Why semiotics is still relevant today
We live in a world saturated with signs and symbols. Be that the physical environment we occupy or the digital spaces we navigate.
As designers, one way to view our surroundings is through a semiotic lens — as a text which can be read or a set of signs which can be interpreted.
Signs and Signification
Signs are two-dimensional. They can denote (describe directly) and connote (imply indirectly).
We can think of denotations and connotations as ‘orders of signification’.
Take a look at the signs below.
The Hiking Trail sign denotes a man wearing a backpack and carrying a walking pole. The Contact sign denotes a telephone receiver. The Recycle sign denotes a Mobius loop composed of three arrows.
Whilst the denotations are fairly obvious to spot, the connotations are relatively more obscure.
The Hiking Trail sign uses man to refer to all humans. This purports a view of man as the norm with everything else being a derivation or a deviation from the norm. We could say the sign has connotations of androcentrism.
The Contact sign uses a telephone handset as a stand-in for the concept of communication. It privileges speech over non-verbal, visual and written forms of communication. We could say the sign has connotations of phonocentrism.
The Recycle sign uses a loop to suggest a sense of completeness and self-containment. As long as we keep on recycling, we can keep on endlessly consuming, regardless of environmental degradation. We could say the sign has connotations of anthropocentrism.
Digital Semiotics
Signs don’t have to be physical. Virtual signs permeate every facet of the web, from navigation icons on websites to social media news feeds.
Extending the application of semiotic theory to virtual environments — digital semiotics — elucidates how we derive meaning from virtual signs as we traverse the web.
As designers of digital experiences, it is imperative we explore digital semiotics to unearth the hidden meanings in our designs.
Think of an online job application form that only accepts male and female as possible gender options.
Viewing this as a sign to be interpreted, we notice it carries multiple connotations.
Non-cisgender forms of expression are omitted. The notion of gender fluidity is crudely categorised into binary oppositions. There is no distinction drawn between gender, which is socially constructed and sex, which is biologically assigned.
The impact of these significations is twofold.
Firstly, on a micro-level, there is the potential for further disadvantaging already marginalised communities. For instance, those who identify as transgender and non-binary might be deterred from applying for the role altogether.
Secondly, on a macro-level, digital software that codifies exclusion perpetuates existing inequalities in wider society. This, in turn, contributes to systemic forms of discrimination.
The Naturalisation of Meaning
We can see from the above examples how signs often conceal strands of ideologies. These subliminal messages influence how we think, act and live.
Often, we are prevented from discerning these ideologies by a way of naturalisation — thinking of meaning as universal, organic and immutable.
Whereas, in reality, meanings are specific to cultural contexts, constructed by us and in a perpetual state of evolution.
Eating with one’s hands is commonplace in the east but regarded as uncivil in the west. The colour blue used to be traditionally associated with femininity and pink with masculinity. The word ‘egregious’ which now means profoundly bad, once meant remarkably good.
So how can we reject the notion of naturalisation and embrace the mutability of meanings?
The artistic technique of defamiliarization offers us one way out of this ideological quagmire.
Advocated for by the Russian Formalists in the early 20th century, to defamiliarize something is to look at ordinary, for-granted and everyday objects through a new, strange and unfamiliar lens, surfacing all that is tacitly embedded into the object.
Sceptics might argue that a mere change in perception is no match for ideologies woven into the very fabric of society.
This line of reasoning, however, de-emphasises the pivotal role humans play as meaning-makers. As Charles Sanders Peirce, one of the founding figures of semiotics puts it,
“Nothing is a sign until it is interpreted as a sign.”
By recognising the relevance of semiotics in the current climate, we can reaffirm our role as designers, thinkers and interpreters, effectively generating new modes of meaning, online and offline.
