A renewed viewer-reader condition : mediating between semiotics and counter-semiotics

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As the title of this thesis anticipates, two modes for interpretation are discussed:visual semiotics and pictorial counter-semiotics. Rooted in and conceived from anestablished linguistic methodology for learning the significance of signs, visualsemiotics constitutes an interpretative mindset which affords only a confined set oftheories for the viewer. These conceptions, directing the codes by which, forexample, visual narratives are created and understood, hold certain limits for theviewer's full appreciation and formation of the selfhood of pictures. Visual semioticspresents images to viewers as a form of text, implying that they be read and studiedin a particular fashion - an attitude advancing the idea that images are subsidiary totext. This limited theory is investigated here.Pictorial counter-semiotics, a misrecognized counterpart of semiotic study, offers aparadigmatic shift in the recognition and understanding of visual signification. Byexposing a number of visual paradoxes, it enables the viewer to evaluate andreconsider his I her position on the construction and cultural implementation ofpictures. Three particular instances of image-making, namely anti-splendor,'exfoliation', and 'multistability', are brought in line with my own art and image-makingprocesses to elucidate a counter means for picture interpretation.Counter-semiotics is not an anti-semiotic stance. It is instead a conjoining feature ofa viewer's interpretative mindset and effects the constant transference betweenpictorial convention and pictorial discovery.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University