Context of Practice Lecture: Semiotics

'The myths which suffuse our lives are insidious precisely because they appear so natural.'

                                                                                                                                                 -Barthes, R

Semiotics is the science of studying codes, signs and signifiers. Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure describes it as a philosophical way of viewing the world based around structuralism. Saussure believed that there were deep underlying unconscious structures of culture and that the same way we unravel meaning in language by understanding written and spoken material, we can also unravel meaning in cultural practices if we take culture as operating like a language.  Saussure identifies Signifiers as sounds and images, while the signified is the mental concept said signifiers evoke.

Signs are based around socially agreed conventions. For example, we associate suits as items with connotations of prestige, following the cultural codes of conformity, whereas a more rebellious punk fashion style denotes anti-conformity. A code is a system of symbols and signifiers that embody meaning. They can encompass anything from fashion styles to the language of cinema. There is no logical relationship between the signifier and the signified. Their relationship is arbitrary. It is whatever the culture decides it is. There is no innate link between the signifier and the signified, this link is constructed by the culture.

In his book 'Mythologies' published in 1957, Barthes attempts to unpick and unravel underlying cultural codes. Barthes says that a 'myth' is the deep level of a crude connotative meaning that people forget has been encoded into a signifier in the culture. Semiotics is the attempt to decode cultural meaning and debunk myths.