In this article we explore the relationship between semiotic analysis of images and quantitative analysis of vast image corpora, in particular the work produced by Lev Manovich and the Cultural Analytics Lab, called “Media Visualization.” Media Visualization has been chosen as corpus because of its metavisual operation (images are visualized and analyzed by images) and its innovating way of conceiving analysis: by visual instruments. In this paper semiotics is used as an approach to Media Visualization and taken as an object (...) of study as well, especially visual semiotics. In this sense, a comparison between visual semiotics (close reading of small corpora) and quantitative analyses of images (distant reading of vast collections) are conducted from a semiotic point of view. Post-Greimassian semiotics guides this study with respect to the issue of the image-within-an-image and metavisual visualization; Peircean semiotics is employed to explain and develop the notion of diagram. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

The goal of this paper is to contrast the representation of models in photography, as well as certain kinds of inanimate beauty, with the average faces constructed by algorithms serving to identify and reproduce beauty. What are the similarities and differences between inanimate objects, characterized by faces devoid of singularities and comparable to sorts of angelic faces, and the algorithmic parameters through which beauty and attractiveness are calculated and predicted? This paper will apply an enunciative semiotic analysis to photographic corpora, (...) propose philosophical reflections on the categories of beauty, and will show that the conception of beauty changes from corpus to corpus and from one cultural domain to the other. The end of the paper states that beauty has to do with a perfect gradation between stillness and movement in the case of the models seen in fashion photography, between neutrality and expressivity for mannequins, and between singularity and multiplicity for dolls such as Barbie, and that, in the algorithmic fabrication of beautiful faces, it is linked with an enhancement of the compactness of the structure of the face. (shrink)

Les relations entre les travaux de Latour et la sémiotique de Greimas ont été explicites depuis les années 1970. Le présent article est consacré à la manière dont Latour reprend et fait évoluer la théorie sémiotique de l’énonciation, depuis « A Relativistic Account of Einstein’s Relativity » et « Petite philosophie de l’énonciation » jusqu’à l’Enquête sur les modes d’existence, où il utilise la théorie de l’énonciation pour fonder sa théorie des modes d’existence. Sera ainsi retracée l’évolution de la théorie (...) de l’énonciation, tant chez Latour qu’en sémiotique. Nous montrerons que dans les deux cas, on peut décrire cette évolution comme un mouvement de l’énonciation énoncée vers l’énonciation pratique.Since the late 1970s, Latour’s work has had close ties with Greimas’ semiotics. This article is devoted to Latour's further consideration and development of the semiotic theory of enunciation, beginning with « A Relativistic Account of Einstein’s Relativity » and « Petite philosophie de l’énonciation » all the way up to the Inquiry Into Modes of Existence, where he uses the theory of enunciation to establish his theory of modes of existence. The evolution of the theory of enunciation is charted through both Latour’s work and semiotic theory. We argue that in both cases this evolution can be described as a movement from uttered enunciation to practical enunciation. (shrink)

In this article we plan to revisit the notion of substance of the plane of expression, as found in semiotic studies of the image, and how this notion relates to the concepts of purport and form. The article is divided into three parts: The first section gives a brief history of the various ways substance has been addressed in (or excluded from) image analyses based on Greimassian semiotics and Groupe μ rhetoric. Drawing upon Jacques Fontanille’s semiotics of practices and Jean-François (...) Bordron’s theory of iconicity, the second section concerns proposals that attempt to address the “moment” of giving substance in autographic works of art – and also in writing –, through notions of support, application, and the gestural act of inscription. The third section tests these methodological tools on chemical photography and on digital image-making in order to propose a new, specifically semiotic approach to studying the media characteristics of images. (shrink)

This study will mainly investigate a semiotic theory of the production and functions of visualisation and image in scientific literature, especially concerningobservational astrophysics, as well as theoretical physics, and will also mention the physiology of movement dealing with chronophotography.

Le présent article porte sur les dispositifs visuels qu’on appelle en histoire de l’art et en sémiotique généralement « métavisuels » et qui ont été formulés pour notamment analyser des phénomènes de dédoublement et de cadrage dans l’image artistique. Nous allons explorer la possibilité d’utiliser ces dispositifs pour analyser les images scientifiques contemporaines, en les comparant à certaines œuvres artistiques. On tentera ainsi, en croisant les travaux de Victor Stoichita et Jean-François Bordron, de repérer un certain nombre d’opérations communes qui (...) traversent les différences figuratives et d’économie de valeurs entre les arts et les sciences. (shrink)