In our most recent class this previous Wednesday, we discussed the topic of semiotics. We dove into passages and theories written by philosophers Ferdinand De Saussure, Roland Barthes, and Pierre Macherey. Each piece related to a different understanding of language, sound, and thought, which in turn was stylized in accordance to the time period reflecting on the subject matter. These concepts relate directly to our class discussion and modernism as a whole, for the use of symbols, culture, and perspective still proves to be practical and relevant in today’s day and age.
The introduction we read for this topic was rather vague yet specifically philosophical. It revolved around the notion that the division between thought and language is impossible. You are, as a matter of fact, doing it right now in reading this very passage. One cannot think of nothing. To not have some sort of language- be it body, visual, internal or external- is to not exist. Words, in some variation, are always in use. Our very association with and of them is permanently present through and for us.
A more applied version of this, the moment that shed the most light on the topic to me personally was the idea De Saussure introduced when he stated “The community is necessary if values that owe their existence solely to usage and general acceptance are to be set up; by himself the individual is incapable of fixing a single value” (6). This put in perspective, for me, the idea of company logos and their impact on society, because of society. Every generation that associates a piece of iconography with a brand, with a fast food corporation, with a sign, is a make up of history- is the reason that very symbol exists. In doing so, the translation also feeds into the viewers’ emotions. Every individual recognizes the logo but attaches to it their own personal experience; what they feel when they see McDonald’s, what they remember in regards to Nike. There is a sense of cultural duality taking place in literal terms as well as with each personable connection. The unification of general understanding organizes and categorizes the period in which we live by the different styles, locations, and people that shared any particular lifestyle. How relevant and/or connected a symbol is defines how much or how little it has changed, which in turn represents its success. We adapt and evolve as a society and so do the projects we work on. So do the means of producing these projects. In turn, this changes the projects but not necessarily the ideas or purposes behind them.
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