Term
What is looking?
What is seeing?
What is representation?
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
Looking is a practice. It entails a play of power.
Seeing is done arbitrarily.
Representation is the use of language and images to create meaning. |
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Term
Describe the "myth of photographic truth"
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
| A photograph is perceived to be an unmediated copy of the real world, but, every image created is subjective, from perception, framing and selection. |
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Term
Describe the relationship between images and ideology.
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
| Ideologies are systems of belief within a culture. Images are an important means through which ideologies are produced and projected upon. |
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Term
How do we negotiate the meanings of images?
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
| The meanings of images are multiple. They must be consumed, viewed and interpreted. Decode them. Reflect on their larger contexts. Undergo a semiotic analysis. |
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Term
What is the value of images?
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
Through cultural values and appreciation.
In art world, economic value through authenticity, uniqueness and aesthetic style.
To provide information and make distant places accessible. |
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Term
What makes an image iconic?
Sturken and Cartwright |
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Definition
| An icon is universally understood as natural, but is culturally bound. They are perceived to represent universal concepts, emotions and meanings. It refers to something outside of its individual components. |
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Term
Describe the artists sketchbook through history.
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
| Great focus on realistically representing the human figure. Invention of crosshatching and shading, foreshortening of the human figure and use of building upon simple shapes. |
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Term
What are the developmental stages according to Viktor Lowenfeld?
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
1. scribble
2. preschematic
3. schematic
4. dawning realism
5. pseudo realism
6. period of decision/crisis |
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Term
Describe children's acquisition of symbolic competence.
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
| Children attempt to represent freely and with abandon at younger ages. There is an increase of peer awareness with age, correlating with lack of confidence and a decision to follow art or quit it. |
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Term
What is the significance of Xie Zhiliu?
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
| Attained a mastery of traditional Chinese faces from tracing older generations of artists' work. Brings into the question what is copying or why copying is looked down upon. |
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Term
Define a code.
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
| A patterned recurring set of elements that constitutes a system of rules that users agree as meaningful. Develops over time in relation to social issues. Becomes so transparent they are unrecognized. |
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Term
Examples of code in camera presets:
Examples in portraiture:
Codes and Symbolic Conventions |
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Definition
Narrow depth of field for portraiture setting.
Increased depth of field for landscape portraiture.
Fast shutter speed for blur avoidance in action photography.
Focus on attire.
Subject often does not make eye contact with viewer.
Focus on subject not surrounding.
Codes are often challenged and evolving in portraits. |
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Term
Describe structuralism.
Semiotic Analysis |
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Definition
| A specific domain of culture may be means of a structure - modeled on language - that is distinct from the realm of idea and reality. It is a "third ground". |
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Term
Ferdinand de Saussure and Structuralism.
Define signifier and signified.
Semiotic Analysis |
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Definition
The originator of the theory.
Focused on the underlying system of language, not the use of language.
The signifier: the sound pattern of a word, whether spoken aloud or in the mind.
The signified: the concept or meaning of word. |
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Term
Define paradigm.
Define syntagm.
Semiotic Analysis |
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Definition
Paradigm, a class of elements with similarities.
Syntagm, paradigms that are possible in a certain position in a certain linguistic environment. |
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Term
Charles Saunders Pierce -
Definition of sign.
Definition of interpretant.
Definition of object. |
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Definition
Sign - Something interpretable, that represents. Stands for the object to the interpretant.
Object - the subject matter between the sign and the interpretant.
Interpretant - a signs meaning, or ramification, formed into an idea or effect, an interpretation. |
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Term
Best known semiotic sign typology -
Define icon, index, symbol. |
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Definition
Icon holds a semblance or likeness to interpretant.
Index by factual connection to object.
Symbol by habit or rule for interpretant. |
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Term
Roland Barthes - Who is he?
Describe relationship between first and second orders of signification as denotations and connotations. |
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Definition
Used semiotics in critiquing bourgeous society.
First order significations are the denoted, actual seen objects.
Second order signification are the connoted, implied interpretants. |
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Term
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Definition
| Metonymy - when a thing is not called by its own name, but by the name of a thing intimately associated with it. |
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Term
How do we learn to see?
Berger |
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Definition
We learn to see through signs, symbols and semiotics.
We make sense of images through resemblance, logic, convention or signification. |
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Term
Describe/Define:
What are signs?
Signifiers and Signifieds?
Resemblance -
Cause and Effect or Logic:
Convention:
Signification:
Berger |
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Definition
Signs are anything that stand for something else.
A signifier calls to mind a concept, a signified. These relationships are arbitrary and must be learned.
Resemblance looks like the object, photographs. ICON
Logic implies, smoke means fire. INDEXICAL
Convention, objects with a learned symbolic value. SYMBOL
Signification, as in a smile means pleasure. |
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Term
| According to Berger, what are some things that signs can do? |
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Definition
| They can lie, get information and draw conclusions. |
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Term
Define, according to Berger.
Codes:
Metaphor vs Metonymy
Analogy vs Association
Simile vs Synechdoche |
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Definition
Codes are systems of conventions that make sense of signs. A culture is a collection of codes. They are created and systematized.
Metaphors use analogies, and suggest something is like something else. Use of similies.
Metonymys create associations to convey information quickly and powerfully. Use of synedoche. |
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Term
According to Rosenblum:
Describe the style of NEWS photography -
visual conventions:
work practices:
division of labor:
clients:
marketplace:
audience:
reward systems: |
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Definition
visual conventions: Conformed and typified. focused, identifiable, routine events, subtlety & mood & shading is absent
work practices: rushed for deadlines, purpose is to illustrate an aspect of the written story, informational content is primary.
division of labor - photographers lose technical control of development, editing
clients and market place - mass audiences, strong competition between publications |
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Term
According to Rosenblum:
Describe the style of ADVERTISING photography -
visual conventions:
work practices:
division of labor:
clients:
marketplace:
audience:
reward systems: |
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Definition
visual conventions: play with scale, depth and distance. short FG, complex MG, dead BG. unnaturalness and extraordinary.
work practices: prepatory work on shooting set, technically innovative
division of labor - turns role of visual expert into technical labor
clients - agency represents client, agency collaborates with photographer |
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Term
According to Rosenblum:
Describe the style of FINE ARTS photography -
visual conventions:
work practices:
division of labor:
clients:
marketplace:
audience:
reward systems: |
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Definition
visual conventions - space rather than place sensibility, a personal photographer stamp, elastic boundaries of definition, self conscious representations
work practices - self generated
division of labor - complete absence
clients and marketplace - tension between institutional awards and own work, encouragements of originality, constraints at distribution ends, market gatekeepers, critics and curators |
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Term
Describe the emergence of photographs as evidence.
Credibility of Photojournalism |
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Definition
| Sketch artists reuse of stock pictures led to suspicions. Belief that machines are objective viewers of reality. Seeing is believing. Even under the use of cosmographs, photography was still highly credible. The rise of digital technology is what has killed this credibility. |
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Term
Historical examples of photography manipulation.
Credibility of Photojournalism |
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Definition
Composographs - different shots morphed into one
The photographer's choice of film stock, camera apparatus, positioning and framing. |
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Term
Contemporary codes governing digital manipulation:
Credibility of Photojournalism |
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Definition
Preserve the status quo-
limit photographer intervention, only burning, dodging, B&W toning and cropping are acceptable. minimal color correcting. |
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