Semiotic Analysis

Write a semiotic analysis comparing 2 similar images. The analysis should be 250-400 words and you must attempt to use key semiotic language.

- Cover of AIZ, October 1932, John Heartfield

- Hurrah, the butter is finished! 1935, John Heartfield

John Heartfield created these two images during the war and each show a great use of signs. The cover image uses money as a sign to signify not only wealth but also the signifier 'millions'. It is being used as an indexical sign. As the money is behind Hitler and it conotes power and wealth, it is no suprise that the text translates as "I've got millions standing behind me". The text is acting as a supporting message to the image. The other text on this image translates as "The real meaning of the Hiltler salute" and "The little man asks for big gifts". Hitler here denotes a little man and the money conotes big gifts. 

In 'Hurrah, the butter is finished!' The text again backs up the imagery, but there are more conotations and denotations we can gain from this montage. Hermann Goering was a German polititian and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He is quoted as saying "Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat". The many signs in this image really back up this quote. The people are saying "Hurrah, the butter is finished!" The image implies next that they can start on the iron to make them strong, which is exactally what they are doing. The swastika used as wallpaperand the portrait of Hiltler denote a living environment which is very comfortable with the Nazi Party. Connotations depend on the rules or conventions that the reader has learnt, it is only through these learnt rules that we can make sense of the true meaning of this image. We associate the swastika and Hitler as a massive evil in the history of our world. Boththese signs are iconic ans have a direct link to what was happening at the time. 

Lecture Notes - The Document

Lecture Notes - Advertising, Publicity and the Media

Lecture Notes - Graphic Design: A Medium For The Masses

Lecture Notes - Modernity and Modernism: An Introduction

Harvard Referencing

Choose one of the essay questions and produce a preliminary bibliography (in Harvard) of 5 books, from the Leeds College of Art library, that you think may be useful.

1. Ilyin, N. (1999) 'Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design in our Time'. New York, Metropolis Books.
2. McGuigan, J. (1999) 'Modernity and Post modern Culture'. Milton Keynes, Open University Press.
3. Witkovsky, M. S. (2007) 'Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945'. London, Thames and Hudson.
4. Wheeler, W. (1999) 'A New Modernity? Changes in Science, Literature and Politics'. London, Lawrence and Wishart.
5. Thompson, K. Held, D. Hall, S and Hubert, D. (1995) 'Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies'. London, Virgo.

Text Summary

Avant-garde was a new art movement which could sit alongside the mainstream and artists began expressing the 'self'. Alot of changes were happening through industrialisation and urbanisation and artists could begin to draw upon their life and the impact of these factors. The avant-garde avoided escapism and through the reality it demonstrated, became internationally recognised.

As the style of avant-garde was new, it couldn't be measure against anything else and was very modern as well as the major scientific and technological advances of the same time. Modernity was a form of experience, an awareness of change and adaption to this change.

Some took a pesimistic view of all this change and believed that life was losing depth. Max Webber, a German Sociologist, saw this as the 'iron cage' of modernity. Different people had different reactions to the forces of mondernity. Some felt alinated whilst others exhilarated.

With all these changes, soe began to take an idealistic response to their significance. The Italian poet Marinetti formulated a new age and became a vision of the mondern by breaking he symbolism legacy. Despite the obvious machinery and architectural developments, modernisation was a social fact. New social realations were formed, particularly between classes, as a result of modernisation.

Moderism lead to more art movements such as Expressionism, Futurism and Cubism. Cubism rapidly established itself as the paradigm for subsequenct avant-garde art. However art was still seen as the underdog in raltation to politics resulting in coflict between the two. This tension has lead to art being seperated on the belief of what art should do. On one side, it should play a part in changing the world. On the other hand, it should change itself.

Summary of text from Harrison, C. and Wood, P (1997) 'Art in Theory: 1900-1990', Oxford, Blackwell p 125-129.