WEEK 3 - SEMIOTICS

Semiotic is basically the study of signs and symbols. Initially every word that we use in our everyday is a type of sign, represented by combining letters to spell out the meaning. For example, a rock is known as a rock, how do we know if it is? Through our 5 senses; which are touch, sight, smell, taste and hearing. We touch and we feel the solidness, we see and we know the shape, we smell so we know the smell...well not really, but you get the point…

So how did everyone know a rock as it is? And call as what it is and spell as it is? It is from the consensus of the majority of the people in the society to understand the rock is a rock, and everyone agreed that it is spelled with R, O, C, and K.

If the whole society agrees to call the rock as a potato, nevertheless it WILL be called a potato. According to Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), a text is made up of

SIGNIFIER + SIGNIFIED = SIGN

To create a word, the signifier is the letters that are combined to make a word, for this case R O C and K. the signified is the image created in your mind. Thus resulting it into a sign, the agreed letters to come up with the object.

         When we have come up with the sign, we can denote it, which is the literal description of the sign or signifier. Then later on connote the sign, which we describe the object not literally, or metaphorically of the object.

Example:

Sign: potatoes

Denotation: 4 goldish brown potatoes stacked together

Connotation: dull, random, and etc

WEEK 2 - SEEING AND PERCIEVING

Seeing [ˈsiːɪŋ]

 the sense or faculty of sight; vision

Perception [per-sep-shuhn]

the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind;cognition; understanding.

These are the definition on "seeing" and "perception" that can be found in dictionaries, seeing is basically what we can pick up through our eyes, however perception are the images that is shown in our mind. What we see can be different to those of others, one can see an object as a normal object however some others may perceive it as something else; probably it could bring sentimental values, different meaning and etc.

One good example of this is, being an infant who does not know anything about fire. He/ she might not be intimated of be scared to touch the fire, but when the infant felt the pain from the burn, they will immediately associate FIRE = PAIN.

 When what we see is processed, and saved in our brain, it is when it becomes our perception. The way we deliver our perception are through our words we send to others. Saying one particular word to another can cause them to create the image differently due to the fact that they may have seen or absorb a different meaning when the first time they heard the particular word. In reference of the pictures I provided, when we say the word “apple” some perceive the word as in the pictures

FOR EXAMPLE:

Figure1.

To some, apple can be seen as this

 

Figure2.

However, some people may perceive apple, as a green apple

        

Figure3.

While some others, may see it as this….

           “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe…we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually active, continually moving, continually holding things in circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are” (John Berger, 1977)