Iconography and Visual Analysis

Media Analysis 2

Schedule

1st halfSignsColors

2nd halfGroupwork (20 minutes)Presentation (5 minutes, 25 total)

Signs

Signs

Signs are shared in a culture

Signs

Visual icons may have a resemblance to object, unlike

words

Signs

All signs have meaning which is shared and circulated

Signs

We are interested in ideas, values and discourses

Signs

Meanings may seem neutral or natural, but they never are

Signs

Ideology of images; when we make the cultural natural

Signs

Literal vs hidden

Denotation vs connotation

Signs

Denotation is "like perceiving reality"

Signs

Connotation is to look for elements that transport meaning

Signs

Denotation seems rather simple and straight-forward. Is it ever interesting and/or significant?

Signs

Cultural associations rather than individual responses

Norman Rockwell, Freedom of Speech (1943)

Signs

Carriers of connotation

PosesObjectsSettingsPhotogenia

Iconography

Signs

Visual elements gain symbolic meaning over time

Colors

Colors

Communicative functions of color

Colors

Ideational function

Colors

Interpersonal function

Colors

Textual function

Group Work

Group work

Please form five groups during the break

Group work

Discuss the iconography and use of colors in the painting. Pay

specific attention to connotation and the harmony of colors.

Emanuel Leutze, George Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)

Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930)

Norman Rockwell, Freedom From Want (1943)

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks (1942)

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych (1962)