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The work revolves aorund the notion of the artist as a jester. In 6 parts the text points to both (art) history and contemporary art. The form resembles to an extent the structuring of the later solo-exhibition and seeks to prevent a linear reading and as such, form becomes content. / [I examensarbetet ingår utställningen "Sans Sheriff":] The graduation show comprised a diverse selection of works from the entire duration of teh education, ranging a.o. painting, sculpture, installation, photography. At the core of the show was a strategy to reject of the creation of an artistic identity - such as a visual trademark - and rather letting hints and distractions be the leading notion. / <p>Exam work consists of a written essay part and a formed/interpreted part.</p>

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Urban Voodoo mimics semiotic phenomena, which constitute language and functions as a system of signs that intra-act ambiguously within their own system. This project explores the link between the ambiguous signs of the worm, what looks like a mimesis of icons/symbols, and the way in which simulations are caught up in semiotic implications. Urban Voodoo, which followed on from my earlier Project Iroiro, developed language precursors from the study of the marks of the worm, creating different patterns and styles, and generating language-like effects. Using this system of signs, my project explores the idea that humans are part of a system operated by language, and examines the notion that language itself may be disrupted. To explore this, my project is about layers of competing imprints, about 'languages' tagged into spaces occupied by several graffiti artists within a local skate park. Urban Voodoo acts as a new Graffiti system. In mimicry, organisms make themselves resemble others or their environment. Icons 'look like' what they represent; simulation proposes 'to be' what it suggests. These concepts of assimilation and representation will be explored to understand and interrogate the power balance of language systems, starting with a specific local situation, the skate park. Latin; Inter" denotes "among" or "between," so "between symbols" or "among symbols" is a reasonable meaning. "Intra" denotes "within," as "intra muros," meaning "within the walls.". See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/login/index.php#_ftn1 Iroiro, the mark of the worm found in nature, under the bark of trees or etched into the surface of seashells. It is these intriguing patterns that are of interest to this research. These marks perform a role in which systems of language surface. See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/login/index.php#_ftn2 Graffiti Piece; the terminology used to define larger works of graffiti art as opposed to tagging, a form of territory recognition mark. See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=3410#_ftn3

This work is a philosophical investigation of signs. It offers a definition of the term ?sign? and develops three different systems for talking precisely about signs and their properties. The system of object display lines is developed in the first chapter; the ostension notation and the box notation are developed in the second chapter; and the contemporary associationist definition of a sign is developed in the third chapter. These systems, in conjunction with the definition, are proffered as a philosophical foundation for the theory of notation. The first chapter of this work develops the distinction between i) mere objects (non-signs), ii) signs of mere objects, and iii) signs of signs. The exhibitive use of objects is distinguished from their constitutive use; and the de re use of signs is distinguished from their de signo use. Both the discursive homogeneity thesis and the sentential homogeneity thesis are formulated. Arguments against the former are considered, and the thesis is rejected. The latter thesis, however, is accepted as a means of stopping the infinite regress that would occur if the meaning of a sign always had to be explained through the use of other signs. Object display lines are developed as a systematic and rule governed method of introducing mere objects into a discourse. The second chapter deals with the problem of using signs to talk about signs; and offers both an historical analysis of the development of quotation marks as a form of punctuation, and an historical analysis of the philosophical debate over quotation marks. Frege?s convention of using quotation marks to mention signs is rejected, and the ostension notation and the box notation are developed as replacements. The third chapter deals with the nature of signs. The ontological status of signs is considered, and the thesis that signs are relations is rejected. This is followed by a brief historical survey of the associationist and behaviorist conceptions of a sign. Finally, a contemporary associationist conception of a sign is developed, and the basic structure of the human sign is postulated. A number of refinements are made to the definition to avoid pansemiosis.

The objective of this study was to investigate differences in the portrayal of Western European citizens and non Western European citizens in Hergé’s graphic novels about the young journalist Tintin. We wanted to see if the globalization during the mid 1900’s had an effect on Hergé’s way of portraying the world. We started off by selecting nine novels from three different periods of time, though we read all of the novels in The Adventures of Tintin. The periods were: the years in between the world wars (three novels), the post war years (four novels), and the beginning of the new age – late 60’s and 70’s (two novels). In each novel, we analyzed three different situations, in three different boxes from the novel. The situations we chose to analyze were: a portraying of one or more non Western European citizens, a communication between two Western European citizens about a non Western European citizen or its culture, and a communication between a Western European citizen and a person from outside Western Europe. We also made an analysis on every album which we based on our impressions of the novel as a whole. The analysis revealed a certain difference in the way Hergé depicted people from Western Europe as compared to people from other parts of the world. People outside of the culture of Western Europe are portrayed as uncivilized (Native Americans), revolutionary (white South Americans) or evil (the Japanese). At the same time Western Europeans are portrayed as smarter and more civilized. However the study also shows that over time there is as significant change in the way that non Western Europeans are portrayed, ranging from the first album to the last. As Hergé gets older, the novels become more sophisticated and the characterizations of people from other cultures than the Western European evolve.

Urban Voodoo mimics semiotic phenomena, which constitute language and functions as a system of signs that intra-act ambiguously within their own system. This project explores the link between the ambiguous signs of the worm, what looks like a mimesis of icons/symbols, and the way in which simulations are caught up in semiotic implications. Urban Voodoo, which followed on from my earlier Project Iroiro, developed language precursors from the study of the marks of the worm, creating different patterns and styles, and generating language-like effects. Using this system of signs, my project explores the idea that humans are part of a system operated by language, and examines the notion that language itself may be disrupted. To explore this, my project is about layers of competing imprints, about 'languages' tagged into spaces occupied by several graffiti artists within a local skate park. Urban Voodoo acts as a new Graffiti system. In mimicry, organisms make themselves resemble others or their environment. Icons 'look like' what they represent; simulation proposes 'to be' what it suggests. These concepts of assimilation and representation will be explored to understand and interrogate the power balance of language systems, starting with a specific local situation, the skate park. Latin; Inter" denotes "among" or "between," so "between symbols" or "among symbols" is a reasonable meaning. "Intra" denotes "within," as "intra muros," meaning "within the walls.". See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/login/index.php#_ftn1 Iroiro, the mark of the worm found in nature, under the bark of trees or etched into the surface of seashells. It is these intriguing patterns that are of interest to this research. These marks perform a role in which systems of language surface. See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/login/index.php#_ftn2 Graffiti Piece; the terminology used to define larger works of graffiti art as opposed to tagging, a form of territory recognition mark. See also http://arden.aut.ac.nz/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=3410#_ftn3

The thesis begins an exploration of the way in which Japanese visual semiotics works. In this it focuses on the formal representations of visual elements: visual syntax. Specifically, this thesis examines the way in which visual representations are realisations of three types of semiotic metafunctions: the Ideational, Textual and Interpersonal. In order to gain a clear idea about Japanese visual semiotics, I compare them with British counterparts in a relatively minor way. There is some consideration of Japanese and British cultural value systems as revealed through an analysis of the visual. It is widely accepted that language is rule-governed, and that the rules of this system are closely related to the social and cultural environment in which they are produced. This is the basis of most work in sociolinguistics, of a very wide variety. The same assumption, however, is not normally made of other semiotic modes such as the visual. This study uses advertisements as the data; and it is through that data that the issue of visual semiotics is considered. Advertisements are examples par excellence of the connection of cultural values and visual semiotics; they are also a rich source for the study of visual communication, and are widely available and comparable across Japanese and British cultures. To some small extent it shows how similarly and differently they are manifested in Japanese and British examples. The findings of the thesis point to quite specific organizations of visual representations in Japanese culture, and to differences between the two cultures. Such differences give rise to different kinds of reading with different meanings, and are therefore of great significance in a cross-cultural semiotic environment.

Magister Artium - MA / The problem explored relates to the dearth in studies exploring semiotic resources other than language in the study of mediated discourses in the media; public broadcasting in particular. Gilje (2010) laments that although manipulation of different genres and modalities has accelerated in the production of movies, documentaries and soapies due to developments in media technologies, there have been very few studies on the subject. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Isidingo producers use new technologies and editing tools to merge and/or manipulate different semiotic material in the production of Isidingo. I investigated how different stories and narratives are infused into the storylines and how the producers are re-figuring socio-cultural-histories as semiotic resources in the production of Isidingo. This involved a determination of how storylines and other semiotic resources are transformed in Isidingo for aesthetic and communicative effect. The idea was to explore the socio-historical trajectory as semiotic material in time and space. In addition, I explored how the producers draw on and manipulate different genres (e.g. politics, advertisements, legal drama) which are often infused in the storylines in the production of the soap opera. The focus here was on the blurring of generic boundaries as Isidingo producers’ use of multiple genres within the soap opera for aesthetic and communicative effect. I also explored how local and international topical issues are re-contextualised, intertextualised and resemiotised in the local Isidingo storylines. The idea was to do a multi-semiotic analysis of Isidingo as a soap opera, focusing on the reproduction of semiotic material. This entailed an ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis, which included nine randomly selected aired episodes of the soap opera. I found that this soap opera heavily depends on societal discourses such as sociocultural- histories, language-in-use and popular culture as its resource for composing believable plotlines. These everyday discourses are strategically used by the producers to recreate reality into the fictional world by demonstrating semiotic remediation and resemiotisation as discourse practices. I conclude that the producers recycle issues from the real world and recontextualise them into the fictional world in order to evoke viewer involvement (transparent immediacy) and to infuse multiple media (hypermediacy) for extended meanings. In addition to this, technology such as gadgetry, social networks and software are reconstructed in order to subliminally advertise these products to the viewers. I also conclude that the producers of Isidingo treat language in the soap opera as social practice. This makes it possible for the producers to create characters with multiple identities to depict different social roles and voices. By bringing in real life aspects, the soap opera serves as both fiction and reality.

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