Semiotics

What surprised me from this lecture was how much we actually use signs. If someone asked me to pick out a sign I would have looked for a road sign or a wet floor sign but its much more than this. A sign can be anything, as long as someone else knows/understands the signified concept. but where is the boundary? can smells, sounds, favours also be considered signs... of course. in order for signs to work it has to have a signifier and an signified. at first this threw me but when you understand the difference it makes perfect sense.

The Signifier is the sign itself whether that's visual or some kind of odour ect.., for example the word "ON", lets say its for a Games Console. The signifier is the actual word "ON" , the Signified is the knowledge/ concept that if you push that button then it will turn it on.

If we're missing one of these two key elements then the sign is useless. for example if someone didn't speak our language or were blind or simply didn't know what it meant.

So maybe using letters and words as signs Isn't the most effective way, as it can restrict your audience.This is a world wide recognized sign for power.

This is far more effective than the word "ON", not only will more people know what it means but they will recognise it quicker.

It can be quite frustrating when, you don't know the Signifier, I know this first hand. Whilst I was travelling in Japan I came across such words as 出口 which translates Way out. now when you in a huge train station this is always a good sign to know, that I learnt quite quickly. One I learnt even quicker was the difference in Male to female toilet signs, now when your in most tourist places you'll see this image below or something like it and know its safe to enter (on the left) but what happens when your greeted with the image next to it? (on the right) now both have the same Signified but different a Signifier, now if you dont speak the language or dont know the Signifier then you'll be the one making the 50/50 chance of walking in a room full of small angry Japanese woman...

so in Conclusion, we use signs everyday, sometimes without even realising it. we depend on them as social beings and always will.
(the image on the right is Kanji for Men and would only really be used in for rural areas)