Social Stigma of COVID-19: A Semiotic Analysis of WHO Campaign Posters

COVID-19 has been reported to be risen in numbers of infected cases and deaths. The massive report by media and social network which focus on the spreading and infection may affect not only physical health but also individual’s and general population’s mental health, isolation and stigma. To eradicate COVID-19-related stigma and discrimination perpetuated by both individual and group of people, WHO exhibits some anti-stigma campaign posters. This study employs qualitative method to acquire deep investigation of meaning and to involve the social context. Thus, by using Roland Barthes’s semiotic approach, analyzing signifiers and signifieds, this study was aimed to unmask both denotative and connotative meanings of the stigma embed within the six health campaign posters of COVID-19 by Southeast Asia WHO. The analysis was focused not only on the verbal sign of posters (linguistic text), but also its relation to their visual sign (imagery messages). From the analysis of the two sign systems of posters, the result shows that the six posters connote acts of discriminatory behaviours, stigmatization, stereotype and blaming. Through the posters, WHO propagates people to work together to fight COVID-19 and to bring out the best humanity, to have better awareness and positive attitudes and appeals governments, citizens, media, key influencers of communities to have a role in preventing and to stop stigma surrounding in South-Asia and specifically in Indonesia which becomes the target of the poster viewers during the pandemic. Those messages are connoted through different font colors and sizes and the illustration on each poster.

Desain Komunikasi Visual Sign System Sebagai Sarana Penunjang Informasi Pada Universitas Raharja

Seiring berkembangnya zaman, segala sesuatu menjadi lebih kompleks. Salah satu contohnya adalah tata letak atau penempatan ruang publik yang sering kali berubah-ubah seiring berjalannya waktu pada Universitas Raharja. Dengan perubahan yang kerap terjadi, informasi tentang tata letak di area Universitas Raharja menjadi terhambat. Permasalahan mengenai Sign system pada area Universitas Raharja kurang lengkap, dimana tidak adanya petunjuk arah yang menunjukan tata letak ruangan pada area ini, tujuan penelitian ini untuk menghasilkan sign system yang meningkatkan daya tarik audiens untuk melihat dan memenuhi kebutuhan informasi untuk Universitas Raharja, dengan dibuatnya desain sign system yang menarik, informatif, dan komunikatif yang didukung dengan pemilihan placement yang tepat diharapkan dapat membantu civitas Universitas Raharja dalam menunjukan arah maupun lokasi yang ingin dituju. Data yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini merupakan hasil dari beberapa metode seperti observasi, wawancara, dan studi pustaka, serta penelitian ini dianalisis dengan SWOT dan Perancangan Media. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah penerapan sign system di beberapa titik Universitas Raharja, seperti pada koridor Gedung Modern, koridor Gedung Lake View, Kantin, Masjid, Basement, serta Tempat Parkir. Sehingga memiliki kesimpulan yaitu untuk penyampaian informasi yang informatif dan komunikatif pada Universitas Raharja diperlukan media sign system dengan bahasa indonesia dan arah panah yang mudah dimengerti dan dipahami oleh civitas Universitas Raharja.

VISUAL SEMIOSIS IN THE CHILD’S PAINTING ACTIVITY

Среди огромного разнообразия явлений визуального семиозиса в культурном пространстве значительное место занимает изобразительная продукция: картины, иллюстрации в книгах, предметные и сюжетные изображения, используемые в дизайне и маркетинге. Есть немало оснований считать изобразительное творчество средством коммуникации в культуре, своеобразным визуальным языком. Однако в семиотическом аспекте изобразительное творчество изучено существенно меньше, чем художественное творчество в словесности. Неоднозначные ответы даются на вопрос: что именно считать знаком в изображении? Дискуссионными остаются вопросы об основных семиотических характеристиках изобразительного знака, его структуре, компонентном составе его семантики и его прагматике. В данном сообщении авторы представляют исследование, посвященное визуальному семиозису детей. Теоретической основой анализа является культурно-историческая теория Л. С. Выготского, концептуальные положения Ю. М. Лотмана о культурном пространстве как семиосфере, работы Ч. Пирса, Р. Барта и В. Нёт о концептуальных основах визуального семиозиса. В детской субкультуре изобразительная деятельность особенно значима и широко востребована. Есть немало свидетельств коммуникативной направленности изобразительного творчества у детей, и это занимает у них значительное место в прагматике визуального семиозиса. Анализируя прагматику визуальной коммуникации у детей, авторы вслед за Ю. М. Лотманом разделяют Я-Другой-коммуникацию и Я-Я-коммуникацию. В обоих видах коммуникации визуальный семиозис представлен в широком объеме. По существу, здесь идет речь о двух ее типах: персональной коммуникации и кросс-культурной коммуникации. Под кросс-культурной коммуникацией подразумевается диалог детской субкультуры и субкультуры взрослых. На основе богатого материала о формировании изобразительного языка детей, представленного в литературе, и собственных наблюдений авторы анализируют генезис основных составляющих изобразительного знака: его структуры, его семантики и прагматики. Обсуждая структуру изобразительного знака, авторы сравнивают кажущуюся и объективно подтверждаемую степень его холистичности в свете последних нейрокогнитивных исследований зрительного восприятия. Анализируя семантику изобразительного знака как текста, авторы соотносят отдельные его компоненты с релевантными семами и знаками как структурными элементами синтактики. Сопоставление данных, полученных российскими и зарубежными учеными, свидетельствует о сходстве многих семиотических характеристик изобразительных знаков у детей в разных культурах. Обобщая, авторы предлагают концепцию тройственного характера семиотики изобразительной деятельности у детей: с одной стороны, это явление, производное от изобразительной культуры взрослых, с другой ‒ элемент детской субкультуры, отражающей все особенности детского мышления и мировосприятия, с третьей ‒ язык диалога с культурой взрослых. Among the multiple examples of visual semiosis in culture, particular attention is paid to painted (or drawn) objects such as pictures, book illustrations, separate items and some compositions in design and ads. There is a lot of evidence to recognize painting as the means of communication in the cultural space and as a visual language. Still, it should be noted that, from a semiotic perspective, painting has been discussed less than writing in literature. The question “What should be recognized as a sign in a painted object?” is still open. The issues of the main semiotic features of the visual sign, its structure and semantic components, as well as its pragmatic meaning are still debatable. In the current study, visual semiosis development is the main topic of discussion. The theoretical background of this study includes the culture-historical theory of Lev Vygotsky, the culture semiosphere concept of Yuri Lotman, and some conceptual arguments about the visual semiosis stated by Charles Sanders Peirce, Roland Barthes, and Winfried Nöth. In children’s subculture, painting is a highly attractive and frequent activity. There is a plenty of evidence that children’s painting activity is usually communicatively oriented, and this is an essential point of the pragmatics of visual semiosis. Following Lotman, the authors divide children’s visual communication into the Self-Other and I-I types. Visual communication is highly represented in both of them. In fact, the given communication types are relevant to personal and cross-cultural communication. The latter one means a dialogue between the child and the adult culture. The current study is based on multiple research publications about the development of children’s pictorial language and on the authors’ own data. The study addresses the genesis of structural, semantic, and pragmatic features of the visual sign. From the perspective of the modern neuroscience studies, the authors discuss the extent of the imaginative and objective iconicity of visual signs. From the perspective of the semantics of visual sign analysis, the authors discuss the relation between separate elements of the visual sign and the relevant semantic features; the visual sign is recognized as a syntactic unit. The comparative analysis of the data of Russian and other cultures reveals many similar features of visual signs. To sum up, the authors suggest the concept of the triple nature of children’s painting activity semiosis; on the one hand, it is a derivation of the adult culture; on the other, it is a product of children’s subculture; finally, it is a language for a dialogue with the adult culture.

Narrative Patterns in Indonesian Fine Art

This paper aims to describe the structure and pattern of narratives in art, which in this case Indonesian fine art is used as a case study. This topic is important considering that the assumption that works of fine art have narrative characteristics has become common knowledge, but the structure and narrative patterns within the genre of work of fine art that can be used as a reference have not yet been formulated. By using a structural semiotic approach, studies in this paper have found that narrative patterns in fine art are a combination of denotative visual sign units presented as works on the syntagmatic axis of language (visual) interrelated to form associations or groups of narrative connotations on the paradigmatic axis (community knowledge system). This proposition, as well as several other formulations found in the analysis, has a significant contribution to the development of fine art, both theoretically and practically, both in Indonesia and the world.

“Blonde makes you strong”: Embodiment, intersubjectivity, and feminist reflexivity

Drawing on theoretical discussions that explore embodiment as a critical realm for the articulation of subjugated agency, I focus in this paper on the manner in which hair color has become a visual sign, a code that marks social boundaries and gendered ethno-class identities in contemporary Israel. Empirically, this essay aims to explore the manner in which Mizrahi women craft their own subjectivity in relation to dominant discourses through their blonde embodied practice. Using three ethnographic vignettes I argue that the blonde performance of my interlocutors cannot be understood as mere mimicry of, or reaction to, the imagined Israeli collective identification as White European. It is rather a creative act of self-fashioning that brings joy and self-affirmation to its practitioners and at the same time, at a collective level, it is a practice that poses a symbolic threat that works to fragment hegemonic Israeli claims to Whiteness

A Tale of Two Modalities: Sign and Speech Influence Each Other in Bimodal Bilinguals

Bimodal bilinguals are hearing individuals fluent in a sign and a spoken language. Can the two languages influence each other in such individuals despite differences in the visual (sign) and vocal (speech) modalities of expression? We investigated cross-linguistic influences on bimodal bilinguals’ expression of spatial relations. Unlike spoken languages, sign uses iconic linguistic forms that resemble physical features of objects in a spatial relation and thus expresses specific semantic information. Hearing bimodal bilinguals ( n = 21) fluent in Dutch and Sign Language of the Netherlands and their hearing nonsigning and deaf signing peers ( n = 20 each) described left/right relations between two objects. Bimodal bilinguals expressed more specific information about physical features of objects in speech than nonsigners, showing influence from sign language. They also used fewer iconic signs with specific semantic information than deaf signers, demonstrating influence from speech. Bimodal bilinguals’ speech and signs are shaped by two languages from different modalities.

Methodological Support of the Work of Primary Schoolchildren with Information Presented in the Form of Diagrams

The article outlines a range of methodological problems that arise when teaching younger schoolchildren, the ability to use information presented in the form of diagrams. Modern textbooks of mathematics for elementary school and methodological recommendations to them related to the topic “Diagrams” of the section “Working with information” are analyzed. Since the development in younger schoolchildren of the skills of working with visual sign-symbolic means of graphical presentation of information is one of the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Primary General Education for meta-subject learning outcomes, the author proposes methodological techniques and a system of assignments that allow to eliminate the current and potential difficulties of primary school students when mastering charts.

Methodological Support of the Work of Primary Schoolchildren with Information Presented in the Form of Diagrams

The article outlines a range of methodological problems that arise when teaching younger schoolchildren, the ability to use information presented in the form of diagrams. Modern textbooks of mathematics for elementary school and methodological recommendations to them related to the topic “Diagrams” of the section “Working with information” are analyzed. Since the development in younger schoolchildren of the skills of working with visual sign-symbolic means of graphical presentation of information is one of the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Primary General Education for meta-subject learning outcomes, the author proposes methodological techniques and a system of assignments that allow to eliminate the current and potential difficulties of primary school students when mastering charts.

The Impact of Image on Translation Decision-Making in Dubbing into Arabic – Premeditated Manipulation par Excellence: The Exodus Song as a Case Study

The emblematic connotations and ideological values of images affect the way iconographic and visual codes are interpreted in dubbing. Religion, culture, and politics are all primary variables that communicate evaluative views of the world, but also impose pressure on the translator when they stand in conflict with his or her attitudinal positioning and ethical judgement. Thus, this article aims to examine how the interplay between iconographic and linguistic codes of the visual sign in the musical animation This Land is Mine impacts translational decision-making in dubbing into Arabic. Simultaneously, the aim of this article is to evaluate how religious, cultural, and ideological dissonances between source text and target audience result in acts of manipulation and negotiation of meaning in the target text that explicitly channels the voice of the translator. We employ a dual theoretical approach combining narrative theory and appraisal theory in order to evaluate patterns of manipulation within a scaled system to provide graded analysis that exposes the ideological stance and bias of the source text’s producer/animator in representing reality via visual narrative.

Wendt versus Pollock: Toward visual semiotics in the discipline of IR theory

We focus on a key IR Theory article by Alexander Wendt (1992) and two Jackson Pollock paintings. Our aim is to identify meanings Pollock’s art communicates and reveals for Wendt (1992). It derives from an appeal to visual imagination and a desire for semiotic interpretation of Constructivist view of anarchy. The visual sign is an association such that there is Wendt’s theoretical claim on the one hand and an abstract painting on the other. We do not gaze at Wendt’s claim, we read it. We do not read a painting, look at it. This remark does not imply a one-way relationship. We can argue that a specific painting comes to life in our mind where colored movements are inextricably mixed up when we read the constructivist claim. Both Pollock paintings selected for our sign-making effort confirm the dynamic character of Constructivism and reveal not only three but countlessly many anarchies in international relations. They foment our assessments of abrupt changes of intersubjectivity among states. Cyclicality of dripped paints provides an anchor to fix Wendt’s anarchy conceptualization in these structural-abstract paintings. As to Wendt’s concept of anarchy, it acts as a helper, as a standard, against which interpretations of Pollock’s artwork construct meanings.