What is a visual metaphor?
Theater as a Sign System by Elaine Aston and George Savona explores the semiotics of text and performance. They explain that with the “development of the individuated stage pictures,” (Aston 150) we can construct an “overarching visual metaphor” (150). In my performance "Audience" the visual metaphor is the combined physical structures that are in place as representations of larger theoretical concepts. For example: the way four faculties of the soul are represented by different physical areas of the performance space as outlined in my previous posts.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Theater as a Sign System:
Theater as a Sign System by Elaine Aston and George Savona explores the semiotics of text and performance. They explain that with the “development of the individuated stage pictures,” (Aston 150) we can construct an “overarching visual metaphor” (150). In my performance "Audience" the visual metaphor is the combined physical structures that are in place as representations of larger theoretical concepts. For example: the way four faculties of the soul are represented by different physical areas of the performance space as outlined in my previous posts.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from Theater as a Sign System:
"Reading signs is the way in which we set about making sense of the world. For example, we "read" people we see in the street according to how they dress: scruffy hair, shabby outfit and ill fitting shoes signify poverty." | "Everything which is presented to the spectator within the theatrical frame is a sign." "Ideally, theatrical signs should combine (a) to transmit clear messages and (b) to hierarchise the messages sent." |
While creating "Audience" it was my job to consider all of the signs I was creating with my performance and everything that they signified. For a detailed outline of these signs be sure to read my "The Signs of Audience" post.
One interesting result of my performance setup was that I was able to get immediate feedback on it. I could discuss the project and hear the opinions of people walking by during the performance itself. In part this indicated to me that the performance was working - for the most part people seemed to "get it" they could "read" and understand the signs - both the actual signs and the theatrical ones.
It also demonstrated another one of the theories in Theater as a Sign System: no matter what I created as a sign, the interpretation of it was entirely dependent on the spectator's decodification of it. Many responses were centered around the idea that the process of communication is largely invisible, as I had designed many of the signs to communicate. However, I also got a very interesting reaction when one student walking by commented, "wow, that's so different than what I expected. I saw all of these people holding technology and facing away from art and thought it was about digital media changing the art world". It showed that, as Aston and Savona point out, "it goes almost without saying that the spectator's reception of theatrical signs is informed, while consciously or at a subliminal level, by his/her everyday experience of encoding and decoding analogous social signs," (153). My academic work leads me to draw conclusions based on what I know: communication studies. However, this student had a different perspective perhaps due to studying art history.
From this experience I have learned that there is huge benefit to be drawn from the consideration of semiotics in staging a performance. It is crucial for the success of a work that the encoding I create is readable and able to be decoded my audience members. The way people read signs must be taken into account when creating them.
One interesting result of my performance setup was that I was able to get immediate feedback on it. I could discuss the project and hear the opinions of people walking by during the performance itself. In part this indicated to me that the performance was working - for the most part people seemed to "get it" they could "read" and understand the signs - both the actual signs and the theatrical ones.
It also demonstrated another one of the theories in Theater as a Sign System: no matter what I created as a sign, the interpretation of it was entirely dependent on the spectator's decodification of it. Many responses were centered around the idea that the process of communication is largely invisible, as I had designed many of the signs to communicate. However, I also got a very interesting reaction when one student walking by commented, "wow, that's so different than what I expected. I saw all of these people holding technology and facing away from art and thought it was about digital media changing the art world". It showed that, as Aston and Savona point out, "it goes almost without saying that the spectator's reception of theatrical signs is informed, while consciously or at a subliminal level, by his/her everyday experience of encoding and decoding analogous social signs," (153). My academic work leads me to draw conclusions based on what I know: communication studies. However, this student had a different perspective perhaps due to studying art history.
From this experience I have learned that there is huge benefit to be drawn from the consideration of semiotics in staging a performance. It is crucial for the success of a work that the encoding I create is readable and able to be decoded my audience members. The way people read signs must be taken into account when creating them.