Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs, symbols and signification. In everyday life our eyes spotting different signs and symbols everywhere and our brain decode them into a meaning. Some of them are road signs which help us to reach a destination point safely and in the fastest way and some are more complex. In everyday life there are more signs than roads have about these signs semiotics or also known as semiology is about.

In movies semiotics is often viewed through weather, where it plays important role and helps a viewer to get into the mood of the one particular scene. When it rains no one is expecting that something good is going to happen, on contrary viewer is aware of something bad, funerals are commonly accompanied with rain. Another trouble making sign is when a candle is snuffed off. When film makers are trying to show importance of the character they light him or her with a glow of light.

Semiotics is largely used in advertising unhealthy food such as mayonnaise which is high in cholesterol is viewed among healthy vegetables to discard knowledge of the unhealthiness. Another trick which is used in commercials is show things which represent class. In luxurious car ad you are not going to see a persons dressed in sweat pants with grocery bad, instead (s)he is dressed in suit and carries a briefcase with documents. Another class example is in alcohol beverages. Whiskey advertisements are often surrounded with suited men and dressed women having a good time.

Signs are everywhere and everyone is interpreting them differently. To understand the meaning of a sign our brain completes three steps:
1. Receives the sign

2. Connects it with real object

3. Brain understand the meaning of it  

Small and furry home pet, apparently with sharp clutches

Gestalt

Our mind has a natural and instinctual intuition about form and structure, and it always strives to find the simplest solutions. The faster we understand the relation between visual elements the faster we’ll understand the message. To help our cognitive processes we can use different laws of gestalt to help the eye and brain make connections quicker and to understand relations between different objects and groups better. Gestalt theory has an approach to the total image. Gestalt laws describe how we tend to organize visual elements into unified wholes. Knowledge about these principles helps us in building a unity in visual language. It’s an aid for both the designer and the user.

Examples of laws of gestalt:

Law of prägnanz – In reality we always try to organize or reduce shapes into the simplest form possible, we here see three tilted lines together in triangle, rather than many much more complicated shapes.

Similarity – Items that share the same attributes, for example shape or colour, tends to be grouped together. The adidas logo tend to us organize tilted lines into one shape.

Law of closure – We tend to ignore gaps and complete the shape with invisible lines to create familiar shapes. Logo of ‘le coq sportif’ the rooster is bulged over triangle, nevertheless our mind ignores that and closes triangle

Proximity - uses the close arrangement of elements to create a group association between those objects. If individual elements are also similar, they will tend to be perceived as a single whole, even though they are separate elements. In Unilever logo different symbols are used to represent letter U.

Continuation - Continuation is the principle through which the eye is drawn along a path, line or curve, preferring to see a single continuous figure than separate lines. This can be used to point towards another element in the composition, and is seen where a line is cut through one object, often in a curve, aligning perfectly with a secondary element.

What is Visual Knowledge Building?

Visual Knowledge Building is the process of digesting and creating visual information from different angles. Human mind receives seventy five percent of information from what their eyes see it is the reason why memes became popular today. Meme is an idea to spread cultural experiences virally through internet, often it is socially recognizable image with short and often sarcastic text on it.

Meme above shows how ‘selfies’ are so popular by showing screenshot from Toys Story movie where Woody and Buzz Lightyear are standing next to each other, where Buzzs’ hand is pointing to the whole world and there is some excitement on his face, in meantime Woody’s emotions  shows a great concern. Images help us to send more consistent message and it is no secret. However, it is not a point of Visual Knowledge Building.

Visual Knowledge Building teaches us that there is more than one answer in each question. This may sound quite philosophically. But let’s look on this picture :

VW decided to use famous Abbey Road where group Beatles where pictured as promotion of their Beetle car. It is quite symbolic and smart. However, talking exclusively about me car Beetle is a symbol of a bug and I hope for some it is that symbol as well. From one side it is words pronunciation play Beatles and Beetles and from the other this poster leaves some uncertainty in the message: why they used VW bug on Abbey Road. Visual Knowledge Building encourages that every answer could be correct one. 

But what is a knowledge?

There is no one common definition of Knowledge, but variously it can be defined as, “Things that are held to be true in a given context and drive us to action if there is no impediment”. In other words it can be defined as, justified true belief that increases existing capacity for effective action.  To translate all this in common words Knowledge is an understanding of an issue which leads us to resolvement of another issue.

Theory distinguish that there are three types of knowledge:

Physical – being a present in a certain environment. We need ample time to explore this world. No one can do that for us. It lays the foundation for later. A simple example of this knowledge can be ‘sunglasses’. One of the first sunglasses where made in China and it were not supposed to block sun. Chinese judges wore smoke-colored quartz lenses to hide their eye expression in court in thirteen century. Eskimos used google with little slits to prevent snow blinding.

Social – comes from outside. This knowledge must be told, taught or transmitted from the culture to the child through person-to-person, it will be learned more effectively if it is meaningful and seen as useful to the learner.

Logical-Mathematical – is developed and constructed within the mind of the learner. It consists of relationship between objects constructed by each individual. VW beetle poster.

Previously Knowledge workers distinguished three common theories: behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism.

Behaviorism states that learning is largely unknowable and we cannot possibly understand what goes in human mind. Theory discusses that reality is external and is objective, and knowledge is gained through experiences. The theory makes three assumptions:  

1. Observable behavior is more important that understanding internal activities, 
2. Behavior should be focused on simple elements: specific provocation and responses 
3. Learning is about behavior change.

In cognitivism theory learning is viewed as a process of inputs, directed in short term memory, and transformed for long term recall. In cognitive theories, learning is viewed as symbolic mental constructs in the learner’s mind, and the learning process is the means by which these symbolic representations are committed to memory.             

Constructivism suggests that learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences and learners are not empty vessels to be filled with knowledge. Instead, learners are constantly attempting to create meaning.

Central point of these theories is that learning occurs inside of the person. These theories do not address learning that occurs outside of people. In growing era of technology every manner information that we acquire is worth of exploring. In today’s environment, action is often needed without personal learning, that is, we need to act by drawing information outside of our primary knowledge.

Naturally, theorist tried to improve and revise theories as conditions change, however, rapid increase of information have altered so significantly, that further modification is no longer sensible and entirely new approach is needed. George Siemens and Stephen Downes introduced new theory of connectivism.

Connectivism is characterized as a reflection of our society that is changing rapidly, complex, connected socially, global, and mediated by increasing advancements in technology. Theory describes that to be connected to the outside knowledge is more important than existing state of knowing. In other words idea is that pipe is more important than content within the pipe. George Siemens describes connectivism as “Amplification of learning, knowledge, and understanding through the extension of personal network”. Only through personal networks a learner can acquire the viewpoint and diversity of opinion to learn to make critical decisions. Connectivism can be defined as actionable knowledge, where an understanding of where to find knowledge may be more important than answering how or what that knowledge encompasses.

After stepping out from learning theories of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism into connectivism we are getting acknowledged with ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements using personal network.

How to make a party and not stress about everything

There is always a certain period of growing up where you start getting experience and get some lesson out of this experience. One of these lessons is to through a huge (small) party at your place. I mean huge that you know that tomorrow morning your place going to be nasty. But you do this on purpose; you haven’t been wasted for months and you miss this feeling. Also you want to do this because you’ve been already at the house parties and it’s your turn now! So follow these tips to smash this night! It is easy! Depending on your situation you can miss one or two, if you wish so of course.

15 Billions Euros to Save EUkraine economy

In the video everything is discussed quite explicitly,

stay aware!

||| FUNKY SHOW |||

Here is my first Vlog!

It is about five Europeans whom I admire and consider as artist. Yes! businessmen's also are artist, because to law of a Chamber of Commerce:

Every work which contains personal imprint can be considered as art!

Visual Communication In Images

Here is the story!

Self-portraits a.k.a Selfies

Selfies got so popular, that we even got them as university assignment. Our assignment is to collect then analyze five self-portraits from social media, after we need to summarize it all shortly.

Understanding The News and Evalution

little intro

Today, I receive news from everywhere. A lot of them are coming through word of mouth and can be shared only through this level. it is my own business with this person with whom I share this. Not yours! Like if I decide to make thing public in XXI century, I do it on purpose. I am sending you a message; to all of you.

Sometimes it is hard to understand a message because it is vague, not clear, it's delivered in different language and  you just do not know it. Then message has some supporting material like semiotics [a study of signs], just pictures and sounds, so you still can get the meaning of it and good designer knows how to deliver this using his/her tools, not talking!!

Stop talkn' and start doin'

Mind Map

Just to clarify

This blog is part of a project within the course Visual Knowledge Building. The project is very flexible as our University Professors made only one remark: it should be about you and it should be Europe-focused. We got some good advice on which social media platforms we can work with, and one of them was Wordpress. I heard about this platform around year ago and, to be honest, I have a complicated relationship with it… so, I decided to go in a different direction.

Steve Jobs Empire

Steve’s Jobs Fifteen minutes Speech at Stanford University [Short Analysis]

It was very inspiration speech from business point of view and also from communication point of view. It is clearly seen that Stave Jobs wrote it by himself, correct it, re-wrote it, and again polished it. This Article is a part of Visual Communication Course; I received assignment to analyze this article from visual communication point of view. I need to keep it short, I have only 300 words though. So clean and to the point, also I put full speech below, so you can watch it and tell me your reaction on it too!

Intro to the World!

This blog is made for a university project, part of communication studies. It is a theory blog, hence, all sources are going to be sustainable and analysed accordingly. It is the story of how communication changed my life and will change yours as well. The blog is about the most important things in our lives and in the meantime it is also about nothing, which is also a part of our lives and the communication field.