Parsing Myth

Here is a picture of how the board looked when we left.

We were trying to get a picture of how a single signifier yields multiple signifieds and thus signs, and how a secondary level of signifieds (a tertiary meaning?) creates myth--the sign of which is the icon. It's based on Peirce's model with Saussure's terminology, Barthes' sentiments (of Myth Today), and allows for Eco's caveat of unlimited semiosis (over-interpretation).

This is a thumbnail of the discussion I had to get down before I forgot. I want to work on it more and write it out more fully before I can explain it in depth. Sam can probably do it the justice I can't.

Barthes' Conception of Myth

A much more accurate visual representation than the one I made in Cultural Studies last year... Hope it's helpful!

For some reason, every time I make it bigger it gets fuzzy, but if you click on the image itself it opens large and clear in a new tab.

Twitter Feeds!

I've just added the feeds to the side for those who I could find - if you send your @whatever info my way (what's that called again?), I'll add the rest. Comments on the setup are appreciated as well. Currently, I've got everything set up to show people's last three tweets. Is this too many? Too few? Also, I realize that this means all tweets will show up here, rather than just the ones related to class. If this is a problem, I assume it's pretty easy to set up a second account? Not that I really care if other interesting posts show up...

Housekeeping

First off, I think we should follow Jeremy's lead in posting.

Second off, I'm pasting the e-mail I sent because it won't Tweet:

I'm sorry we haven't solidified how to do responses on-line yet, but it seems to have centered on the blogspot (consensus?). We met on Monday and tried to work through Saussure and Peirece. It was lively. We attempted to use a constant (a banana: of which we had one: a bit brown and useful) to illustrate the particulars of and differences between the fundamental Saussurian and Peircian models models of signification. I think we came to a pretty good conclusion of understanding them both, distinguishing between them, and deciding how access and utilize them as we proceed. We also decided that it was a good idea to read a couple of selections (that Sarah selected and posted) from Barthes's Mythologies as well as his "Myth Today" to get experience of what semiotic deconstruction looks like. So for next week we are reading more of Chandler, "Myth Today" by Barthes from Mythologies and a couple of essays Sarah selected form the same book and sent out.

I feel that as we investigate the historical foundations of semiotics, we are able to get adequately ahead of ourselves to prepare for the next level of readings.

So far so good.

I think responses to this e-mail should be in the blog. I Think this class will require a lot of monitoring my everyone. I don't think this will be a problem once we centralize our comments.

Shared Cultural Experiences: PoMo Realized, Part Two.

I think I'm probably going to win honors for the most disgusting initial post, but I wanted to pick up on Joshua's idea that PoMo is drifiting into wider culture. Below, I include a video from the new TV show "Bridalplasty." After that, some thoughts.

Ok, so semiology is a little difficult to wrap one's head around because-- in a way-- what you're doing is separating form from meaning. Signifier from signified. But that's very nearly what's happening here: the women on this show, whatever I think about the idea personally, seem to have separated the form of their bodies (signifier) from the own idealizations of self (signified). Yet what's striking to me, is that these women's desire for plastic surgery connects to Manovich's idea about the remix. It's the same concept being applied to bodies, a'la transcoding. Thoughts? (Besides or including wtf or ew?)

Shared cultural experiences and social semiotics.

I thought today's class was really productive. I'm really looking forward to working with everybody.

So I'm trying out our blog and I couldn't think of what to say, then, like a deus ex machina, the Huxtables appeared on my other computer to exemplify a topic I've discussed with my mother-in-law: a turn towards on-demand media for both news and entertainment from standard, broadcast programs has greatly diminished the occurrence (perhaps even possibility) of shared cultural experiences.

A first reaction might be to look for examples: MLK, JFK, RFK, moon landing, prisoner release from Iran, baby Jessica, Challenger explosion, 9/11, Balloon Boy. It seems more likely that we have a shared experience of viral videos and the like: Susan Boyle, Old Spice Guy, Antoine Dodson, Lady Gaga, Beiber fever. These are all just off the top of my head, but I sense a difference. I don't know what to make of it yet (though I feel like I may have posted something for last 583 about this) but the "fragmentation" of culture addressed in the NPR article seems a lot like the recognition of a "multi-centered" culture: postmodernism realized.

Great. PoMo. Check. What did we decide the next thing would be?

By the way, I tweeted the NPR article when I first saw it and tagged it with #semiotics583. My user name is "seelytweet" (which was my ancestral name before Ellis Island processing).