SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

The first text I have chosen is a poster for the exhibition ‘Sensation’ held at the Royal Academy of Arts, we can see the image is split by two different photos of similarly shaped objects – a tongue and an electric iron. Appearing to mirror each other, there is a central point in which the two meet. Sat directly below this middle ground is the word ‘Sensation’.

The front cover of the magazine, titled ‘Appetite’ is the second text I have chosen. What we can see is the models face of a woman with her tongue outstretched and very long. The word appetite floats above the tongue, followed by the translation of the the word in both French and Spanish, as they repeat they grow smaller. Adbusters issue number 44, called ‘Appetite’ was published in 2002.

What I immediately recognise as a Sign in the denotative sense is the stuck out tongue featuring in both images, ‘Sensation’ and ‘Appetite’. This signifier for this is infact the photographs of them and they inturn signify on a connative level, touch, taste, speech and are both sensual suggesting sexual representations. The two images with tongues outstretched, one from a side view whereas ‘Sensation’ heads the tongue facing the audience. The sign connotes as a myth to be of sexuality. This is all shown through a Social Code, what we see within culture.

The tongue itself connotes human interaction, part of the body it gives us taste and touch- two of five senses, and when any sense is stimulated gives sensation. The phrase mother tongue holds direct correlation to the tongue as language and therefore  a culutural viewpoint. In Adbusters, it is quite clear the focus of the tongue is to represent through the word itself appetite and seems to be primarily the only reason the tongue has been featured to denotative in this way. Whereas in ‘Sensation’ the direct purpose is touch.  

Contrasting to the two different pieces, each design has an opposing item to the personal perspective  of the tongue. In ‘Sensation’ the electric iron stands opposite the tongue in a similar shaped fashion but the iron connotes feelings of technology, temperature and danger. The iron has been chosen in the design to be directly inhuman, not sensual but  connotes potential danger. The iron as we know exceeds a high temperature and is possible to damage our senses and cause pain. Just as ‘Sensation’ juxtaposes with the personal, we see the same in ‘Appetite’ where there is a denotation of a side profile of a female model mannequin, this connotes the article to be fake and industrialised. This contradicts and detracts from the human side of how the tongue appeared sensual.

The textual codes in which the images can be seen are quite different. In ‘Sensation’ the type that has been used as main focus is simply ‘Sensation’. This is the signifier and signifies to us as th meaning of ‘perception associated with stimulation of a sense organ’, the denotation of the type includes the choice of Sans Serif and the colour of white to represent clean-cut and elegant. At the same time the font chosen is to once again mimic the shape of tongue and iron, and is pointed, this is made clear with the letter A situated in the middle, top of the iron, outlined in red.

In Adbusters, ‘Appetite’ the denotation of the type is handwritten and uses marker scrawled to connote and intended to address the mediocre, but always with intention for the type to connote good design. Black has been chosen for the typeface and it connotes the words to be able to sit strong and overpower what it is on top of.