Browsing by Author "Taylor, Michael (John Michael)"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A renewed viewer-reader condition : mediating between semiotics and counter-semiotics
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2006-12) Taylor, Michael (John Michael); Dietrich, Keith; Bouma, Paddy; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As the title of this thesis anticipates, two modes for interpretation are discussed: visual semiotics and pictorial counter-semiotics. Rooted in and conceived from an established linguistic methodology for learning the significance of signs, visual semiotics constitutes an interpretative mindset which affords only a confined set of theories for the viewer. These conceptions, directing the codes by which, for example, visual narratives are created and understood, hold certain limits for the viewer's full appreciation and formation of the selfhood of pictures. Visual semiotics presents images to viewers as a form of text, implying that they be read and studied in a particular fashion - an attitude advancing the idea that images are subsidiary to text. This limited theory is investigated here. Pictorial counter-semiotics, a misrecognized counterpart of semiotic study, offers a paradigmatic shift in the recognition and understanding of visual signification. By exposing a number of visual paradoxes, it enables the viewer to evaluate and reconsider his I her position on the construction and cultural implementation of pictures. Three particular instances of image-making, namely anti-splendor, 'exfoliation', and 'multistability', are brought in line with my own art and image-making processes to elucidate a counter means for picture interpretation. Counter-semiotics is not an anti-semiotic stance. It is instead a conjoining feature of a viewer's interpretative mindset and effects the constant transference between pictorial convention and pictorial discovery.