a message without a code

"The more technology develops the diffusion of information (and notably of images), the more it provides the means of masking the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given meaning" (46 Barthes).

This is a picture of my MacBook Air and my Sony camera. I will be using these, and other similar pieces of tech throughout my project. My best understanding of the denoted image here is the camera and laptop as pieces of technology themselves. They are tools that I will be using. For the connotated image, I might say that these are the true facilitators in the process. These are what are going to capture the imagery and recordings for my final project. They enable me to create what I plan on creating. They have the potential to be used for a multitude of things.

For the linguistic image, you may notice there are numbers around the lens of the camera noting the technicalities. I might argue that Macintosh's logo can be understood as a component of the linguistic image because of how we are already so 'anchored' by its meaning. We recognize it, we know it is not an actual apple, most people know of Apple products, it is hard to associate this icon with anything other than their products. 

Here is another related image. While out recording footage for my project I found myself observing traffic signs. I think this is interesting because it doesn't need 'walk' or 'crosswalk' to make us understand what it means. This message is so simple it is almost the linguistic message in itself. The dennoted message here: 'there is a cross walk here, pedestrians ahead' and the connotated image I cannot put my finger on it but perhaps: 'please stop for pedestrians and let them cross safely'. I'm not sure about that last one, but I think cultural context is similar in many cases. In other countries the sign may be white with red edges, or blue, and even brown. When we think about color all traffic signs have a code for which color they appear in. Here we have yellow, meaning it is a regulatory sign these will guide you in what you can do. 

Here is an image from a previous project on Jean Baudrillard's 'divine ireverence of images' (the full image can be found on Instagram). This is similar to my project in that I will be collaging to create a zine. And different in that I am not doing it on the computer. It is difficult to analyze the linguistic image here because of the lack of literal words and language. But very simply within the denoted image, we see two figures with some anatomical components facing each other, almost as a reflection. The connoted image here is very dense but encompasses the understanding of a simulation occurring. Baudrillard might say we are held within the vast simulation of the Universe. This image involves itself in my own project because collaging can contain numerous amounts of intentions rendering them all useless at the end of the day. 

Project Update

I am fairly behind in my project but I have made use already of my camera. I definitely arranged my workflow and timeline backwards and, in a way, have rendered it completely useless. But thats alright because none of my projects ever go as planned and I think I like it that way.