A few thoughts on semiotics and media research
“[A]n important aspect of how language makes meaning must be that each linguistic sign is surrounded by paradigms of associated signs that are not present. […] As a general principle, every sign that is present must be considered in relation to other signs present in the structure of the articulation, and every sign present has meaning by virtue of the other signs which have been excluded and are not present in the text.” (14)
I'm extracting this little quote to say a bit more about it because I noticed it was picked up by quite a few people, primarily linguists in fact.
First off, Media Semiotics by Jonathan Bignell is a great book. I had been struggling with semiotics for quite a while because I found it hard to relate to what I do. But after reading this one, it all made a lot more sense to me. I generally don't discuss the sign much, but especially in media, when we talk about their creation, we have to consider semiotics too. There is no way around it. Personally, my writing is generally somewhat practically oriented. In the academic world it can be easy to get carried away in conceptual talk - I mean that's a big part of what we're about, but I remain highly critical of blindly reiterating concepts made by the giants that came before us. Metes and bounds, knowI'msaying.
So, if you're like me and you struggle to find your way into semiotics from a media point of view, do yourself a favour and get this book right now.
We can understand more about any media work when we get at least a basic understanding of these concepts, beyond language itself, towards how we make things, how these things work in their environments, how they are perceived and why.
In my own work, naturally structure is very important. I'm researching the possibility of letting algorithms generate structures that had only been created manually by people before. And this process leads to interesting questions; how do we create structure? How do we recognise it? And why?
With regard to film/video editing, I would say that it is primarily social and cultural conditioning. People know what video or film looks like because of other film and video artefacts. (And they can actually get quite angry when you don't adhere to these conventions and boundaries.)
What is important, I think, is to recognise that what we regard as natural, is often barely natural at all, it's something we as societies have constructed. And it is in these constructions that our rules hold truth and meaning.
Just a few thoughts to start off my Monday morning. I hope you're all well!
Would love to hear from you, if you have anything to add.
