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Week 10 - Social Semiotics

As someone who is Deaf with cochlear implants, I rarely rely on auditory information, but rather visual information. I tend to take in more visual information more than others. I can remember my way back to the apartments I used to live in or the old house I used to live in from a little over a decade ago. This was because of visual information. Visual information is an extremely important part in helping me gain knowledge and is usually what I prefer to take in. 

Social Semiotics is one example of analyzing visual information. Social semiotics was developed by a linguist, Michael Halliday, and contributed further by Gunther Kress. Social Semiotics goes into depth of analyzing social communication methods such as images, texts, and gestures. We will be focusing on images today. It helps us understand what the images are telling us. It takes into account the composition, the colors used, and more. 

Vertical positioning in social semiotics play a huge role in creating a meaning. The top tends to represent the ideals, goals, or imagination. The bottom represents reality and/or facts. 

Horizontal positioning also plays a huge role in this. The left side usually represents familiar known information or the past and the right side represents unknown information or perhaps the future.

As mentioned before, composition and colors also play a huge role in social semiotics. Composition refers to the arrangement of visuals. For example, asymmetry or symmetry. Symmetry represents balance and asymmetry is the opposite. Colors tend to assist in conveying the feel of the image. Dull colors could represent a non-exciting mood. 

I have decided to use two screenshots from the film, Dead Poets Society (1989), for this blog post about Social Semiotics. If you have not seen the film, I would suggest you to click off the post as it will contain spoilers (if you care about getting spoilers). 


I will say that there is not much vertical meaning in this screenshot, however the horizontal positioning is telling a lot here. The usage of having Neil Perry (main character) on the right side looking sad. If we remember that the right side represents unfamiliar knowledge, this would be a good example of that. It is the first time we are seeing him like this and it indicates that something may happen in the future. On the left side are filled with mostly blurred students. The left side represents known knowledge and we know that he is in a boarding school. The colors here are important as well. The color palette is mostly muted and not as vibrant (compared to the outdoor settings, if you have seen the film). It is mostly brown, orange, red, basically think of fall colors. This palette represents the traditional conservative school. It hints to some form of feeling trapped and being forced to conform to the school's values. 

This image has a similar horizontal positioning, but this time the whole image conveys an entirely different tone. Neil is on the right side again and it indicates of what may happen in the future. It is giving us new information. On the left side, we see a window and snow. As for vertical positioning, I have focused more on the window. The top two squares of the window are bright and the bottom is darker. It may represent Neil's aspirations (top) of being free and the dark reality of not being able to be free (bottom) as well as his feelings. The color palette has a drastic change from the first screenshot. It still does have muted colors, but it is now showing more cooler colors. It is also extremely dark. This all tells us that Neil in this scene has lost hope. Overall, this image gives us a feeling of dread. 

Social Semiotics is a fascinating way to analyze certain communication methods, especially images. It can be interpreted differently due to the different backgrounds (especially culturally) of someone and I do think that can be fun and beautiful.

References:

PwC. (n.d.). The Power of Visual Communication. https://www.pwc.com.au/the-difference/the-power-of-visual-communication-apr17.pdf

Touchstone, Distributed by Image Entertainment. (1989). Dead poets society. United States, United States. 

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