Using a fashion image, explore the strengths and limitations of a semiotic analysis.
Abstract;
This essay will aim to elucidate the use of semiotic analysis using fashion iconography and imagery as its primary medium. We will aim to explore the strengths and limitations of semiotic analysis through a process of dissection; where we will explain how imagery has been layered to give voice to what the artist has chosen to communicate, without the use of syntax.
Introduction;
“We live in an image filled world. Whether they are encountered in galleries, the internet or elsewhere, images challenge us. They cause us to reflect and to question our assumptions about ourselves and others. Diversity lies in the fact that we each experience and understand works of art through our own perspectives” (Cybermuse, 2010).
The use of images can be and effective method of communication and allows for the author to convey levels of message to the audience that they have chosen to target; a method that is used to break down the underpinnings of an image is semiotic analysis.
It is... possible to conceive of a science which studies the role of signs as part of social life. It would form part of social psychology, and hence of general psychology. We shall call it semiology (from the Greek semeîon, 'sign'). It would investigate the nature of signs and the laws governing them. Since it does not yet exist, one cannot say for certain that it will exist. But it has a right to exist, a place ready for it in advance (Saussure in Chandler, 2009).
Hence, the most elementary explanation of semiotic analysis would be; a consequence of the thesis that the composition is structured, that is a functionalised whole in which relationships are more important than material. Is a coherent system in which the elements are interrelated, each has its place and serves a specific function.
Semiotics was first used in English by Henry Stubbes in a very precise sense to denote
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