Visual Analysis

By
Ajay Chandran
ajay@sju.edu.in
 Unit II

Visual Analysis &

Modern Theories
 Visual Analysis & Modern Theories
 Semiotics & Structural approach to visuals
 Psychoanalysis & Visuality
 Feminist & Marxist analysis
 Marxist approach to visual texts
 Myth & Visual Rhetoric
Semiotics & Structural approach to Visuals
 Semiotics
 Semiotics is the study of signs and their meaning in society
 A sign is something which can stand for something else in - other
words, a sign is anything that can convey meaning.
 So words can be signs. drawings can be signs. Photographs can be
signs, and even street signs can be signs.
 Modes of dress and style, the type of bag you have. or even where
you live can also be considered signs, in that they convey meaning.
 Semiotics started as an academic investigation of the
meaning of words (linguistics), moved into examining
people's behaviour (anthropology and psychology), and
then evolved to become an enquiry into culture and society
(sociology and philosophy). Following that it moved on to
assisting with analyses of cultural products (films,
literature, art-critical theory), and finally and more recently
became a methodology for researching and analysing
consumer behaviour and brand communications.
 Denotation: What you see
 Signifier: the visible or present component
• Icon: the signifier represents the signified by apparently
having a likeness to it
• Symbol: the arbitrary relationship between signifier and
signified
• Index: casual relationships and narrative aspects
 Connotation: what you think
 Signified: the invisible component
Thank You