STEPS THROUGH THE PROCESS OF ANALYSING THE VISUAL LANGUAGE COMMUNICATION THROUGH IMAGES COMMUNICATION AND PROCESSES VERBAL/VISUAL METAFUNCTIONS VISUAL LAYOUT

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE is meant to produce COMMUNICATION IT REPRESENTS the real world GIVES information EXPRESSES contents GIVES data

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION While communicating WE CAN COMMENT on reality EXPRESS our opinions REVEAL our ideas, feelings, emotions

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION INFORMATION AND OPINIONS CAN BE GIVEN THROUGH VISUAL LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION OPINIONS MAY BE COMMUNICATED THROUGH Salient elements: Colour Foregrounding, backgrounding elements Gaze perspective

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION VISUAL LANGUAGE triggers INTERACTION and involves WHO (addresser/addressee) WHAT (message) HOW (code) WHERE (location) WHY (functions)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION IMAGES can be: 1. Personal / impersonal 2. Static / dynamic 3. Conceptual / dramatic 4. Foregrounded / backgrounded

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION IMAGES can be: OBJECTIVE : information is reported without commenting (maps, charts, diagrams, etc.) SUBJECTIVE: personal depiction of reality (pictures, photos, caricatures, advertisements, etc.) SIMPLE: the message is clearly revealed COMPLEX: the message is multi-layered

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION VISUAL LANGUAGE and OPINIONS INTERPERSONAL FUNCTION (how does the image activate interaction between producer and viewer) 1. GAZE 2. DISTANCE 3. PERSPECTIVE 4. COLOUR 5. MOVEMENT

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION GAZE DIRECT ADDRESS: it acknowledges the viewer directly with a visual you; it constructs an image act. The producer uses the image to do something to the viewer. DEMAND IMAGE : the participant’s gaze demands something from the viewer (facial expression)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION GAZE NO EYE CONTACT: the viewer is an invisible onlooker who is offered the participants as objects of contemplation. OFFER IMAGE: the viewer is not addressed directly, he/she is the subject of the look, the represented participant is the object.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION DISTANCE DISTANCE IS A MEANING MAKING RESOURCE; it reveals the degree of intimacy between participants and the viewer. 1. Very close shot (less than head and shoulders) 2. Close shot (head and shoulders) 3. Medium close shot ( human figure cut off at waist) 4. Medium long shot (full length human figure) 5. Long shot (human figure occupies approximately half the height of the image) 6. Very long shot (the distance is even greater)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE Horizontal angle: 1. Oblique: detachment 2. Frontal: involvement Vertical angle: 1. High 2. medium 3. low

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE The subjective image : it focuses on the viewpoint of the author; it is done from: 1. High-angle 2. Frontal-angle The objective image: scientific, technical pictures, diagrams, maps, charts, etc; it is done in 2 ways: 1. Frontal-angle (maximum involvement, oriented towards action) 2. top-down angle (maximum power, oriented towards theoretical objective knowledge)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION MOVEMENT The participant/s in the depicted world of the image may move A movement is usually performed by a participant in relation to some other participant; Movements have: 1. Direction 2. Orientation 3. Position Movements occur 1. according to specific circumstances 2. As the result of some reaction/s

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION VISUAL LANGUAGE and OPINIONS IDEATIONAL FUNCTION 1. PARTICIPANTS 1. PROCESSES 2. CIRCUMSTANCES

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION PARTICIPANTS 1. REPRESENTED PARTICIPANTS 1. INTERACTIVE PARTICIPANTS

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION PROCESSES 1. NARRATIVE : participants narrate processes, events, actions 1. CONCEPTUAL : participants communicate who/what they are/mean

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION NARRATIVE PROCESSES ACTION: ACTOR/GOAL REACTIONAL: REACTOR/PHENOMENON SPEECH/MENTAL:SENSER, SPEAKER/CONTENT CONVERSION:RELAY GEOMETRICAL SYMBOLISM: VECTOR CIRCUMSTANCES (location, means)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION NARRATIVE PROCESSES TRANSACTIONAL (two participants) a. UNIDIRECTIONAL: a vector connects two participants b. BIDIRECTIONAL : a vector connects two interactors NON-TRANSACTIONAL (a vector from a participants does not point at any other participant)

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION CONCEPTUAL PROCESSES CLASSIFICATION: processes which relate participants to each other in terms of a kind of relation (taxonomy) a. participants: subordinates and superordinate b. relations/taxonomies: covert overt

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION CONCEPTUAL PROCESSES Participants are CARRIER and ATTRIBUTE ANALYTICAL: relation of part-whole structure SYMBOLIC: what participants are/mean SYMBOLIC ATTRIBUTE: meaning through relation (carrier/attribute) SYMBOLIC SUGGESTIVE: one participant who/which symbolizes a generalized essence; the meaning of the participant is not established by a relation with/to …

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION VISUAL LANGUAGE and OPINIONS TEXTUAL FUNCTION 1. LEFT/RIGHT 1. TOP/BOTTOM 2. CENTRE/MARGIN 1. BACKGROUND/FOREGROUND

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION INFORMATION VALUE The placement of elements endows them with specific informational values attached to the various zones of the image: left/right, top/bottom, centre/margin. THE LEFT: it is the side of the already given, something the reader is assumed to know already, as part of the culture; the elements on the left are presented as GIVEN. THE RIGHT: it is the side of key information of what the readers must pay particular attention to; the elements on the right are presented as NEW.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION THE TOP: it visualizes something IDEAL, the idealized and generalized essence of information. It tends to show us ‘what might be’ the top-ideal area generally corresponds to the visual unit. THE BOTTOM: it visualizes something REAL, more down-to-earth information. It tends to be more informative and practical showing ‘what is’. The bottom-real area generally corresponds to the text unit.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION THE CENTRE: it visualizes the nucleus of information (mediator) THE MARGIN: it visualizes ancillary and dependent elements

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 1. information value centred centre-margin polarised given-new ideal-real Composition 2. salience from maximum to minimum salience 3. framing: maximum disconnection maximum connection

VISUAL LAYOUT: THE TRIPTYCH MARGIN IDEAL GIVEN MARGIN IDEAL NEW MARGIN REAL GIVEN MARGIN REAL NEW

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION MODALITY COLOUR It is a communicational Semiotic resource: it denotes specific people, places, things (ideational); it inspires sentiments of excitement, disturb, love, anger, it attracts our attention (interpersonal), it creates coherence in texts (textual); its features are Value (light/dark), saturation (high/low), purity (purity/hybridity), modulation (from full colour to shades according to circumstances), hue.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION MODALITY COLOUR SATURATION: from full colour saturation to the absence of colour: DIFFERENTIATION: a scale running from a maximally diversified range of colurs to monochrome; MODULATION: a scale running from fully modulated colour, with the use of many different shades of red (i.e.) to plain unmodulated colour; CONTEXTUALISATION: a scale running from the absence of background to the most fully articulated and detailed background;

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION MODALITY COLOUR REPRESENTATION: a scale running from maximum abstraction to maximum representation of pictorial detail; DEPTH: a scale running from absence of depth to maximally deep perspective; ILLUMINATION: a scale running from the fullest representation of the play of light and shade to its absence; BRIGHTNESS: a scale running from a maximum number of different degrees of brightness to just two degrees; black and white, or dark grey and light grey, or two brightness values of the same colour;

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION MODALITY COLOUR coding orientation to depict reality Technological CO: (science and technology) effectiveness of the visual representation; in this context colour has low modality; Sensory CO: (i.e. ads, fashion). Here colour is a source of pleasure and affective meanings, it conveys high modality; Abstract CO: (academic and scientific context). Modality is higher when the images reduces the individual to the general, and the concrete to its essential qualities. This reading is typical of the ‘educated person’; Naturalistic CO: the dominant in our society regardeless of people’ s education

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION VISUAL LANGUAGE and OPINIONS SALIENCE FRAMING

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SALIENCE Elements attract the reader/viewer’s attention to different degrees, and through a wide variety of means. Elements may be placed in the foreground or background, they may vary in size, they may appear in different colours, and shapes.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION SALIENCE Salience depends on: 1. Size 2. Sharpness of focus 3. Details 4. Tonal contrast (colour) 5. Placement in the visual field 6. Perspective 7. Cultural factors 8. Etc.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION FRAMING The elements of a layout may either be disconnected or connected. Elements may be strongly or weakly framed; connection can be realised by the repetition of formal features, by vectors, disconnection is obtained by empty space between elements and by using different frames, separate units.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION FRAMING DISCONNCECTING VECTORS CONNECTING VECTORS

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION CONNECTION The degree to which an element is visually joined to another element, through the absence of framing devices, through vectors and continuities. DISCONNECTION The degree to which an element is usually separated from other elements through framelines, pictorial framing devices, empty space between elements, discontinuities of colour and shape.