “communication” or merely “meaning.” I then reconstitute a workable visual cognitive semiotics based on phenomenological premises. (shrink)