Visual Signification in Thematic Concerns
A Semiotic Analysis
Abstract
Abstract Views: 169
Visual narrative is a modern way of dispensing information or conveying a story to audience through elements with significations. Twenty first century is marked with the revolutionary trends of constructing narratives through images. Facebook and other social networking sites have made ‘image’ an easy way of communicating ideas, feelings and emotions. The researchers in the current study attempt to highlight the superiority of visual information using semiotic tools as the medium of decoding signs and their signification in elements appearing on a visual screen. Furthermore, the current research tries to elaborate the use of patterns, designs and concepts embedded in the video of the song by utilizing mise-en-scene, dexterously. The paper analyzes the visuals in the song by Sajjad Ali, ‘Tasveer Bana Kay’ semiotically, using Charles Peirce’ model and assigns signification to the elements of the visual text. The theme of the song is constructed through camera shot and angle, settings, colour and gestures and abstract ideas are metaphorically presented. Six images have been selected from the song video and analyzed semiotically. The current study establishes that a message can easily be conveyed with the help of images, amplifying the main theme of a narrative. The study gives an impetus to work on the genre of film studies and specially mise-en-scene as a supplementing device to communicate more than what is presented on the screen by decoding and constructing meaning which are implicitly explicit.
Downloads
References
Abbott, H. P. (2008). The Cambridge introduction to narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Application iPad Alice for the iPad-Lite – Atomic Antelope. (iPad Applications). (2010). Retrieved June 21, 2010, from iPad Magic: http://www.apps.ipad-magic.com
Ali, Hena. (2012). Visual dialogues: Pakistani truck art a metaphoric literacy. Paper presented at the Information Design Conference, London, UK. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234168345_ VISUAL_DIALOGUES'Pakistani_truck_art_'a_metaphoric_literacy
Baldry, A. P., & Thibault, P. (2006). Multimodal transcription and text analysis: A multimedia toolkit and course book. London: Equinox.
Barthes, R. (1967). Elements of semiology (Translated from French by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith). New York: Jonathan Cape London.
Cambridge University Press. Cambridge International Dictionary of English. (1995). Cambridge: Author.
Eco, U. (1982). Critique of the image. In Victor Burgin (Ed.), Thinking photography. London: Macmillan.
Collins, N., Muireadhaigh, A. N. (Eds.). (n.d.). Encyclopedia of Irish and Word Art. Retrieved June 16, 2010, from http://www.visualarts-cork.com
Kearney, R. (1988). The parodic imagination. Lodon: Hutchinson.
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.
Lim, V. E. (2007). The visual semantics stratum: Making meaning in sequential images. In T. D. Royce & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates. 195–214.
Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2007). The multimodal page: A systemic functional exploration. In T. D. Royce & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New directions in the analysis of multimodal ‘discourse. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Martinec, R., & Salway, A. (2005). A system for image-text relations in new (and old) media. ‘Visual Communication, 4(3), 337–371.
Murray, J. K. (1998). What is “Chinese Narrative Illustration”? The Art Bulletin, 80(4), 602–615.
Murray, J. K. (1995). Buddhism and early narrative illustration in China. Archives of Asian Art, 48, 17–31.
Nöth, W. (1990). Handbook of semiotics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
O'Halloran, K. L. (2004). Visual semiosis in film. In K. L. O'Halloran (Ed.), Multimodal discourse analysis. London: Continuum. 109–130.
Pincus, E. (1972). Guide to filmmaking (Signet non-fiction). New York: Penguin Books.
Peirce, C. S. (1931–58). Collected papers: Selected writings (Vols. 1-8). New York: Dover.
Stam, R., Burgoyne, R., & Flitterman, S.-L. (1992). New vocabularies in film semiotics. New York: Routledge.
Thibault, P. (2000). The multimodal transcription of a television advertisement: Theory and practice. In A. Baldry (Ed.), Multimodality and multimediality in the distance learning age. Campobasso, Italy: Palladino Editore.
Unsworth, L. (2006). Towards a metalanguage for multiliteracies education: Describing the ‘meaning-making resources of language-image interaction. English Teaching: Practice ‘and Critique, 5(1), 55–76.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
