<p>The overall aim of this dissertation is to investigate how students engage with visual representations as a signifying practice in an educational context. This question is scrutinized through two young girls’ three video films and interviews with the producers. The study is guided by an interest in what these young students communicate with their films, how this is done and how they relate to the cultural and social world in their representation. The title, Ambiguous Images, alludes to the signifying work with film, images and words done by the two girls. The films raise topics such as sexuality, equality and gender which set their mark on the situation of young females, both in school and in their leisure time. The result shows that moving images fulfil the function of negotiating the significations as well as making it possible for the girls to create their own alternative representations. Each film contributes an alternative discourse, in contrast to dominant texts that apply to the constitution of the cultural and social context they address. The study demonstrates that learning is a process of selection, adaptation and transformation motivated by the interests of the pupils and the context of learning. Other important issues are also raised concerning the students’ possibilities to participate in and influence the school subject in question. This involves both the opportunity of engagement with a multiplicity of modes and the possibility to adopt their own voice and view of the world. Both the methodological and the theoretical approach in the dissertation have multimodal and social-semiotic perspectives, which are combined with a design approach. These combinations are united in a presentation of representation and communication as a social process of sign-making.</p>

Music as a hub in school presentationsThe aim of the study is to elucidate how making meaning is constituted when lower secondary pupils play music when giving accounts of other school subjects than music. The empirical material consists of four presenta- tions in the subjects of physics, religion and Swedish, which were filmed during ordinary lessons in a lower secondary school. In addition the data consists of nine filmed stimulated recall interviews with the pupils and their teachers, which were also filmed.Social semiotic multimodality constitutes the study’s theoretical and methodological point of departure. The perspective enables investigation of the pupils’ playing of music and music in its multimodal context, and of how different dimensions of meaning are constructed. The filmed presentations were transcribed into music scores in order to visualise the multimodal events of the presentations. Three different categories of meaning were used, ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning, to analyse how music relates to other modes of communication.The results show how the temporal functions of music serve as frame- work and motor, what the music narrates in relation to the subject content and what interpersonal relations the music communicates. The young peo- ple’s knowledge of music manifests itself in the different accounts as an ability to use and adapt musical knowledge to a context where another sub- ject than music is in focus. The presentations of Swedish are travesties of well-known songs and the pupils stick to the given form. In the other presen- tations the pupils themselves had compiled the music and the result was a form of musical works where the music does not follow any model or certain genre. The informants think that this working method implies that the work is experienced as meaningful both to themselves and to the audience.

The overall aim of this dissertation is to investigate how students engage with visual representations as a signifying practice in an educational context. This question is scrutinized through two young girls’ three video films and interviews with the producers. The study is guided by an interest in what these young students communicate with their films, how this is done and how they relate to the cultural and social world in their representation. The title, Ambiguous Images, alludes to the signifying work with film, images and words done by the two girls. The films raise topics such as sexuality, equality and gender which set their mark on the situation of young females, both in school and in their leisure time. The result shows that moving images fulfil the function of negotiating the significations as well as making it possible for the girls to create their own alternative representations. Each film contributes an alternative discourse, in contrast to dominant texts that apply to the constitution of the cultural and social context they address. The study demonstrates that learning is a process of selection, adaptation and transformation motivated by the interests of the pupils and the context of learning. Other important issues are also raised concerning the students’ possibilities to participate in and influence the school subject in question. This involves both the opportunity of engagement with a multiplicity of modes and the possibility to adopt their own voice and view of the world. Both the methodological and the theoretical approach in the dissertation have multimodal and social-semiotic perspectives, which are combined with a design approach. These combinations are united in a presentation of representation and communication as a social process of sign-making.

La recherche porte sur les distances qui s’établissent entre les visiteurs et les œuvres exposées au sein de l’exposition muséale d’art, précisément celles qui, tout à la fois, sont périphériques aux artefacts, sont imposées par les règlements et consignes de visite, sont délimitées par des barrières, des cordons, des socles, des rubans adhésifs au sol, entre autres choses, sont souvent maintenues par les visiteurs, sont généralement reconnues comme étant vouées à la protection des biens patrimoniaux présentés et qualifiées de « bonnes distances », de « distances respectueuses », de « limites à ne pas franchir », de « zones de sécurité », par exemple. Considérant qu’elles s’inscrivent au sein d’un dispositif médiatique, il s’agit de comprendre de quelle manière elles contribuent à ce dernier. L’étude théorique des tracés régulateurs et des marges des médias du texte soutient la construction du concept de « marges péri-opérales » permettant de qualifier les distances entre les œuvres et les visiteurs et d’émettre l’hypothèse qu’elles participent à l’exposition en remplissant plusieurs fonctions et rôles d’ordre sémiotique. L’étude théorique de l’exposition muséale d’art conduit à une approche communicationnelle des marges péri-opérales consistant à les appréhender depuis les trois processus énonciatifs au cours desquels elles sont produites et dotées de sens – soit la réglementation de la visite de l’exposition muséale, la mise en espace de l’exposition muséale, la saisie visuelle des œuvres exposées lors de la visite de l’exposition muséale. L’étude des marges péri-opérales est alors pensée en trois enquêtes dédiées respectivement à chacun des processus identifiés et reposant sur l’analyse d’ « objets » qui sont inhérents à ces processus et qui préfigurent, configurent et actualisent les marges péri-opérales – soit les règlements de visite et les interdits comportementaux, les outils de mise à distance et les marges expographiques, les comportements et les alignements des visiteurs. La première enquête permet d’établir que, telles qu’elles apparaissent dans la réglementation de la visite de l’exposition muséale, les marges péri-opérales remplissent les fonctions de mesures de protection des biens et des personnes et d’accès aux œuvres dans certaines limites physiques et le rôle de règles constitutives de la visite de l’exposition muséale d’art. La deuxième enquête permet d’avancer que, telles qu’elles se concrétisent lors de la mise en espace de l’exposition muséale, les marges péri-opérales assurent les mêmes fonctions que les signes-vecteurs d’attention et d’interprétation et les rôles de repères signalétiques et de traces matérielles d’énonciation. La troisième enquête permet de déterminer que, telles qu’elles se manifestent lors de la saisie visuelle des œuvres exposées, les marges péri-opérales endossent les fonctions des signes d’engagement dans la situation d’interaction et des propriétés situationnelles et les rôles d’indices posturaux de co-énonciation et de figures rituelles. En somme, l’étude des marges péri-opérales révèle que ces dernières participent, du fait de leurs multiples fonctions et rôles sémiotiques, au fonctionnement communicationnel et à l’opérativité socio-symbolique de l’exposition muséale d’art. / The research focuses on the distances between visitors and the works exhibited in the art exhibition, specifically those that are both peripheral to the artifacts, imposed by visitor rules and regulations, bounded by barriers, cords, pedestals, floor tapes, among other things, are often maintained by visitors, are generally recognized as being destined toConsidering that they are part of a media device, it is important to understand how they contribute to the latter. The theoretical study of the regulating lines and margins of the text's media supports the construction of the concept of "peri-operative margins", making it possible to qualify the distances between works and visitors and to make the hypothesis that they participate in the exhibition by fulfilling several semiotic functions and roles. The theoretical study of the museum art exhibition leads to a communicative approach to the peri-operative margins, which consists of understanding them from the three enunciating processes in which they are produced and endowed with meaning - that is, the regulation of the visit to the museum exhibition, the setting up of the museum exhibition, and the visual capture of the works exhibited during the visit to the museum exhibition. The study of peri-operative margins is then thought out in three surveys dedicated respectively to each of the processes identified and based on the analysis of "objects" that are inherent in these processes and that prefigure, configure and update the peri-operative margins - i. e. visit regulations and behavioural prohibitions, distance tools and expographic margins, visitor behaviours and alignments.The first survey makes it possible to establish that, as they appear in the regulations governing the visit to the museum exhibition, the peri-operative margins fulfil the functions of measures for the protection of property and persons and access to works within certain physical limits and the role of rules governing the visit to the art museum exhibition. The second survey suggests that, as they materialize when the museum exhibition is set up, the peri-operal margins perform the same functions as the vector signs of attention and interpretation and the roles of signposts and physical traces of enunciation. The third survey makes it possible to determine that, as manifested in the visual capture of the exhibited works, the peri-operative margins assume the functions of signs of engagement in the interaction situation and situational properties and the roles of postural clues of co-enonciation and ritual figures.In sum, the study of the peri-operative margins reveals that, because of their multiple semiotic functions and roles, they participate in the communicational functioning and socio-symbolic operability of the art museum exhibition.

Syftet med studien är att genom kritisk granskning få en fördjupad förståelse av fristående gymnasieskolors multimodala kommunikation på sina hemsidor gentemot grundskoleelever och deras vårdnadshavare. Avsikten är att jämföra de friskolor i Stockholmsområdet som hade högst respektive lägst meritvärde för antagning höstterminen 2019. För att undersöka detta används multimodal analys av tio fristående gymnasieskolors hemsidor. Resultatet presenteras utifrån olika kategorier med en bakgrund i sociosemiotisk teori. I resultatet framkommer att skolorna i gruppen med högst antagningsgräns ofta använder liknande semiotiska resurser vilka skiljer sig från de skolor med lägst antagningsgräns som inom sin grupp använder sig av semiotiska resurser som liknar varandras. De olika skolorna riktar sin kommunikation till olika grupper av elever och vårdnadshavare. Alla skolor använder sina egna semiotiska resurser för att skapa mening. Kombination av de semiotiska resurserna på en skolas hemsida skapar en viss förståelse hos betraktaren. / The purpose of this study is to achieve a greater understanding of multimodal communication towards prospective students and their guardians on webpages of independent upper secondary schools in Sweden. The intention is to compare independent schools in the Stockholm area which had the highest as opposed to the lowest limit of admission in the autumn of 2019. To investigate this, multimodal analysis of the websites of ten independent upper secondary schools is used. The results are presented in different categories based on social semiotic theory. Furthermore, the results show that the schools in the group with the highest admission limit often use similar semiotic resources and that they differ from the schools with the lowest admission limit. This group on the other hand, use semiotic resources that are similar to one another. The different schools direct their communication towards different groups of students and guardians. Schools use several individual semiotic resources which create understanding in combination with each other.

This thesis examines the multifaceted strategies employed in Pressbyrån's 2023 Cinnamon Bun Campaign, which gained nationwide attention in Sweden for its humorous approach. The campaign aimed to depict the Swedish cinnamon bun, a staple of the Swedish fika tradition, in an extravagant and luxurious light. Focusing on the interplay between humor and luxury, the study uses a multimodal analysis, utilizing Semiotic and Social Semiotic approaches to understand the visual material and its conveyed meanings. Using a theoretical framework that includes Stuart Hall's (1973) encoding and decoding model and Marxist theory, the research examines how the campaign commodifies the cinnamon bun, imbuing it with social value within capitalist culture. The investigation also places the campaign within Swedish cultural traditions and explores the intersection of humor, luxury, and cultural contexts. The literature review covers perfume advertisements, humor in advertising, and the commodification of cultures, providing a comprehensive background for the analysis. The analysis identifies visual cues and luxury codes within the campaign's posters and discusses their impact on audience perception. It also explores how humor through parody intersects with cultural contexts, particularly in challenging Swedish norms of moderation (lagom) through exaggerated luxury. The findings reveal that the campaign strategically uses visual elements reminiscent of luxurious perfume advertisements, creating a humorous dissonance between the perceived extravagance of the bun and its ordinary consumption. The study highlights the complex dynamics between humor, luxury, and cultural contexts in advertising. While humor effectively captures attention, its efficacy in enhancing brand recall remains uncertain. Nonetheless, Pressbyrån's campaign serves as a compelling case study, offering insights into the intricate relationship between consumer culture, tradition, and humor in advertising.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka fiollärares syn på och användning av stråkteknik i sin undervisning. Detta görs med följande forskningsfrågor: Hur representerar fiollärare sin syn på stråkteknik? och Hur designar fiollärare sin undervisning i stråkteknik? Studien är kvalitativ och data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra olika fiollärare på musik- och kulturskolor. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt utgörs av socialsemiotiskt perspektiv. Intervjuerna ljudinspelades och även videodokumenterades för att sedan transkriberas och analyseras med hjälp av analysverktyg från det valda teoretiska ramverket. I studiens resultat beskrivs fiollärarnas syn på stråkteknik samt hur de designar sin undervisning i stråkteknik. De teman som presenteras är stråkteknik som tonbildning, stråkteknik som hållning, stråkteknik som instrumentteknik, materiella resurser i undervisningen samtkroppsliga och klingande resurser i undervisningen.I resultatet framkommer många skillnader men även likheter i de intervjuade fiollärarnas utsagor, men alla belyser stråkteknikens betydelse i undervisningen och dess funktion. I studiens avslutande kapitel diskuteras resultatet i förhållande till tidigare litteratur och forskning samt till studiens socialsemiotiska perspektiv. De teman som presenteras är undervisning ur ett socialsemiotiskt perspektiv samt stråkteknik kopplat till stråkhållning och tonbildning. Det tas även upp om metoddiskussion, arbetets betydelse samt fortsatt forskning. / The purpose of the study is to investigate violin teachers’ view of and use of bowing technique in their teaching. The study´s research questions concern how do violin teachers represent their view of bow technique? And how do violin teachers design their teaching in bow technique? The study is qualitative, and data has been collected through semi structured interviews with four different violin teachers at music and cultural schools. The theoretical starting point of the study is social semiotic perspective. The interviews were recorded by audio and video and were then transcribe and analyzed. The analysis was conducted with tools from the chosen theoretical framework. In the study's results, the violin teachers' view of bow technique is described and how they design their teaching in bow technique. The themes presented are string techniques such as tone formation, bow technique such as posture, bow technique such as instrument technology, material resources in teachingandbodily and sounding resources in teaching. The result shows many differences but also similarities in the interviewed violin teachers' statements, but all highlight the significance of the bow technique in teaching and its function. In the final chapter of the study, the result is discussed in relation to previous literature and research, and to the social semiotic perspective of the study. The themes presented are teaching from a social semiotic perspectiveand bow technique linked to posture and tone formation. The method discussion, the importance of work and continued research is also mentioned.

A percepção gestual de três licenciandos em situações de uso de representações estruturais químicas (REQ) foi caracterizada em uma disciplina do curso de licenciatura de Metodologia de Ensino de uma universidade pública. Esta percepção foi construída a partir da análise em entrevistas de Lembrança Estimulada por Vídeo (LEV), de uma enquete e da análise de situações de sala de aula de episódios de ensino. A LEV é uma técnica de origem cognitiva que foi adaptada para o estudo em uma abordagem sociocultural. A comparação de dados nesta pesquisa empregou a multimodalidade como modelo teórico e metodológico para caracterizar as interações multimodais em sala de aula. Na categorização de episódios de ensino, adaptamos algumas categorias de Silva (2008) como as operações epistêmicas, a proxêmica e os suportes. Na análise gestual, utilizamos a categorização de Kendon (2004). A percepção gestual foi construída com categorias inspiradas no funcionalismo de Lemke (2009). Contrastamos a análise de aula com a entrevista e a enquete para validar as respostas da entrevista. Os resultados da comparação entre a percepção dos licenciandos contribuíram para diferenciar como cada sujeito identifica sua performance gestual. / The gestural perception of three pre-service teachers has been characterized when using of chemical structural representations (CSR) from public university in a course of Chemistry Teaching. This perception has been constructed with analysis of Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRI), polls and classroom analysis of teaching episodes. SRI is a technique based on cognitive approach which has adapted to sociocultural perspective. We compared data using multimodality as a theoretical methodological model to characterize multimodal interactions at classroom. In categorization of teaching episodes, we adapted some categories from Silva (2008) like epistemic operations, proxemic and media. In gestural analysis, we used Kendon (2004) categories. The gestural perception has been constructed motivate by functionalist of Lemke (2009). We contrast classroom analysis with interviews and polls to increase the reliability of answers in interviews. Results of comparative between pre-service teacher perceptions is some differences how each subject index their gestural performance.

[pt] Esta dissertação de mestrado consiste em uma pesquisa qualitativa e interpretativa no campo de internet e política, subcampo democracia digital, e concentra-se na análise da comunicação pública praticada em uma experiência de democracia digital desenvolvida no Brasil entre 2015 e 2016: o Dialoga Brasil, do Governo Federal. Para proceder a investigação foram mobilizadas a Análise de Discurso Crítica (ADC), a Teoria Semiótica Social da Multimodalidade (TSSM) e a Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (LSF), em especial, na análise dos frames (quadros) de comerciais institucionais veiculados na TV e na internet. Também foram analisados os resultados obtidos pela plataforma, em termos de acesso e participação do público, peças publicitárias recolhidas no meio digital e, finalmente, o site do projeto. Os resultados obtidos pela pesquisa e a interpretação deles decorrente sugerem que nas peças publicitárias mobilizadas pelo portal Dialoga Brasil há um esforço deliberado de fortalecimento da marca governamental (brand) em detrimento de uma comunicação pública – referenciada na função constitucional da publicidade institucional – capaz de informar e oferecer argumentos para o debate público sobre questões de interesse geral. A presente investigação no campo de internet e política se justifica face à percepção corrente, no seio da literatura que trata da avaliação de experiências de e-participação, de que a comunicação pública representa um aspecto central em iniciativas dessa natureza. / [en] This dissertation consists of a qualitative and interpretive research in the field of Internet and politics, subfield digital democracy, and focuses on the analysis of public communication practiced in a digital democracy experience developed in Brazil between 2015 and 2016: the Federal Government’s Dialoga Brasil. In order to carry out the research, the Critical Discourse Analysis (ADC), the Social Semiotic Theory of Multimodality (TSSM) and the Systemic-Functional Linguistics (LSF) were mobilized, especially in the analysis of the frames of institutional commercials broadcast on TV and the internet. The results obtained by the platform, in terms of access and participation of the public, advertising pieces collected in the digital medium and, finally, the project website were also analyzed. The results obtained by the research and the resulting interpretation suggest that in the publicity pieces mobilized by the Dialogue Brazil portal there is a deliberate effort to strengthen the government s brand in detriment of public communication - referenced in the constitutional function of institutional advertising - able to inform and to provide arguments for public debate about issues of general interest. The present research in the field of internet and politics is justified by the current perception, within the literature that deals with the evaluation of e-participation experiences, that public communication represents a central aspect in initiatives of this nature.

A percepção gestual de três licenciandos em situações de uso de representações estruturais químicas (REQ) foi caracterizada em uma disciplina do curso de licenciatura de Metodologia de Ensino de uma universidade pública. Esta percepção foi construída a partir da análise em entrevistas de Lembrança Estimulada por Vídeo (LEV), de uma enquete e da análise de situações de sala de aula de episódios de ensino. A LEV é uma técnica de origem cognitiva que foi adaptada para o estudo em uma abordagem sociocultural. A comparação de dados nesta pesquisa empregou a multimodalidade como modelo teórico e metodológico para caracterizar as interações multimodais em sala de aula. Na categorização de episódios de ensino, adaptamos algumas categorias de Silva (2008) como as operações epistêmicas, a proxêmica e os suportes. Na análise gestual, utilizamos a categorização de Kendon (2004). A percepção gestual foi construída com categorias inspiradas no funcionalismo de Lemke (2009). Contrastamos a análise de aula com a entrevista e a enquete para validar as respostas da entrevista. Os resultados da comparação entre a percepção dos licenciandos contribuíram para diferenciar como cada sujeito identifica sua performance gestual. / The gestural perception of three pre-service teachers has been characterized when using of chemical structural representations (CSR) from public university in a course of Chemistry Teaching. This perception has been constructed with analysis of Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRI), polls and classroom analysis of teaching episodes. SRI is a technique based on cognitive approach which has adapted to sociocultural perspective. We compared data using multimodality as a theoretical methodological model to characterize multimodal interactions at classroom. In categorization of teaching episodes, we adapted some categories from Silva (2008) like epistemic operations, proxemic and media. In gestural analysis, we used Kendon (2004) categories. The gestural perception has been constructed motivate by functionalist of Lemke (2009). We contrast classroom analysis with interviews and polls to increase the reliability of answers in interviews. Results of comparative between pre-service teacher perceptions is some differences how each subject index their gestural performance.