Scuola Universitaria Interdipartimentale in Scienze Strategiche (SUISS)

Visual Semiotics

Visual Semiotics

Anno accademico 2018/2019

Sommario insegnamento

• Obiettivi formativi
• Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
• Programma
• Testi consigliati e bibliografia
• Strumenti didattici

Obiettivi formativi

Students will be familiarized with the history and main theories of visual semiotics. They will learn how this field of study is changing under the influence of the massive digitalization of images and their exponential circulation through social networks. Students will also become acquainted with the current trends at the crossing boundaries between humanities and computing sciences for the analysis and visualization of digital images. At the end of the course, students will be able to know how digital images construct their meaning and make it available for countless operation of re-mediation throughout the semiosphere.

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Students will be evaluated with an applied project in which they demonstrate their knowledge, original insights, and technical skills regarding visual semiotics. The project will be elaborated in small teams and advised by the teacher on a weekly basis.

Programma

This course explores the history, the main lines of theoretical developments, and the most advanced application tools of visual rhetoric and semiotics, with specific reference to the field of the present- day digital visual communication. The course will focus on interdisciplinary areas of investigation at the intersection between humanities and computing sciences in applied cases such as qualitative-quantitative visual analysis; description and exploration of visual corpora; and visualization techniques for visual media. The course will adopt a both theoretical and practical approach, with the involvement of students in software manipulation to assist the creation of an applied project.

Part 1. Theories of visual media

Part 2. Foundations of digital image

Part 3. Images and interfaces

Part 4. Practicing media visualization

• Bertin, Jacques. 1967. Sémiologie graphique. Paris: Mouton/Gauthier.
• Drucker, Johanna. 2014. Cambridge, MA: Graphesis, Harvard University Press.
• Leone, Massimo. 2017. “Socio-sémiotique des « livres à visages »”, in Landowski, E. (ed.) Sémiotique et engagement.Nouveaux Actes Sémiotiques. Available online: http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/as/5816
• Manovich, Lev. 2013. “Media visualization: visual techniques for exploring large media collections”, in Gates, K. (ed.), The international encyclopedia of media studies. Vol. 6: media studies futures. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Available online: http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/media-visualization-visual-techniques-for-exploring-large-media-collections
• Reas, Casey, Chandler McWilliams, & Jeroen Barendse. 2010. Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press.
• Reyes, Everardo. 2017. The Image-Interface: Graphical Supports for Visual Information. London: Wiley-ISTE.
• Sonesson, Göran. 1988. Methods and Models in Pictorial Semiotics. Lund University Press. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/2414690/Methods_and_Models_in_Pictorial_Semiotics

Orario lezioni

• Materiale didattico
• Bacheca appelli
• Vai a Moodle
• Visita i forum