Visual vs Symbolic Language

 

Description

There is a man standing with his back to the camera facing the United States flag.  The man is wearing a U.S. military uniform.  He has a white hat on, black jacket with small red lining and metallic buttons, and blue pants with similar red lining.  The man in the uniform is saluting the flag with right hand while his left hand is resting at his side.  The top left corner of the flag is a blue rectangle with white stars in it.  The bottom left and entire right side of the flag is red and white stripes.  The man seems to be standing in the middle of the flag.

Responses or Feelings

Patriotism, dignified, stately, honor, respect, dignity, allegiance, esteem, loyalty, proud, tribute, “flag-waving”

Symbols

Flag = United States of America

White Stars = 50 states

Red and White Stripes = 13 original colonies

Uniform = distinguished

Compositional Structure

The composition of the uniformed man standing directly in front of the United States flag helps with the feeling of patriotism, respect, and honor.  The size of the flag helps with the feeling of allegiance and dignified.  The man saluting the flag also helps with the feeling of allegiance, as well as the feeling of esteem and loyalty.

MEANING 2

The girl in the advertisement is representational, along with her guitar, clothes, and jewelry.  The representation’s role is that the advertisement is directed toward white girls aged 16 – 22 because the photograph of the girl fits those qualities.  The impact for the viewer is that a white girl aged 16 – 22 can easily relate to the girl in the advertisement.  The representation relates to the abstract level because the girl is wearing abstract shoes and in an abstract environment.  She relates to the symbolic level because she is a symbol for rock and punk music.

The abstract shoes in the advertisement make the shoes look cooler then they actually are.  The shoes are also abstracted by being oversized which makes the viewer notice them first.  Since the shoes are oversized the viewer will also keep going back to looking at the shoes after they have looked at the rest of the advertisement.  The shoes relate to the representational level in that the girl is representational and she is wearing them.  The shoes relate to the symbolic level in that the shoes can be a symbol for a specific culture, gender, and age.

The Converse All-Star logo on the shoe is a symbol.  This symbol lets the audience know what kind of shoes they are and who makes them.  There are also symbols of stars on the ground and a symbol of paint dripping behind her.  The symbols of the stars denote that this advertisement is made for girls.  The paint-dripping symbol denotes the girl in the advertisement is artistic and that girls who are artistic should wear these shoes.

MEANING 1

This is a representation of a pair of shoes.  This photograph in full and natural color is the closest thing to the pair of shoes rather than direct experience.  The photograph enables the viewer to see that the shoes are a unique pair of shoes and not a generic form of a pair of shoes.  The photograph has many details.  Details of the color of the shoes, the brand of the shoes, the style of the shoes, and where the shoes are.  The photograph of the pair of shoes is clearly a representation by the information and details the viewer is able to receive.

This is an abstract depiction of a shoe.  This is an example of abstraction because there is a reduction of basic elements and detail.  There is less detail in the picture but it still retains recognizable information of being a shoe.  The abstraction is derived from representation.  This picture is moving away from more detail to a more simple form of a shoe.  It communicates to the viewer that it is a shoe, through its simplification of form and shape.

The Nike swoosh is my example of symbolism.  The Nike swoosh is symbolic because it is very simple and easily recognizable.  The symbol signifies the brand of Nike because it is used as their logo.  The Nike swoosh can also signify strength and even a way of life.  The viewer would recognize this through experience and history of viewing it before.  There is very little detail in this symbol and is information packed.