Multimedia Semiotics Ι

The relationship between external images (from the environment and screen media such as television, film or computer-based media) and internal imagery (such as mental representations of objects, sensations, ideas and dreams) is analyzed. This relationship is responsible for the recognition and understanding of perceived images. The first part of the course’s approach entails the integration of semiotics, concerning the creation of images and their apprehension on behalf of the audience, and communication theory, regarding the research on the relation between mental processing and behavior. Themes concerning symbolism and mythology in audiovisual expression are also examined.

The aim of the course is for students to acquire the ability to interpretively understand symbolic systems and to familiarize themselves with basic reference points of their communication function. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

- using the terminology: sign, expression, image, emotion, echoic memory, icon, symbol, myth, idol and narrative identity

- understanding perception as sense and as cognitive process

- understanding visual representation of female and male stereotypes

- identifying the influence of psychoanalytic theory on the analysis of audiovisual media.

1st Week: What is semiotics.
2nd Week: The gaze and mental images.
3rd Week: Sound imagery, cognition and culture.
4th Week: Unconscious, dreams, symbols and archetypes.
5th Week: Childhood and pregnancy imaging. Images of self-development.
6th Week: Self-image and images of social identity.
7th Week: Analyzing moving images: gender and androgynous.
8th Week: Analyzing moving images: impairment and empowerment.
9th Week: The semiotics of everyday life: environment, space and objects.
10th Week: “Virtual” semiotics and digital images.
11th Week: Semiotics of the uncanny: medical imaging, the microscopic gaze and the images from inside the human body.
12th Week: Presentation of final assignment (part 1).
13th Week: Presentation of final assignment (part 2).

Elias, Norbert, The Symbol Theory, Sage Publication, 1991.
Kress, Gunther and Theo Van Leeuwen, Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, Routledge, 2006.
Material available on the e-class platform.

Lectures.

Home assignments.

Enhanced by multimedia content.
The learning process is supported by the asyncrhonous e-learning platform e-class.

Written examination paper.

Final written assignment.

Oral presentation of final written assignment.