The Mechanics of Communication
What is communication?
creation and exchanging of meaning by sending a message through a channel or medium that elicits a response or an effect
The Process School
Who says what to whom in which channel with what effect? (purpose and context could also be involved - What is their purpose in sending the message? How do the surroundings and social standing of the communicator influence the way their message is created and how it is received by their audience?). The message needs to be converted into a code that is appropriate for the channel being used to transmit it.
The Semiotic School
Focuses on signs and codes inside a particular "text" - which could be a film, painting, dance, photograph, painting, etc. Semiotics also concentrates on the people who decode the signs and codes of the text, as well as the social context of the audience and the text.
The Four Key Stages of the Communication Process
1. Thinking About You (you are the originator of the message and therefore the communicator)
Your style of communication depends on everything that has contributed to the forming of your identity as a human being (personality, age, place, time, habitat, social context, interests, dominant culture, family group, education)
2. Creating the Message (the message is the 'thought' to be encoded by you and the code used to encapsulate that thought)
- If a code is a system of signs, what is a sign?
sign = signifier + signified
- Langue: a system of differences between signs (the 'store cupboard' containing a whole collection of signs). In visual language we would say all of "art" is the langue, and parole is the individual units that employ the signs from all of "art" and arrange them in a particular way.
- Parole: individual acts of speech (individual units of communication)
- Are there different types of signs?
A alternative mode of the communication process and a modified semiotic interpretation was created by Charles Sanders Peirce (philosopher and semiotician) who classified sign into the three distinct catagoris of firstness, secondness, and thirdness. He also proposed a 3-sided model of the communication process, built on representemen, object, and interpretant (he most frequently used ICON, SYMBOL, & INDEX in his triad of sign types)
Representamen which relates to an object, which relates to an interpretant (the interpretant is the part of the interpreter that informs the meaning of the sign). Which means: the sign relates to the thing that it represents which relates to the 'proper significate effect' OR "The sign in he mind that is the result of an encounter with a sign" This can also be call 'the proper signifacte effect'
- Icon: simple image, closely resembles the object (simple enough for a toddler to understand)
The iconic sign: communicates most effectively to the largest amount of people - even across cultures - and does not rely on specialized knowledge to be understood, but just to be encountered and remembered (ex. symbols of a man and woman being used to denote bathrooms)
- Symbol: culturally agreed upon, but has no visible connection with what it signifies (ex. using green to indicate jealousy)
The symbolic sign: a more complex sign than the icon and the meanings of the symbols have to be learned. (examples include letter forms, words, flags from countries around the world). Context/experiences can cause different interpretations of the sign which is also know as 'perceptual'
- Index: a 'natural' sign (grey cloud signifying that it will rain- an index sign can be turned back into an iconic sign)
The index sign: a naturally occurring sign such as animals tracks or rain clouds
- How do artists arrange signs into codes?
Thoughts, beliefs, experiences of a specific culture have been influenced by the presence or absence of spatial and perspective systems, political or religions conventions when depicting the human form, and subject genres. Artists using iconic, symbolic, and index signs makes their work communicate their message effectively over time as well as in different places/cultures.
- Building the code
We can find meaning by separating out key elements from a single image or series of images - sequential narrative. We use this in spoken and visual language. The elements can signify status, emotion, material wealth, period, location, and spiritual values and there can be an endless chain of associations generated by an audience
Key elements within iconic visual systems and what they denote:
- setting- period, wealth, status, location
- costume - period, profession, wealth, social group, status, age, character, gender, and situation
- character - race, age, profession, demeanor, personality
- composition - hierarchy of people and places in the image
- color - location, status, hierarchical importance, and has symbolic value
- properties - profession, character, personality, situation, location, and period
- body language - state of mind, intention, physical prowess, character, psychological state, status, and age
- drama- actions that contribute to the plot progression and create a significant shift in the storyline
- Sequential narratives
Visual stories with more than one image (element of the narrative can be called 'scenes') As the story moves along, it also moves up and each stage is a challenge the protagonist(s) must overcome (When Levi-Strauss focused on the relationship between elements within narrative, it eventually led to Structuralism in the 1960s
- Metaphor
a way to make comparisons that are often poetic in nature and it is a good way to sum up a complex situation simple and in a way that an audience can understand it.
- Allegory
used to make a message more palatable and/or accessible to its audience - often used with young audiences (ex. Animal Farm by George Orwell is an allegorical novel about communism)
- Humor
Humor in image is mainly based on situation and cartoons depict familiar characters in unfamiliar surroundings and humorous predicaments (politician, celebrities). Satirical images designed to dispel illusion and promote truth. If it well communicated/observed then the audience will respond accurately
- How do we change existing codes?
PESTLE: Political-led, Economic-led, Social-led, Technological-led, Legal-led, and Environmental-led changes can be components that cause innovators in the creative world to develop new codes. Innovators either exist outside of the mainstream pop culture or at the fine-art end of their discipline
- Example of a new code in art
The Dada Movement was a political-led change that was a protest of World War 1 (Marcel Duchamp)
- Example of a transitional code in art
The surrealist movement used a figurative artistic code and rearranged it by 'disrupting the senses by inverting traditional modes of communication, the more conventional the language, the greater the derangement' The influence of surrealism to contemporary illustration gave the illustrator the ability to express the metaphysical world visually
3. Channel/Medium (the channel is the physical means and media type by which your code is carried)
Three categories of 'media'
- Presentational: voice, face, body
- Representational: writing, drawing, painting
- Mechanical: internet, press, radio, television
Who controls the medium?
"Gatekeepers" influence the information entering various forms of media and they shape and control how it is represented before transmission. Decisions are based on "brand identity" and there is a hierarchical structure of people who control the visual appearance of the channel to create unity from different visual components.
4. Destination (the destination is the decoding of your message and the intended destination of that message)
The process of receiving messages is just as important as the creation of the messages themselves. The code is influenced by the intended recipients of the message.
The process of receiving messages is just as important as the creation of the messages themselves. The code is influenced by the intended recipients of the message.
