Word Research

Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use of interpretation. Images are able to tell stories through them, this could be through signs, symbols or cues that are combined into patterns to create and try and transmit a message to the audience.
There are three different kinds of Semiotics:

• Iconic - An iconic sign looks like what it is representing itself as. E.g. a portrait is presented as a portrait, a moth being represented as a moth, a real shaped heart representing a heart etc.
• Symbolic - A symbolic sigh doesn't look like what it's representing and that its true meaning must be learnt, it meaning being arbitrary, based on personal choice, because it is based on cultural meanings and links. E.g. the statue of liberty, a company's logo, a cartoon heart representing a heart etc.
• Indexical - An indexical sign is a clue that links to a meaning or multiple meanings, it's linking wouldn't be arbitrary but instead physically or casually linked. E.g. smoke is an indexical sign for fire, a finger pointing is an indexical sign of whatever it may be pointing it, a thermometer wit a high temperature is an indexical sign that it's hot, someone holding their chest is a indexical sign and link of the heart. etc.

Artwork normally includes at least one of these Semiotics, but some artwork and artists include all three of the semiotics and still successfully be able to tell a story through the art piece.

Mise-en-scene
A French word, can be the process of setting a stage to correctly present the placement of actors, scenery, properties, objects, lighting etc. Mise-en-scene can set moods, a characters ambitions, thoughts and feelings, making the viewers notice and realize things they wouldn't have before, leading their eyes and attention to certain parts, areas etc. while still be able to visually and successfully tell a story.
It can also be used to explain why something is included within a piece of art, e.g. Salvidor Dali's piece -----, the banana bunch representing male genitalia that's next to the statue of a realistic female statue, suggesting intimacy of the male and female sex. A moving train in the background which would have been used in movies to represent couples having intimacy between each other, e.g the couples run towards each other and then a train goes past them, covering to camera or cutting to the clip of a train, the train representing their 'intimate' moment or scene.

Composition
The act of combining parts or elements to form a whole, completed piece. There are 8 elements within a composition of an art piece, though not all art and artists include them all in their work due to their ideas or techniques.

• Unity - That all of the parts all seem and feel like they belong together, but if not it seems like something is stuck on, awkwardly out of place
• Movement - There are many ways to feel and see movement in a painting, depending on the artist and their technique, such as an arrangement of objects, position of figures, a river etc. Leading lines to guide and direct the viewers eyes into and around a piece of art, though these can be actual lines, lines of a railroad or fence, or they could be implied lines such as a row of trees or a curve of stones.
• Balance - That one side of a piece doesn't seem to heavy on one side, but is presented evenly, having symmetrical arrangement creates a calm feeling while asymmetrical creates a more dynamic feeling, a piece that has no balance can create a sense of unease.
• Rhythm - In the same way music does, a piece of art can have a rhythm or 'underlying' beat that leads your eye to view the artwork in a certain place, this can be done through shapes and repeating colours.
• Focus - The viewers eyes can quickly and easily adjust to rest on the most important thing, or focal point, in the art piece or what seems to be. If there was no focus the eyes would wander the art and feel lost.
• Contrast - Paintings with high contrast, strong differences between light and dark, having a different feeling than minimal contrast in light and dark, though contrast can also be differences in shape, colour, size, type of line, texture etc.
• Pattern - A regular and/or repeating lines, shapes, colours or values in a composition, a symmetrical or unsymmetrical pattern etc.
• Proportion - How things fit together and relate to each other in terms of size and scale, either being big or small, close, nearby or distant etc.

Visual Narrative

A story told primarily through the use of visual media.
There are also meanings and 'flavours' within narrative images, flavour can be a narrative or a 'meta-narrative' that is present in the:

• Linear - Depicts the passage of time and/or space in a single image.
• Paneled - Depicts 'non-temporal' relationships between things in a single image that's composed of multiple parts.
• Aggergate - Depicts the passage of time and/or space in multiple sequenced images.

Most narrative images come from advertising, such as cigarette ads show those smoking their brand are sexy, smooth and cool, which is literal, though the implied and connotative meaning is that the brand of cigarettes will make you rich, sexy and powerful.



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