Visual Communication and Visual Semiotics

In 2018 Mickey Mouse, an iconic brand hero of Disney, celebrated the 90th birthday anniversary in the National Film Archive – Audio-Visual Institute (Pol. FINA) in Warsaw, Poland. By this occasion, the global corporation positioned itself in the local public domain as a social agent through cooperation with the mentioned national institution. The glocalisation strategy has been reflected in the PR activities and has found its visual form in specific PR tools. The paper aims to analyse this case study as the exemplification of a successful implementation of organisational aesthetics in the public realm. The paper analyses the global organization’s visual communication practice in the local framework.

بعض صفحات من رسالة الدكتوراه بعنوان "الصياغة الشكلية للعلامة والرمز"2007  تتناول هذه الصفحات العلاقة الرابطة بين الصياغة الشكلية (أسلوب تلخيص) الفن المصري القديم للعناصر، وبين التصميمات الحديثة للعلامات المستخدمة في مجالات الاتصال البصري.
Selected Pages from PhD The Thesis titled "The Formation of Shape of Signs and Symbols" 2007 studying the relation between the formation (style of shaping or simplifying) the elements in the Ancient Egyptian Art, and the modern designs for signs used in the visual communication.

In 2018 Mickey Mouse, an iconic brand hero of Disney, celebrated the 90th birthday anniversary in the National Film Archive-AudioVisual Institute (Pol. FINA) in Warsaw, Poland. By this occasion, the global corporation positioned itself in the local public domain as a social agent through cooperation with the mentioned national institution. The glocalisation strategy has been refl ected in the PR activities and has found its visual form in specifi c PR tools. The paper aims to analyse this case study as the exemplifi cation of a successful implementation of organisational aesthetics in the public realm. The paper analyses the global organization's visual communication practice in the local framework. W 2018 roku Myszka Miki, kultowy bohater Disneya, obchodziła 90. rocznicę urodzin w Narodowym Archiwum Filmowym-Instytucie Audiowizualnym (FINA) w Warszawie. Dzięki współpracy ze wspomnianą instytucją narodową globalna korporacja wykorzystała tę okazję do pozycjonowania siebie jako podmiotu społecznego. Strategia glokalizacji znalazła odzwierciedlenie w działaniach PR, a ich wizualną formę-w konkretnych narzędziach PR. Celem artykułu jest analiza tego studium przypadku jako przykładu udanego wdrożenia estetyki organizacji w sferze publicznej. W artykule przeanalizowano praktykę komunikacji wizualnej organizacji globalnej w kontekście lokalnym. License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (CC BY 4.0). The content of the license is available at

En correspondencia con la reflexión metadiscursiva del discurso cinematográfico, uno de los planteamientos creativos más recurrentes en los años de transición entre los siglos XX y XXI, la película Shrek recupera, para invertirlos, ciertos motivos arquetípicos que han definido tanto la tradición del cuento popular como sus más conocidas manifestaciones fílmicas. Ello genera, a nivel de historia y de discurso, una profunda reflexión en torno a los parámetros creativos que, en última instancia, pone de manifiesto las estrechas relacionas transtextuales, en el macrotexto cultural, que imbrican la herencia mítica y la tradición literaria con el discurso de las industrias culturales de la sociedad postmoderna.

ABSTRACT In relation with the metadiscursive reflection of the cinema discourse, one of the most recurrent creative approaches during the transitional years between the 20 th and 21 st centuries is recovered by the film Shrek to reverse certain archetypical motifs that define both the tradition of the popular short story and their most famous filmic expressions. Conceming the story and the discourse, a deep reflection around its creative parameters is generated. It, ultimately, shows how the cióse transtextual relations, in the cultural macrotext, make the mythical heritage and the literary tradition overlap with the discourse of the postmodern cultural industries.

Ce cours fait partie du séminaire "La communication visuelle et audiovisuelle" dans le cadre de la licence (3ème année) "LLCER - Communication et Formation Interculturelles" de l'INALCO à Paris.

Le séminaire "La communication visuelle et audiovisuelle" est composé de deux parties :
Première partie : "La communication visuelle : Le visuel publicitaire"
Deuxième partie : "La communication audiovisuelle : Analyse du spot publicitaire".

Dans cette première partie sont traitées les problématiques suivantes :
1) La communication visuelle - une présentation générale.
2) Le visuel publicitaire : définition et exemples.
3) Analyse sémiotique du visuel publicitaire.

Resumo: Este trabalho propõe, a partir da obra de Landowski, um estudo preliminar dos diferentes usos do corset, partindo da análise do nome da peça – que traz em si seu uso pressuposto – seguindo para sua plástica – ou sua anatomia –, e, a partir dela, busca-se entender os diferentes graus de objetivação e subjetivação do corpo, dados por cada forma de interação entre corpo e corset.

Palavras-chave: corset; sociossemiótica; uso e prática.

Abstract: The article intents, through Landowski’s work, a preliminary study of the different uses of the corset. Starting on the analysis of the name of the garment – which evokes its presupposed uses – and its plastic ensemble – or the anatomy –, allowing the observation of the many degrees of objectivation or subjectivation permitted by each form of interaction between body and corset.

Key-words: corset; socio-semiotics; use and practice.

La neuvième partie du séminaire est consacrée à la problématique transversale à toutes les campagnes et actions de communication d'une organisation, à savoir à la problématique de l'identité visuelle. Nous abordons les deux sujets suivants:
1) Définition et exemples concrets;
2) Les principaux éléments qui composent l'identité visuelle (dont notamment le logo).

Esta es una lección publicada originalmente en el portal del INCOM de las UAB en 2006, y corresponde a un texto didáctico (Lección) para introducir al lector a los objetos y problemas de la semiótica de la imagen (SI).
Entendemos por SI el estudio del signo icónico y los procesos de sentido-significación a partir de la imagen. El estudio de la imagen y las comunicaciones visuales en realidad desborda lo estrictamente pictórico o visual, tal como pueden ser los análisis de colores, formas, iconos y composición, para dar paso a los elementos históricos y socio-antropológicos que forman parte de la SI.

A practical book, based on the most recent advances of art theory, neurosciences and the sciences of sensory perception, that helps both the expert and the student to have a better control over the emotive effects and the behavior produced by any visual composition in its perceiver, be it in architecture, film, graphic design, theatre, painting or any other visual media. Available through http://www.blurb.com/b/8473553-semiology-for-artists-and-designers

È estatico ogni discorso che, costruendosi nel linguaggio e col linguaggio, rappresenta nondimeno una fuoriuscita da esso, un bloccarsi della semiosi, un venir meno delle distinzioni che fondano il senso. Trattasi dunque di un’impostura? Dell’evocazione impossibile, fra le maglie dell’immanenza, di una dimensione trascendente nella quale e verso la quale la prima si sfaldi, perdendo la consistenza di strutture e opposizioni? Rispondere affermativamente sarebbe forse semplicistico, sarebbe considerare l’estasi come puro effetto ottico, come sorta di trompe-l’oeil mistico. In realtà, come ogni trompe-l’oeil, anche l’estasi rinvia a qualcosa di più della propria semplice rappresentazione. Essa rimanda ai pregiudizi inconfessati di un’ideologia semiotica, alla trama nascosta, al negativo segreto che regge tutta la concezione moderna del senso e del linguaggio. Il discorso mistico, che corre parallelo e invisibile, spesso represso, a volte perseguitato, lungo tutta la storia delle religioni, esprime allora questo dubbio: e se il senso non fosse distinzione, separatezza, dualità? Se l’immanenza articolatoria che lo viviseziona non fosse che illusoria? A questo punta ogni racconto dell’estasi: al sospetto che i fondamenti della modernità, anti-mistici per definizione, non siano altro che una delle possibilità dell’umano, e che una storia non detta, in filigrana, si dipani accanto e sotto al moderno come traccia sbiadita di un altro percorso, di un altro modo d’intendere e di dire.

This paper is a semiotic analysis of Summer Olympic Games Opening ceremonies
as performative texts. Owing to massive media attention, these events have
become eagerly awaited global spectacles. However, with such a wide audience,
the challenge is to convey both an Olympic welcome and something truly unique
about the host city and nation. This creates a communication challenge and some
interesting questions in terms of symbolism. Research into the content of Olympic
Games ceremonies reveals an exercise both in forging internal cohesion and in
projecting soft power. Soft power is an increasingly valuable currency in a
multipolar world and opening ceremonies are a prime soft power opportunity.
The paper seeks to uncover the ways successive Olympics Games organising
committees have sought to balance the competing communicational objectives of
opening ceremonies through double coding. The author considers every ceremony
from Moscow 1980 to London 2012 in this comparative semiotic analysis.
Keywords: Olympics; soft power; nation branding; codes; ideology

Di tutte le annunciazioni che popolano la storia umana e le sue svariate tradizioni, al semiologo non interessa la fonte in sé, il numinoso che all’umano si rivolge per significargli di volta in volta la propria presenza, intenzione, sensibilità; interessa, piuttosto, il modo in cui a seconda delle epoche storiche, dei contesti culturali, delle vicende sociali, ma anche delle sensibilità individuali, uomini e donne hanno utilizzato i materiali del mondo, quelli dell’immanenza, per forgiare i significanti del divino. Ovvero, specularmente, il modo in cui hanno immaginato, e creduto con fermezza, che tali materiali divenissero d’un tratto appannaggio di una divina intenzione di comunicare, stoffa della rivelazione, parole annuncianti. Al teologo, non al semiologo, spetta immaginare la ricostruzione della totalità a fronte della quale si dipana il messaggio divino nella sua vicenda immanente. Al semiologo tocca invece un compito che è insieme più modesto e più costrittivo; innanzitutto raccogliere e inventariare queste tracce: in quali circostanze gli uomini e le donne hanno raccontato e raccontano di un loro incontro con il divino? Utilizzando quali segni? Piegandoli a quali necessità comunicative? Il compito successivo, più arduo, è analizzare questi segni, con gli strumenti di cui dispone la metodologia semiotica, per capire se si possano in qualche modo catalogare, suddividere in tipologie, distribuire in atlanti che, anche al di là e a dispetto delle differenze d’origine storica e confessionale, manifestino nondimeno dinamiche comuni nella costruzione e nell’elaborazione del linguaggio.

In this article, the street is both a place of travel and a space for critical discourse. As tensions between public and private spaces play out in the streets, street artists claim visible space through multiple forms of art. Through a critical performance geography and a qualitative inquiry of the street, I photograph the movement of art across walls, doorways, windows, sidewalks, lampposts, alleyways, gutters, and dumpsters over a 7-month period in the Eastern Market neighborhood of Detroit (N = 806). After describing street art as a fluid genre that has developed into a diverse spectrum of post-graffiti, I explore how street art contributes to a changing visual terrain through discussions of racism, decolonization, gentrification, and the role of art in spatial justice. Photographic cartography is introduced as (a) a visual method of performance geography that illustrates material-discursive “fault lines” and (b) a critical means of analyzing conversations in contested public space. Significantly, street artists simultaneously work within and against urban renewal policies in “creative cities” such as Detroit. Given that the arts are at the center of sophisticated visual discourse regarding democracy and the battle over public space, researchers might continue to examine how street artists inscribe social justice in, on, and around the streets.

Un vento di protesta sta scuotendo il mondo intero. È un vento che soffia da lontano, ma in questi ultimi tempi si è fatto impetuoso. Le elezioni presidenziali in Iran nel 2009, i moti di rivolta in Tunisia, Egitto, Siria, per tutto il Medio Oriente; l’occupazione simbolica di Wall Street; il “15 de M” spagnolo, con la Plaza de Sol gremita di dimostranti; i sollevamenti contro il TAV Torino-Lione in Italia, le lotte degli operai e quelle dei disoccupati; il sommovimento politico contro governi vecchi e inefficienti. Pare che a un certo punto della storia il mondo si sia acceso, e continui a pulsare con luce intermittente sin da allora: fuochi di protesta divampano, si diffondono, divorano regimi, governi, leggi; alcuni si propagano da una parte all’altra del globo attraverso la nuova scintilla di Internet, altri si sopiscono ed estinguono.
Lo studioso può, come ogni altro, entusiasmarsi di fronte a tanta energia umana, a tanto desiderio di rinnovamento, allo spettacolo del motore della storia che sembra come per incanto prendere abbrivio e non arrestarsi più; lo studioso può appassionarsi a tutto questo e forse deve. Però lo studioso deve, innanzitutto, capire e aiutare a capire. Perché la protesta si scatena in certe circostanze e non in altre? Cosa muove gli individui, i gruppi, i popoli a sognare uno stato di cose differente, ad accorgersi dell’inadeguatezza delle proprie esistenze, a produrre linguaggio e azione per cambiarne i connotati? Che cosa fa scattare in alcuni la molla della protesta, e cosa spinge invece gli altri a tacere, a sopportare, ad accettare? E poi come si costruiscono i modi della protesta, secondo quali leggi, quali regolarità, quali innovazioni?
Comprendere i modi attraverso cui individui e gruppi attualmente costruiscono i testi della protesta e come tali testi si volgano in testimonianza sociale più o meno efficace pare un compito imprescindibile per una semiotica che si voglia sempre più al centro della società contemporanea e delle pressanti richieste di conoscenza che da essa promanano.

The social sciences have mostly focused on the formation of social opinions from a semantic point of view: given a certain semantic field, interviews, statistics, and other analytical instruments are commonly deployed in order to map the distribution of views, their evolution, their conflicts, and their agreements. Socio–semiotics, social semiotics, and the other semiotic branches that bear on social inquiry have contributed to the effort by providing semiotic grids of categorization. These grids too, however, have been mostly related to semantic contents circulating through societies and their cultures. The present article pursues a different hypothesis. After briefly recalling the events of 7–9 January 2015 in the Parisian area, the article seeks to survey and map the syntax of progressive differentiation of opinions circulating in the social networks about such events. Some patterns are identified and semiotically described: 1) cleavage; 2) comparative relativizing; 3) blurring sarcasm; 4) anonymity; 5) unfocused responsibility; 6) conspiracy thought. A new semiotic square is created to visually display these patterns, their positions, their relations, and their evolution.

In this paper we attempt to enlighten a " obscure " concept of the Lotman's theory, that is included in a pre-pubblication which has been presented in Urbino in 1977: for the author, the collective and individual mind are isomorphics. In our ipothesis, the functional mechanism of the same concept can be considered the core-priciple of the theory-model called Semiosphere. Therefore, the principle of isomophismus can help us to understand some contemporary neuroscientific researches. What is more, the same scientific reseraches can adcquire a increased coherence with the help of Semiotics methods, in particular way by Lotman and Greimas. In questo scritto intendiamo gettare luce su un " oscuro " concetto della teoria di Lotman, contenuto in una pre-pubblicazione cha fu presentata ad Urbino nel 1977na pre-pubblicazione ad Urbino: secondo l'autore, la mente individuale e la mente collettiva sono isomorfe. Nella nostra ipotesi, il meccanismo funzionale dello stesso concetto può essere considerato il principio di base nella concezione del modello teorico chiamato Semiosfera.. Inoltre, il principio dell'isomorfismo può sostenerci nel comprendere alcune ricerche neuroscientifiche contemporanee. Ancora, le stesse ricerche scientifiche possono accrescere la loro coerenza con l'aiuto dei metodi semiotici, in particolar modo di quelli di Lotman e di Greimas 1.Il concetto di isomorfismo di mente individuale e collettiva La Cultura come mente collettiva e i problemi dell'intelligenza artificiale (Lotman 1977), scritto di Yuri Lotman apparso nei " materiali di studio " del Centro Internazionale di Semiotica e Linguistica di Urbino, espone per la prima volta in Italiano la teoria dell'isomorfismo di mente individuale e mente collettiva. Siamo dell'opinione che questa ipotesi sia stata fondamentale per la costruzione del modello teorico noto come Semiosfera (Semeneko 2016:494), reso pubblico sette anni più tardi nell'omonimo saggio (J.Lotman 1984). Lo scritto del 1977, espone in diversi passi il quadro concettuale dell'isomorfismo detto; uno di questi può servire per focalizzare i problemi che intendiamo introdurre per un dibattito aperto. (…) andrà rilevato che la mente collettiva costituisce qualcosa di " secondario " nei confronti della mente individuale (naturalmente non dal punto di vista di vista storico ma di quello strutturale) e che essa inoltre, ne presuppone l'esistenza. Le profonde differenze quanto alla loro organizzazione materiale, e nello stesso tempo il relativo ed evidente isomorfismo funzionale che le lega l'una all'altra, rendono particolarmente proficua una loro analisi comparativa: nel quadro di tale studio il concetto di attività mentale potrà infatti essere distinto nelle sue varie realizzazioni sul piano concreto, e nello stesso tempo raggiungere un grado di astrazione tale che diventa un vero e proprio modello funzionale. (J.Lotman 1977:2, corsivo mio).

As part of our coursework for the Doctor of Ministry program in Semiotics & Future Studies (Leadership in the Emerging Culture), lead faculty mentor Leonard Sweet asked us to write an essay describing how semiotics has changed us, our thinking, and our
ministry.  The intent was a "what have you learned in the program so far" reflection essay, but since for me the program drew connections back to my earliest interests in linguistics in High School coupled with my later research in communication theory, multimedia learning, and pedagogy/andragogy, and aligned them with my ministry passions (as any doctoral program should), I decided to take it a step further and explain my journey in that regard with its most important shaping influences.  Thus this Integration Essay explains how it all fits together for me.

Cet article aborde, dans un premier temps, les approches que les sémioticiens ont adaptées ou façonnées pour s’approprier l’étude des graffitis et des écritures de rue (analyse historique, plastique, matérielle, énonciative). Dans un second temps, il aborde différentes manières de cadrer ces genres d’écriture et de produire des photographies plus ou moins aptes à rendre compte de la spécificité de ces inscriptions urbaines. Plusieurs cas différents sont étudiés : les rues de Paris, le Beco do Batman à Sao Paulo, les favelas de Rio de Janeiro, le quartier historique Corktown à Detroit, afin d’explorer les relations entre les spécificités des quartiers et les photographies des inscriptions qui s’y rapportent.

The call for applications of the doctoral program in semiotics at the University of Turin has just been published.

Scholarships are available for both Italian and international candidates.

https://en.unito.it/postdegree/phd/arts-and-humanities

Infiltrarea noilor mijloace de comunicare în actualele sfere ale vieții profesionale și sociale a produs mutații semnificative, punându-și amprenta asupra manierei de a construi mesaje. Revalorizarea modului de comunicare antic, arhaic și totuși omniprezent, al semnalelor indiciale, revelă o configurație în care sensul se naște din simbioza semnului lingvistic cu iconul. Este nivelul la care operează și acționează prin seducție publicitatea, în general, precum și comunicarea digitală și nondigitală, ambele reale, dar în realități complementare, concretă și virtuală. Noile rețele modifică natura conținutului predat. Astfel, înaintea erei digitale, elevii, studenții nu cunoșteau deloc subiectul cursului. Acum, întrucât cel puțin unii dintre ei deschid documentele puse la dispoziție online, se modifică și orizontul de așteptare, devenind imperioasă recalibrarea relației pedagogice. Aceeași reechilibrare intervine și în raportul dintre cercetător și obiectul cercetat, între obiectul cercetat și beneficiarul cercetării. Ceea ce se schimbă este mintea, rețeaua cognitivă. În acest context, atenția noastră se îndreaptă înspre transferul interlingvistic al mesajelor realizate verbal și iconic. Raportarea la două sisteme de semnificare, pentru a descifra și reconstrui semantic acest tip de mesaj, comportă constrângeri specifice fiecăruia dintre sisteme, dar și coerciții survenite din interconectarea lor. Din acest motiv, considerăm că gradul de dificultate presupus și pretins de activitatea formativă în domeniul traducerii revendică utilizarea anumitor metode și tehnici de comunicare. Intenționăm, așadar, ca prin examinarea sub aspect semiologic (tipul de semne utilizat), pragmatic (modul în care sunt folosite semnele de către utilizatori) și traductologic (analiza calitativă a traducerii, cf. Harris, 1973) să relevăm metode eficiente ale formării în activitatea de comunicare prin traducere – ca produs, adică text țintă (TȚ). Dubla codificare a mesajului, vizuală și textuală, prin imagine și prin cuvânt, nu este o marotă specific europeană. De la hegemonia imaginii antice s-a ajuns la hegemonia cuvântului, iar, astăzi, la globalizarea interferenței imaginii și cuvântului. În acest studiu, punctul de plecare îl constituie pregătirea și coordonarea unor teze de licență (Tănăsescu, 2017, Roșu, 2013) sau proiecte semestriale de traducere (Hudescu, 2016) în domeniul traductologiei, a căror particularitate rezidă în multimodalitatea reprezentării, care implică nu numai coprezența text – imagine și constrângeri editoriale-redacționale, ci mai ales constrângeri semiotice și culturale. Aplicarea unui model analitic bazat pe elemente de semio-pragmatică și de analiza discursului permite degajarea unor concluzii referitoare la (re)construcția semantică, în timp ce specificul activității de transfer interlingvistic supralicitează reconfigurarea sensului, mediată de extinderea componentei culturale a contextului. Reliefarea deopotrivă a libertăților interpretării, cât și a constrângerilor reconfigurării semantice a mesajului realizat verbal și vizual ne determină să apreciem că abordarea în termeni comunicaționali pe care o propunem se dovedește autentic utilă în realizarea transferului interlingvistic. Cu atât mai mult cu cât ține seama de proliferarea formelor de reprezentare și de semnificare din comunicarea actuală. Cadrul teoretic Comunicarea actuală pretinde, prin intruziunea noilor forme mediatice, să asigure liantul social, în parte prin frecvența interpelării și rapiditatea schimbului, în parte datorită capacității mediului de a privilegia dimensiunea primară a comunicării. Prezența sunetului și a imaginii, în asociere sau nu cu textul, a devenit o constantă a schimburilor verbale cotidiene.

Remix is now considered by many to be a form of derivative work, but such generalizations have resulted in numerous non-commercial remixes being wrongfully accused of copyright infringement. Gallagher argues that remix is a fundamentally transformative practice. The assumption that cultural works should be considered a form of private property is called into question in the digital age; thus, he proposes an alternative system to balance the economic interests of cultural producers with the ability of the public to engage with a growing intellectual commons of cultural works. Multimodal analyses of both remixed and non-remixed intertextual work, with a particular focus on examples of critical remix video, fuel the discussion, synthesizing a number of investigative methods including semiotic, rhetorical and ideological analysis. Author: Owen Gallagher (Routledge, 2017)

https://www.routledge.com/Reclaiming-Critical-Remix-Video-The-Role-of-Sampling-in-Transformative/Gallagher/p/book/9781138285262

In her article "Towards a Framework of a Semiotics of Dance" Nicoleta Popa Blanariu constructs a framework of based on de Saussure's, Peirce's, and Barthes's thought. She applies Ferdinand de Saussure's concept of semiosis defined as a cultural system of conventions. In dance this occurs when choreographic signs are encoded, for example in magic, ritual, or religious expressions of movement. Further, Charles Sanders Peirce's concept of the role of "intelligent consciousness" is crucial for the engendering of signification and thus to dance. In dance, the choreographer "interprets" the world and by means of selection and interpretation, the choreographic sign reveals its object and this process is related to abstraction. In semiosis dance involves a process of "culturalization" (Barthes), whereby codes of dance represent the spontaneity of "natural" of movements and feelings within a repeatable system of expression. Last but not least, Edmund Husserl's notion that dance belongs to the domain of "pre-reflexivity" of signal and entails symbolic qualities derived from its embedding of cultural codes is employed by Popa Blanariu in her building a framework of the semiotics of dance.

The article presents the taxonomy of visual rhetorical figures proposed by the Belgian Group µ in their study titled “Traité du signe visuel: Pour une rhétorique de l'image” where the visual rhetorical act is consider as an extension of the possibilities of the semiotic world.
The visual figures typology of the Liege school is described based on images used by the Belgian semioticians and applied to contemporary visual data. The classification proposed by the Liege's scholars is introduced in comparative prospective considering another visual figures typologiy, representative for the structuralist version of visual semiotics in francophone semiotic studies, proposed by Jacques Durand as a member of the Paris School of Semiotics.

While metaphor and narrative have often been discussed (with much controversy) but rarely together (e.g. Fitzpatrick and Farquhar, 2019). As cognitive semiotics aims to integrate concepts and methods from semiotics, cognitive science and cognitive linguistics, we endeavor to offer a coherent terminology, which distinguishes the notions of sensory modalities (vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste) and semiotic systems (language, depiction and gesture) (Stampoulidis et al., 2019; Zlatev, 2019). My work focuses on street art, an often visually perceived socio-cultural medium that typically incorporates two interacting semiotic systems (language and depiction), and is thus, polysemiotic (Stampoulidis et al., 2019). In this way, we refer to semiotic systems in which metaphors (and other rhetorical figures) and narratives can be expressed avoiding terminological ambiguity. In this presentation, I discuss methods and results from two recently published studies: (a) a study on street art metaphors (Stampoulidis and Bolognesi, 2019) and (b) a study on street art narratives (Stampoulidis, 2019).

The traditional object of semiotics, the sign, stems from a selection. The signifying side of the sign never simply reproduces the signified one but singles out an aspect of it. “Aspect” (from the Latin “aspicere”, “to look at”) etymologically designates what appears, what presents itself to the eyes, as well as the way in which this presentation takes place. In English, “aspect” enters the language in the late 14th century as an astrological term, indicating the relative position of the planets as they appear from earth (i.e., how they ‘look at’ one another).
Generally speaking, the aspect in semiotics is everything that pushes reality to turn into signification “in some respect”. The word “respect”, famously chosen by Peirce in his canonical definition of the sign, may be regarded as a cognitive variant of the word “aspect”. If “aspect” is a particular way of looking at things, “respect” is a particular way of thinking of things. The respect is the inward counterpart of the aspect. The aspect is the outward counterpart of the respect. However, both refer to the same process: meaning derives from selection, and looking is the model and utmost metaphor of it. Peirce’s distinction between “dynamic object” and “immediate object” could not make sense without involving some form of aspect or respect. Indeed, most interpreters of Peirce describe the immediate object not as some additional object distinct from the dynamic one but merely as some “informationally incomplete facsimile of the dynamic object generated at some interim stage in a chain of signs” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The fact that this “facsimile” is incomplete is the consequence of the fact that some cognitive and cultural forces shape the sign into the result of a series of aspects and respects, highlighting certain qualities of the dynamic object while playing down or simply ignoring some other qualities.

Cet article vise à montrer comment tant les méthodes de la sémiotique française de l’École de Paris initiée par Algirdas Julien Greimas, que les travaux du Groupe μ, peuvent être utiles pour l’interprétation des logos. À cette occasion, nous analysons les logos réalisés par l'entreprise belge Weissenbruch. Les logos sont des instruments de construction d’identité qui, dans le cas des Weissenbruch, ont été au service d’entreprises, de personnes privées, de marques de voitures, de salons de beauté.
Dans les analyses qui suivent, on étudie l’efficacité de la rencontre entre des formes et des mots constituant les logos, en entendant par efficacité un certain syncrétisme de mots et d’images, voire une interpénétration de langages différents.

This course aims to equip students with the skills necessary to critically analyse popular culture starting from the theoretical tools offered by the discipline of semiotics as applied to art. In this regard, the course represents a journey which students are invited to undertake to discover the multiple continuities existing between art, advertisement, photography and cinema, artistic expression and consumerism. This course, moreover, seeks to show to students the implication of knowledge with power by tracing the history of photography from its initial reception as a means of scientific investigation to its adoption as instrument of objective representation of everyday life as well as extra-ordinary events in photo-journalism

Resumen: Los discursos sobre los rostros verdaderos son tan antiguos como la civilización misma. Su relevancia social y religiosa está atestiguada a través de numerosas prácticas simbólicas y semióticas que abarcan un amplio espectro de soluciones y alternativas a nivel de diversas sustancias y formas de la expresión, dibujo, ilustración, ékfrasis y prosopopeya verbal. Este ensayo se basa en la comparación y análisis crítico de dos ejemplos de reconstrucción del rostro del héroe nacional desde una perspectiva semiótica. Palabras clave: Rostros digitales. Semiótica. Cultura latinoamérica. Estrategia política.

In 2018 Mickey Mouse, an iconic brand hero of Disney, celebrated the 90th birthday anniversary in the National Film Archive – Audio-Visual Institute (Pol. FINA) in Warsaw, Poland. By this occasion, the global corporation positioned itself in the local public domain as a social agent through cooperation with the mentioned national institution. The glocalisation strategy has been reflected in the PR activities and has found its visual form in specific PR tools. The paper aims to analyse this case study as the exemplification of a successful implementation of organisational aesthetics in the public realm. The paper analyses the global organization’s visual communication practice in the local framework.

The paper contains a theoretical analysis of communicative means comprehended at diverse levels of psyche. The comprehension is understood as an involving of received information into internal systems of cognition, valuation, and skills of the subject. Together with the objects directly given for the feeling, the objects represented by various semiotic means are comprehended as well. Such indirect, or shifted, comprehension can occur at different levels and be realized not only with help of verbalized logical concepts, but also by “infralogical” images and schemes. Particularly, along with ideograms and pictograms as the means intended for upper levels of interpretation, one can speak also about perceptograms and even sensograms aimed for comprehension at perceptual and sensorial levels, correspondingly. The norms of regular connections between the means of comprehension from diverse its levels can be considered as codes with representative and communicative functions. Depending on ...

The paper contains a theoretical analysis of communicative means comprehended at diverse levels of psyche. The comprehension is understood as an involving of received information into internal systems of cognition, valuation, and skills of the subject. Together with the objects directly given for the feeling, the objects represented by various semiotic means are comprehended as well. Such indirect, or shifted, comprehension can occur at different levels and be realized not only with help of verbalized logical concepts, but also by "infralogical" images and schemes. Particularly, along with ideograms and pictograms as the means intended for upper levels of interpretation, one can speak also about perceptograms and even sensograms aimed for comprehension at perceptual and sensorial levels, correspondingly. The norms of regular connections between the means of comprehension from diverse its levels can be considered as codes with representative and communicative functions. Depending on the psychical levels, to which elements and structures of their expression and content planes belong, one can distinguish a number of psycho-semiotic types of these codes.