Fashion is an obvious sign/code.
For a suit its the CODE for business, professionalism, intelligence etc
- Tie, a pointless invention that has no real use but is a sign for a good career and shows intelligence etc
-A punk challenges that by wearing a shirt and tie in a messy way, undone and not tired properly
There a signs and signifers
A sign is made up of a signifier + signified = sign
Signifier
Written word 'dog'
Spoken word 'dog'
Barking by the dog
picture of the dog
+
Signified
Mental concept of a dog
=
Sign
There isn't a logical relationship between the signifier and signified because people just accept that the letters D O G make the word dog which means a four legged animal, the relationship is arbitrary.
Looking at the picture of the rose, the signifier is flower but the signified is love.
A lot of signified things are stereotypes, especially if it comes to addressing one gender or type of person or genre, by using the appropriate colours or font.
Codes can be used in type as well, when a font is used to try and suggest a genre. If the wrong font is used it looks wrong because what society perceive as the right font is different.
Such as, ;Ye Olde Tea Shoppe' doesn't look right in Veranda.
Denotation is the basic literal understanding of something, like a dog, it is a four legged animal.
Connotation is the associated meanings, it's loyal, companionship or walkies. It goes further than the literal meaning and moves towards an deeper understanding.
Myth
Roland Barthes was literary theorist who looked at codes, signs and mythologies. He believed that Myth works with Connotation, theres a signifier, signified, and a sign in a connotation, the whole sign then becomes a myth with the same pattern as before, there are deeper levels to a myth that people don't unpick which allows it to become a myth.
In this photo the sign is a young black child, he's wearing a uniform and saluting. What's he saluting? Connoted is the French Flag because this was a french magazine and at the time France owned a lot of african land. The myth here is international harmony.
Constable was a very famous artists for painting very english looking paintings, this image shows a natural setting where everything is calm and doing well. In reality painters were commissioned for paintings like this because the gentry who owned the land wanting to depict a tranquil successful life. The people who worked on the land really didn't enjoy it, it was long hours for very little pay so there were marches and upheaval throughout the country.
Font can show cultures and races, such as these. However they can be slightly racist, the Hawaiian type does show Hawaii and a lot of people can relate to that, it suggests that all Hawaiian's use bamboo to makes words and communicate, which obviously isn't the case. The same for the Greek type, it looks like the old markings in stone which is historically correct, but it doesn't mean in this day and age Greek people still use stone to write on.
P.C Plod is a good example of how fashion can connate things, he is friendly, quite cute and would probably never arrest anyone. However in real life police can be quite intimidating with their clothing, because they wear so much protective clothing, their belts hold a lot of things that could hurt someone and riot police are even scarier. You can't even see there faces and are like robots, doing what they're told.
Meanings for things don't come from the object, they come from how people perceive things and how society accepts them. Looking at the connotations from cultural objects people can start to understand how culture and meanings work.
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