The Utah State Standards for media arts are general and therefore give teachers a great deal of freedom in how they present the content for media arts courses. How the teacher engages students and project assignments are left to the teacher as they walk the students through the process of making films. This thesis explores how an art teacher might use music videos to teach filmmaking techniques and engage students in the process of meaning making. My research hypothesis is that, by educating students to understand and interpret the messages they consume through media, I can help them recognize the hidden texts in visual culture. My curriculum provides students with learning activities that foster the development of critical thinking skills and also techniques for analyzing images. An important part of the curriculum for this unit is a critical study of music videos wherein the students examine music videos using semiotics and qualitative film analysis. The students explore filmmaking techniques and the processes needed to create their own messages in a music video.

In The Holy Kinship (1500-1510), the artist Matthäus Gutrecht the Younger defies convention by portraying the importance of matriarchy, via the semiotics of the nimbus. Within Christian art, the nimbus has been widely used as a signifier of divinity. Saints and angels, as well as members of the Holy Family, are often depicted nimbed in the history of art. In particular, men of divine status are frequently nimbed, as Christianity was predominantly patriarchal. However, there are several cases in which women are also represented with this divine signifier. One work in which the nimbus as a signifier of matriarchal status and lineage is epitomized is Gutrecht's portrayal of The Holy Kinship, in which the women, but not the men, are shown nimbed. This thesis explores the varied significance of the matriarchal nimbus. Furthermore, it challenges traditional patriarchal analyses of late medieval, German culture in order to examine how this altarpiece both reflects and constructs attitudes regarding a celebration of women's spiritual and secular roles. In this way, the painting presents a direct challenge to the more familiar representation of patriarchal lineage and power in Tree of Jesse images.

Orientador: Arnaldo Cortina / Banca: Jean Cristtus Portela / Banca: Matheus Nogueira Schwartzmann / Banca: Carolina Tomasi / Banca: Mariana Luz Pessoa de Barros / Resumo: A audiodescrição é um recurso de acessibilidade destinado à inclusão das pessoas com deficiência visual, e engloba uma série de técnicas que buscam traduzir em palavras os conteúdos imagéticos de diferentes formas de expressão, tais como o cinema, a televisão, o teatro, a fotografia e as artes plásticas. Por se tratarem de práticas essencialmente tradutórias, as diferentes modalidades de audiodescrição possuem, em diversos países, incluindo o Brasil, conjuntos de diretrizes que guiam o trabalho e promovem alguma uniformidade técnica aos produtos finais. Nenhuma dessas diretrizes, no entanto, aborda o processo de audiodescrição de histórias em quadrinhos, deixando essa linguagem sob os parâmetros da descrição de imagens estáticas, o que parece muito pouco apropriado. Este trabalho buscou elaborar um conjunto de diretrizes para a audiodescrição de histórias em quadrinhos, bem como um roteiro de descrição experimental que demonstrasse a viabilidade de tais diretrizes. Para tanto, procurou-se articular fundamentos teóricos sobre a estrutura das histórias em quadrinhos e sobre a semiótica discursiva, estabelecendo diálogos que pudessem oferecer respostas ao problema da reconstrução da significação em diferentes semioses. Como resultado, foi possível observar que, embora a semiótica discursiva tenha apenas contribuições pontuais a oferecer para a problemática da audiodescrição, essas contribuições se mostraram valiosas, lançando luzes sobre questões de ordem prática que as morfolog... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Audiodescription is an accessibility resource aiming at the social inclusion of people with visual disability, encompassing a series of techniques which try to translate imagetic contents from different media, like cinema, television, theatre and plastic arts. Since those are essentially translational practices, the different types of audiodescription have, in different countries, including Brazil, parameters designed to make the resulting products relatively uniform. None of those parameters, however, addresses the proccess of audiodescribbing comic books, leaving this language inside those parameters for stactic images, which seems very inappropriate. This work tried to ellaborate a set of parameters for audiodescribbing comic books, as well as an experimental description script that could demonstrate these parameters. In order to do so, theories about comic books structure and about discourse semiotics were correlated to the research problem, stablishing dialogs which could offer answers to this research's problems around the reconstruction of meaning in different languages. As a result, it was possible to note that, regardless of discourse semiotics' few contributions to the audiodescription problem, these contributions were substantial to approach certain questions, questions that simple comic books' typollogy and morphology could not address properly. / Résumé: L'audio-description est une ressource d'accessibilité pour l'inclusion des personnes malvoyantes, comprennent d'une série de techniques qui cherchent à traduire en mots le contenu imaginatif de différentes formes d'expression, telles que le cinéma, la télévision, le théâtre, la photographie, le cinéma et les arts plastiques. Comme il s'agit essentiellement de pratiques de traduction, les différentes modalités d'audiodescription disposent, dans plusieurs pays, dont le Brésil, d'un ensemble de directives qui guident les travaux et promeuvent une certaine uniformité technique des produits finis. Cependant, aucune de ces directives ne traite du processus d'audiodescription des bandes dessinées, laissant ce langage sous les paramètres de description d'images statiques, ce qui semble inapproprié. Ce travail visait à élaborer un ensemble de directives pour l'audiodescription des bandes dessinées, ainsi qu'un script de description expérimentale démontrant la faisabilité de telles directives. Pour ce faire, nous avons cherché à articuler les fondements théoriques de la structure de la bande dessinée et de la sémiotique discursive, en établissant des dialogues susceptibles de fournir des réponses au problème de la reconstruction du sens dans différents sémioses. En conséquence, il a été possible d'observer que, bien que la sémiotique discursive n'apporte que de manière occasionnelle des contributions au problème de la description audio, ces contributions se sont révélées utiles, éclair... (Résumé complet accès életronique ci-dessous) / Doutor

The postmodern critique has effectively called on anthropologists to reevaluate ethnographic authority when representing others. However, what is often found lacking in this criticism is an exploration of the ways in which audiences interpret anthropological knowledge. One crucial area that can be easily researched is audience reception of film in introductory anthropology classes. As professors of anthropology increasingly rely on film for illustrating anthropological concepts, we must have an understanding of how this medium is interpreted by student audiences. Film's ability to convey complex information without additional contextualization has yet to be substantiated and previous research has indicated that visual communication's messages may easily be misinterpreted by audiences. Furthermore, there is evidence that films, if used improperly, may perpetuate students' negative impressions of cultures other than their own. Finally, any research into audience reception of film in the classroom must consider the factors outside the class that shape an audience's interpretations of films. The research presented in this thesis looks at the use of film in teaching introductory classes at USF. The goal is to connect the students' interpretations of films to the contextual factors of the classroom as well as considering the larger influence that the surrounding media culture in everyday life has on the interpretation of film in the classroom. In this way, the research strives to offer recommendations that may improve the effectiveness of using film when teaching introductory anthropology classes.

This study employs semiotic methods to identify the post-revolutionary roles of former Cuban President Fidel Castro in order to classify the transformations of his character portrayal over time. Informed by Goffman's framing theory as well as suggestions of agenda-setting and priming, this qualitative study analyzes 19 propaganda posters for communications of encoded messages. In this medium, the research explores thematic patterns of sociopolitical and sociocultural signs which add to the richness of Castro's appeal. In addition to providing a unique perspective on interrogating visual images, this study offers a better understanding of the influential power of professional design and the use of semiotics in political propaganda.

Cette thèse part de l’hypothèse générale que Toni Morrison et Léonora Miano s’inspirent des musiques afro-américaines dans leur travail d’écriture, selon des modalités particulières et pour des objectifs bien précis. Si ce domaine de la transposition littéraire des musiques afro-américaines a déjà donné lieu à un certain nombre de recherches, il n’a cependant pas encore fait l’objet d’une étude de synthèse telle que nous l’envisageons. En adoptant une démarche méthodologique qui se doit aussi bien à la sémiotique qu’à la littérature comparée, l’analyse s’intéresse au traitement des emprunts musicaux par les deux romancières, tout en dégageant les convergences et les divergences qui s’établissent entre elles au regard des différences de contextes. Constituée de quatre parties, l’analyse s’attèle d’abord à décrire la tradition littéraire afro-américaine dans laquelle s’inscrivent les auteures, avant de s’intéresser à la manière dont la référence musicale est mobilisée dans l’élaboration de la fiction, puis dans le traitement de la voix et de la structure narratives, et enfin dans le traitement de la langue et du style d’écriture. Il en ressort que la transposition littéraire des musiques afro-américaines, et particulièrement du blues et du jazz, entraîne un renouvellement systématique du discours romanesque, dans ses catégories formelles et génériques comme dans sa portée symbolique et ses visées idéologiques. La question identitaire, la déconstruction, l’oralité et l’hybridité deviennent les principaux paradigmes d’une écriture qui se transforme en acte de résistance et de subversion dans un contexte d’oppression. / This thesis is based on the general assumption that Toni Morrison and Léonora Mian take as a starting point the Afro-American music in their work of writing, with particular methods and for quite precise objectives. If this field of the literary transposition of the Afro-American music has already caused a certain number of researches, it however has not yet been the object of a study of synthesis such as we consider it. By adopting the methodological approach of semiotics and comparative literature, the analysis is interested in the treatment of the musical loans by the two novelists, and in the convergences and the divergences which appear when the various contexts are taken into consideration. Divided into four parts, the analysis describe first the Afro-American literary tradition in whom the authors fit, before explaining the way in which the musical reference is mobilized in the development of the fiction, then in the treatment of the narrative voice and the narrative structure, and finally in the treatment of the language and the style of writing. This reveals that the literary transposition of the Afro-American music, particularly blues and jazz, involves a systematic renewal of the aesthetic of the novel, on the levels of the formal and generic categories, the symbolic dimension, the ideological aimings. The theme of identity, the deconstruction, the orality and the hybridity become the principal paradigms of a writing which becomes an act of resistance and subversion in response to oppression.

No description available.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The distinctive objects designed by Dr Maria Montessori as the centrepiece of her approach to pedagogy are the topic of this study. The Montessori approach to pedagogy, celebrating its centenary in 2007, continues to be used in classrooms throughout the world. Despite such widespread and enduring use, there has been little analysis of the Montessori objects to evaluate or understand their pedagogic impact. This study begins by outlining the provenance of the Montessori objects, reaching the conclusion that the tendency to interpret them from the perspective of the progressive education movement of the early twentieth century fails to provide insights into the developmental potential embodied in the objects. In order to appreciate that potential more fully, the study explores the design of the objects, specifically, the way in which the semiotic qualities embodied in their design orient children to the meanings of educational knowledge. A meta-analytic framework comprising three components is used to analyse the semiotic potential of the Montessori objects as educational artefacts. First, Vygotsky’s model of development is used to analyse the objects as external mediational means and to recognise the objects as complexes of signs materialising educational knowledge. In order to understand how the objects capture, in the form of concrete analogues, the linguistic meanings which construe educational knowledge, systemic functional linguistics, the second component of the framework, is used to achieve a rich and detailed social semiotic analysis of these relations, in particular, material and linguistic representations of abstract educational meanings. Finally, the pedagogic device, a central feature of Bernstein’s sociology of pedagogy, is used to analyse how the Montessori objects re-contextualise educational knowledge as developmental pedagogy. Particular attention is paid to the Montessori literacy pedagogy, in which the study of grammar plays a central role. The study reveals a central design principle which distinguishes the Montessori objects. This principle is the redundant representation of educational knowledge across multiple semiotic modes. Each representation holds constant the underlying meaning relations which construe quanta of educational knowledge, giving children the freedom to engage with this knowledge playfully, independently and successfully. The conclusion drawn from this study is that the design of the Montessori objects represents valuable educational potential which deserves continued investigation, as well as wider recognition and application. To initiate this process, the findings in this study may provide insights which can be used to develop tools for evaluating and enhancing the implementation of Montessori pedagogy in Montessori schools. The findings may also be used to adapt Montessori design principles for the benefit of educators working in non-Montessori contexts, in particular, those educators concerned with developing pedagogies which promote equitable access to educational knowledge.

This study looks at how professional male athletes—particularly undersized athletes—are represented throughout televised sport. Based on the assumption that televised sport is a gendered and predominantly masculine genre, the focus of this analysis is to demonstrate whether or not professional male athletes are evaluated differently based on physical stature, and whether or not such representations reinforce a dominant—mythic—male ideology. Grounded mainly in Gramscian hegemony and Peircean semiotics, the subsequent analysis compares broadcast commentary and visuals taken from the 2010 men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament and the 2010 men’s FIFA World Cup. In both events, it was generally found that taller athletes were praised more positively than smaller athletes. These findings appear to support common sports-related stereotypes, such as, the apparent media-reinforced expectation that professional male athletes be almost inhuman, mythical representations of ordinary men, i.e., the best athletes should be large, intimidating, aggressive, and hyper-masculine symbols.

With a statistical rise in visible, audible and cultural minorities in Canada, the importance of recognizing the relationship between immigrants, culture and identity as constructed in collective discourse becomes paramount. Through hermeneutic and sociocritical paradigms, this research applies a constructionist approach to qualitatively analyze representations of cultural identities in Canadian and Quebec films projecting intergenerational conflicts within immigrant families. From these analyses, five tendencies were elicited: guilt, displacement, in-betweenness, reflections on Canadian society, and heterogeneous perspectives. While deconstructing cultural identity portrayals remains crucial, it is equally important to study these systems of meaning within production. The research is extended through the appendaged short film,Tracing Shadows, a glimpse into the voices of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Both textual analyses and the filmic creation demonstrate the symbiotic connection between society and culture, nurtured within collective identity narratives’ depictions of time and space.