VISUAL SOCIAL SEMIOTICS ANALYSIS OF DIESEL DENIM ADVERTISING “BE STUPID”

Don't Be Stupid

We are studying control knowledge for a general problem solver, named BLOCKHEAD. Currently the problem solver is based on negative heuristics, which has led to surprising efficiency in suitable domains. The lesson seems to be that it is easier to avoid being stupid than to try to be smart. Stupid plans are defined and a plan improvement method proposed. Analyses of stupid plans and failed plans...

Semiotics and Visual Representation

semiotics: general definitions 1. Semiotics is concerned with meaning; how representation, in the broad sense (language, images, objects) generates meanings or the processes by which we comprehend or attribute meaning. For visual images, or visual and material culture more generally, semiotics is an inquiry that is wider than the study of symbolism and the use of semiotic analysis challenges co...

Introducing Social Semiotics

Don't be stupid about intelligent design.

President George W. Bush and Senate majority leader Bill Frist have recently publicly advocated teaching intelligent design in science classes. Their endorsement of a discredited, nonscientific view could signal a huge step backward for scientific education. It is time for educated, motivated scientists to get involved and to educate others.

Semiotics and the social analysis of material things

This article discusses certain aspects of Peircean semiotics as they can contribute to the social analysis of material artifacts. It focuses on the concepts of iconicity and indexicality, paying particular attention to their roles in mediating contingency and causality, and to their relation with possible actions. Because iconicity and indexicality themselves ‘assert nothing,’ their various soc...