Semiotics

So today's lecture was on Semiotics. At first the subject sounded very complicated, but it is in fact the study of how we see things and recognise things. Graphic design would study this quite a bit, as they need to produce symbols that's are simplistic as possible but portray a meaning as quick as possible to the viewer. Semiotics is really used in everything we see, the director is constantly trying to give the audience a message. But this does not mean that the audience will always receive or perceive that specific message. That is the interesting thing with semiotics it is never a certainty to how people will see something pick up on that, the director can never control what a person feels in a film, only what they see in front of them, how this effects them is entirely dependent on the individual.

Semiotics can also be split into two groups of images. Iconic and arbitrary, iconic is more realistic, it is like a photo of what it is trying to symbolise and makes it less likely to be mistaken as something else, or does it? Arbitrary is something of much less detail but focuses on the main characteristics we might associate with that symbolic meaning, so perhaps we would recognise this quicker.

This to me also feels like it relates to the realism lecture i had last week. Showing how we do not need to have a high detailed, high poly, mega graphics accelerated character to see exactly what that character is about, after all back in the old school Disney animations characters where much more simplistic then as they are now and we still watch them today. It makes me wonder if we will still be watching final fantasy, beo-wolf, or any other graphics selling feature film in 20 years time, i doubt it.