Visual Social Semiotics (Definition)

Social Semiotics is an approach to visual communication that explores the understanding of how people communicate through various methods in differing social situations. It is an explanation how concepts, objects and figures interact in purposeful ways in order to create intended or implied meanings. The interaction between the image and the viewer is also seen as important; cultural and societal importances and normalities are often played upon within the images to chance or enhance the meanings of visual elements in order to transfer a potential meaning (or set of meanings) towards the intended audience.

Visual Social Semiotics reveals things that are not always evident at first glance in an image (Jewitt and Oyama, 2004). It uses a particular set of rules in order to decode and image, such as whether an image is narrative or conceptual, the interactive meaning, its compositional makeup and point of view. Cultural normalities and stereotypes are also utilised in the deconstructing of an image, as it is these signs and symbols that allow immediate understanding of any potential or insisted meanings. 

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References:

Jewitt, C. and Oyama, R. (2004). Visual Meaning: a Social Semiotic Approach. The Handbook of Visual Analysis, pp.134-157.

Semiotics: the Study Of Signs (WK3)

Semiotics is the study of symbols and signs in the context of visual conventions. It is the exploration of how words and other signs interact in order to create layers of meaning. Semiotics reveals the hidden meaning within images via the application of semiotic codes (rules) that connects  signs with their meanings. Semiotics is a system of visual communication established through the context of cultural and social structures. Through the recognition of power structures and stereotypes, the potential and intended meanings of an image can be understood. It is a theory that involves many different methods and theoretical understandings, mainly between natural signs (freely occurring throughout nature) and conventional signs (those designed precisely for the purpose of communication.  (Chandler, 2014).

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References:

Chandler, D. (2014). Semiotics: Introduction. [online] Visual Memory. Available at: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem01.html [Accessed 26 Aug. 2015].

Rose, Gillian (2001). Chapter 4: Semiology. In Gillian Rose, Visual Methodoligies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, (pp.69 -00)

Compositional Interpretation Theory (WK2)

Compositional Interpretation (CI) is the method of understanding of how an image is constructed (and its effectiveness) via the analysis of visual elements. This allows informal conclusions to be drawn as to the intention or meaning of the image. CI is focussed on an image’s materiality, as opposed to deconstructing what an image means.

The aspects that should be taken into consideration when dissecting the visual elements of an image include content, colour, light, special organisation, expressive content and moving images. These elements help discern what an image actually shows, the application of hue, saturation and value of colour for varied levels of emphasis, the identification of light source and its relationship to colour, the atmosphere or feeling of the image, and consideration of the complication or simplicity of an image.