How we construct meaning through systems of representations
Key concepts
Representation and language in regards to culture
Culture is:
- The intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development(s) of a socially connected group of people; and
- The way of life (or living, ways of doing) of a socially connected group of people
Visual Culture
‘Visual culture is concerned with the visual events in which information, meaning, or pleasure is sought by the consumer in an interface with visual technology. By visual technology, I mean any form of apparatus designed either to be looked at or to enhance natural vision, from oil painting, to television, to the internet’.
Nicholas Mirzoeff, 1999 p.3
We construct a complete picture of our world in our mind through our eyes, ears, touch.
Representation 'connects meaning and language to culture' and is 'the production of meaning through language.' Stuart Hall, 2013. 'means using language to say something meaningful about or to the world meaningfully to other people. We do this through the use of our visual and verbal languages like gestures signs and images that stand in place, represent or re-present the thing we're trying to communicate.'
“Language can never be a wholly private act, rather, it is a social convention.” Myra
It is through engagement in symbolic practice that we are able to understand and we generate representations of these things through our minds. We create meaning together.
1. Reflective approach where meaning lies with the object, person, idea, event but makes it impossible to discuss drawing on abstract principles like beauty.
2. Intention approach where meaning lies with the speaker and is imposed on objects, persons, ideas, events but there's no way to guarantee the receiver of the message will understand the intended method.
3. Constructivist approach where meaning is constructed by social groups through interaction with each other and with social environments (containing objects, people, ideas, events) and that it is through symbolic practice which generates meaning. Meaning resides in shared language and culture.
To represent is to describe (verbally) or depict (visually).
A representation is a sign that symbolises, stands in for, or acts as a substitute/surrogate for things (objects, places, people) or concepts (abstract ideas, feelings).
'Were there not some cultural consensus about the meaning of signs and symbols [that make up language] among members of a linguistic community communication would not be possible.' Davis, 2012.
Signs
Iconic signs (semiotics) demonstrate relationship of similarity or bear a visual resemblance to the object in which they refer (eg. photograph, drawing of object).
Indexical signs (semiotics) share no visual resemblance to the thing in which they refer (eg. letters, characters, gestures and speech).
Symbols (semiotics) rely on a conventional agreement (eg. the written word 'cat').
Remember visual literacy
Visual literacy is the ability to accurately interpret visual representation in both form (what is it) and meaning (what does it mean/say).
This is a skill and must be learned.
Mental Imagery
Systems of symbols and signs we mark surfaces with and a system of sounds we string to sounds, words and phrases as an attempt to communicate.
Principles of similarity or difference in establishing identifying factors to share common meaning. For example, Stuart Hall discussing a bird or a plane. Classify whether it can fly, then whether it’s man-made or not. We might also discuss cause and effect so the meaning depends on the relationship between things. We compare, contrast, look for similarities and differences in order to form a net of representation.
Consider the variety of different cows.
Thought is not language, it is quasi perceptual because we hear, see, smell and feel things through our mind. However, this is highly personal which causes issues with communication. It’s clumsy. A reinterpretation of our own feelings.
This is also sometimes why we look to or integrate words from other cultures into our own language. For example, schadenfreude a German word which means “pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune”. Also consider the word “representation” which for you has now come to incorporate a more complex meaning because we’re building on your understanding.
Why language causes problems
‘Any sound, word, image, or object which functions as a sign, and is organised with other signs into a system which is capable of carrying and expressing meaning is… ‘a language’.”
Stuart Hall, 2013.
Conceptual map or mental imagery and then our set of signs or languages which stand in for concepts or things.
Meaning does not exist in things but rather in people, otherwise it’s just a thing.
Meaning ‘is constructed, products. It is the result of a signifying practice – a practice that produces meaning, that makes things mean’.
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This does not just apply to English but also to all forms of communication we use. Consider the difference between seeing the English word in print versus Braille and how spoken words are reinterpreted into Auslan (Australian Sign Language) which is different from Western Country to country.
What about slang, memes, regional dialect? Grouse, heaps good, poppa, fruit box, dunny, not here to fornicate with spiders, arvo, crook (sick).
More recently
- “sanny” for Sanitiser
- “iso (eye-so)” for isolation
- “‘rona” for Corona Virus
- “magpies” for people who flock in and hoard items at shopping centres
In use:
Original: ‘My boss tested positive for coronavirus or COVID-19, so now I'm in self-isolation.'
Slang: ‘I’m in iso ‘cause my boss tested positive for The Rona. Can you drop in some Westies (or red tins)?’
Original: 'I went to Woolworths to get some hand sanitiser, but it was sold out because panic buyers had bought every last bottle.'
Slang: ‘Some pricks’ve magpies the sanny at Woolies. Headed for Bunnings instead.’
What other local terminology is there?
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