man & nature # 191 ~ pictures (aka, signs) of signs that are about signs and "signs"

Signs • click to embiggenI'm back in the picture making saddle once again and my brain is once again a-whirl with thoughts of meaning(s) to be found in a picture - see the following entry - re: studium and punctum. That said, part of the key to studium and punctum is found in ideas and notions expressed in the field of study called semiology or semiotics - that is the study of, in part, the role played by signs in the construction of meaning.

It was in the late 19th/early 20th century writings of Charles Sanders Peirce, an American Pragmatist philosopher, that, amongst many many other things, 3 components of signs, known as iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs emerged with a specific application to pictures. These types of signs are not distinct types of signs but rather features shared by signs in general.

Iconic signs, quite simply, resemble the things/objects they represent - think of a sign with a silhouette of dog in a circle that is bisected by a diagonal line (No Dogs Allowed) in which the representation of a dog looks like a dog.

Indexical signs do not always resemble the things they refer to but they do bear at least a casual connection to the things they point to. Think of a human footprint which points not so much to a foot as it does to idea/notion of a human presence/person. Like our index finger, indexical signs point to something other than itself.

Symbolic signs create and convey meaning by convention and consensus. As an example, we all operate our vehicles, by convention and consensus, in a manner that red means "stop", yellow means "caution", and green means "go".

Photographs combine these 3 features: Iconic - Photographs resemble the things they depict. Indexical - because photographs are the result of light bouncing off depicted objects, they bear an indexical relation to the thing pictures. Symbolic - photographs can also create symbolic meaning(s) as I mentioned in the pictures of my recent entry, man & nature # 189 - the face of an exuberant child as a symbol of "joy" or an empty pot of coffee as a symbol of "pleasure".

All of that said, I would like to point out that I have become aware of a "hidden" body of work within my total body of pictures - one that I was really not particularly conscious of as a body unto itself until I started going through my pictures for a distinctly different reason. That body of work consists of a fair number of pictures of signs.

IMO, given the right academic lunatic fringe spin, these pictures, which are "signs" in and of themselves, of actual signs, which working in concert bring into question/discussion the semiotic nature of "signs" as symbols ... well, I could have a runaway hit on my hands because, in a time when the meaning of everything is open to question, my sign pictures are definitely a sign of the times. Although, I have to be careful because my head is already beginning to spin - a sure sign that I'm break-dancing on the border of the academic lunatic fringe.

That said, I do have to say that I very much like the pictures as pictures - if you know what I mean.