Politecnico of Milan – Master in D&E– 2022/23 - Course in Semiotics – Giacomo Festi

Final paper instructions

[Reserved to attending students]

After the approval of the product proposal for the analysis, the student will prepare a paper
organized in the following sections (this structure can be remodulated by students, according to the
peculiarity of their chosen product – for instance, if it is a prototype):

i. Introduction focusing one or more questions (possibly, semiotic ones) around the chosen product.

ii. Trajectories of the object

In this section, the student will present, in a synthetic way the result of an exploration of the six cuts
for the semiotic analysis introduced during the course: a) object-sign – framing the identity of the
product within a genealogy, categorial relevant distinctions; b) object-configuration – the plastic
morphological main analysis; c) Object-interface; d) Object-actant – the roles of the object in specific
predicative scenarios – emerging values & valorizations; e) Object-product – the company overall
strategy, the positioning; f) Object-argument – the discursive power of the object of activating a
meta-commentary about something (open interpretation of the rhetorical dimension – the
connection with forms of life, the commentary about design itself, etc.)

iii. The mediatization of the object – especially, the product in the advertising discourse

The student will consider the revalorizations at work – the promotional work, how this is also
keeping trace of the strategical dimension in positioning the product through values selection and
articulation. All the textual levels of analysis (enunciative, narrative, figurative, plastic, rhetorical)
could eventually be used.

iv. The object in the dynamics of culture

How some of the points 1-6 could be related to ongoing or proposed tendencies, where the
tendency primarily concerns forms of valorizations & identities. Interpreting the potentials of an
object in terms of micro, meso or macro-trends, especially focusing on the level of the practices.

v. Conclusion where the overall interpretation of the interesting points of the object is (re)affirmed.
Addendum. Other materials (not to be counted in the tabs constraints) can be freely attached in the
end, like technical info about the product, the company description of it, reviews, etc.

Logistical info. The written part should not exceed 20.000 tabs (space included). This means that a
primary longer version should be reduced, selecting what seems more relevant during the semiotic
analysis (it is suggested to write a first version with no particular limits and then to reduce it to the
indicated dimension).

Beside a short intro & conclusion, a general indication could (could, not should…) be: around 12.000
for part 1 (2000 for each analytical cut), 4.000 for part 2 and 4.000 for part 3. Feel free to
remodulate the overall extension, according to the specificities of your object of study.

Name the file in the proper way: Surname_Name_Nameoftheproduct_SemioticPaper_22-23

Please, put the name of the product in the file name, to ease eventual recovery of the file.

Feel free to insert any kind of helping image in the paper, always indicating a numbered Figure in a
caption (es. Fig. 1. Image of the product). Photography, illustration, diagram, scheme, everything can
be properly used: no limits concerning images.

At the end, add the references (outside tabs counting), possibly adopting one of the current
academic systems for the referencing. Remember to quote all the semiotic essays in the final paper,
to demonstrate their correct integration after their understanding.

Deadline: the delivery of the file, on Webeep, in a folder prepared by the teacher, will be 12 days
before the exam date (to be calculated, in each occasion, by the students). Only for January 2023,
first exam dates, the delivery will be 7 days before the exam.