Images generate meanings, but the meanings to not necessarily like in the work itself. The meaning instead are produced through complex negotiations that make up the social process and practices through with we interpret meanings. In laymen’s terms, we bring our own interpretation to the work.
Three elements besides the image itself and its producer:
1) the codes and conventions that structure the image and that cannot be separated from the content of the image
2) the viewers and how they interpret or experience the image
3) the context in which the image is being viewed
There is a difference between viewer and audience. A viewer is the one that looks. An audience is the collection of lookers. To interpolate something would be when an image “calls out to” a viewer or catches their attention. For the viewer to be able to interpolate something though, the viewer must consider themselves as part of the society in which the image is meaningful. An Olay commercial will not be interpolated the same for men as they are for women because the men are not in the same societal group as women.
Most images have a meaning that the producers prefer you to see. For example, advertisers have different reasons for images than say, artist, graphic designers and filmmakers. We usually have no idea what the exact meaning is of the producers though, since each person brings to the table their own thoughts.
What determines the value of a work? One key factor is the collecting by art institutions like museums and other art collectors.
Someone’s “taste” in images if often an extension of a culture’s ideology. Living as we do in our own culture, it is easier for us to recognize the meanings of another culture’s ideology than it is our own, because we are so engrained in our own culture that we hardly consider them to be anything more than common place and common sense. Marx once theorized that since we are so enwrapped in our culture, that we are often encouraged to believe in the culture and give into it, even if we are oppressed.
Louis Althusser theorized that without ideology we would have no means of thinking about or experiencing that thing in which we call reality.
All images are encoded with meanings in their creation and production that the viewer later decode. According the Stuart Hall, there are 3 positions that viewers can take when decoding images:
1) Dominant-hegemonic reading. They can identify with the hegemonic position and receive the dominant message of an image or text (TV show) in an unquestioning manner
2) Negotiated reading. They can negotiate an interpretation from the image and its dominat meanings
3) Oppositional reading. Finally they can take an oppositional position, either by completely disagreeing with the ideological position embodied in an image or rejecting it altogether.
Thoughts for Discussion
1. How, within our class, do we vary in audience versus viewer? We are all here to learn the same material, and yet based on the reading, how does interpreting the material as a viewer change our meaning of the course?
2. Louis Althusser said that without ideology we wouldn’t be able to understand reality. How would this concept play out if we started viewing things from a different angle? Would this disrupt our reality or simply alter it?
Three elements besides the image itself and its producer:
1) the codes and conventions that structure the image and that cannot be separated from the content of the image
2) the viewers and how they interpret or experience the image
3) the context in which the image is being viewed
There is a difference between viewer and audience. A viewer is the one that looks. An audience is the collection of lookers. To interpolate something would be when an image “calls out to” a viewer or catches their attention. For the viewer to be able to interpolate something though, the viewer must consider themselves as part of the society in which the image is meaningful. An Olay commercial will not be interpolated the same for men as they are for women because the men are not in the same societal group as women.
Most images have a meaning that the producers prefer you to see. For example, advertisers have different reasons for images than say, artist, graphic designers and filmmakers. We usually have no idea what the exact meaning is of the producers though, since each person brings to the table their own thoughts.
What determines the value of a work? One key factor is the collecting by art institutions like museums and other art collectors.
Someone’s “taste” in images if often an extension of a culture’s ideology. Living as we do in our own culture, it is easier for us to recognize the meanings of another culture’s ideology than it is our own, because we are so engrained in our own culture that we hardly consider them to be anything more than common place and common sense. Marx once theorized that since we are so enwrapped in our culture, that we are often encouraged to believe in the culture and give into it, even if we are oppressed.
Louis Althusser theorized that without ideology we would have no means of thinking about or experiencing that thing in which we call reality.
All images are encoded with meanings in their creation and production that the viewer later decode. According the Stuart Hall, there are 3 positions that viewers can take when decoding images:
1) Dominant-hegemonic reading. They can identify with the hegemonic position and receive the dominant message of an image or text (TV show) in an unquestioning manner
2) Negotiated reading. They can negotiate an interpretation from the image and its dominat meanings
3) Oppositional reading. Finally they can take an oppositional position, either by completely disagreeing with the ideological position embodied in an image or rejecting it altogether.
Thoughts for Discussion
1. How, within our class, do we vary in audience versus viewer? We are all here to learn the same material, and yet based on the reading, how does interpreting the material as a viewer change our meaning of the course?
2. Louis Althusser said that without ideology we wouldn’t be able to understand reality. How would this concept play out if we started viewing things from a different angle? Would this disrupt our reality or simply alter it?
3. Based on Stuart Hall’s idea of 3 ways a viewer can decode images, what are some common examples we find everyday that can illustrate his points? Why are these illustrations such a hot topic for discussion?
4. Political cartoons are often based upon the viewers ideologies. How much of these ideologies are expressed through the work itself and how much of the meaning is interpreted by the viewer?
Atom Feed (xml)
No comments:
Post a Comment