VLVC wk 6 - Semiotics: Denotation & Connotation

Lesson 6 – Semantics: Denotation vs. Connotation

Readings:
1) Barrett, Terry. “Interpreting Visual Culture.” Art Education. March 2003.

2) Semiotics  Text Chapters 9 & 10: (Smith-Shank, Deborah. Semiotics and Visual Culture: Sights, Signs, and Significance. Reston: National Art Education Association, 2004.)

Too Many Thoughts as I went. 
Had to take notes in a notebook to hurry along. Might come back to this later here...

Discussion Board Assignment: 

This week you will break one of English teachers' most sacred rules - judge a book by its cover!  Browse a library (personal, school, or community), and select a book based purely off its cover art.  Photograph or scan the cover, upload the image in your post, and analyze it in terms of denotation and connotation.

When responding to others' posts, note your own individual connotations from the book cover before reading your colleague's analysis, and share any similarities or differences discovered in your response.

[Optional - Read the first few chapters of the book (or...gasp...the entire thing!) and discuss how the reading experience compared to your visual anticipations of the story)].

  Like I'm sure many of you, browsing books was an assignment of mixed emotions. It is way too easy to get sucked into the world of books, the worlds the images evoke, and then either to fall to temptation or fight mightily to resist the urge to read the synopsis of what lies between the covers. I wanted to pick a book I knew nothing about so as not to be influenced by its context. And I didn't want to succumb to my lack of will power and walk out of the book store or library with an armful of books I had neither bank nor time to invest.

  So, what did a limited time grad student mom type of girl do? She stopped by the book aisle at Target where books are usually discounted and often not always something I want to read (although I learned that second part wasn't exactly true...oh well!) I eventually landed on this gem: 

OKay, so here begins my deconstruction:

Denotation: 
In this cover image I see a two-toned green room with a cloth covered table in the foreground.  The table extends off the edges of the book cover and breaks the picture plane. Sitting on the table is what looks like an old fashioned, either darkened metal or wooden birdcage with architectural details making it look rather fancy. The cage is empty, but behind it, with her head laying on her hands which are folded on the table, sits a girl with short hair. We can see her eye just peering through the bars. Her expression is passive, with perhaps a slight smile or maybe her face just looks pleasant like that when at ease. The background color highlights the figure of her form and the tall cage, lightening the background directly behind her and fading to dark as it approached the edges. 
The text at the top is constructed in a very light yellow, pronouncing endorsements of the author's previous work followed by her name. Then at the bottom, in a different white colored font, is the title of the book. 

Connotation: 
The first thing I notice about these images is the bird cage as focal point. Positioned directly center, with contrasted lighting it draws my eye immediately towards it. Then I see the girl somewhat hiding behind it, only her elbows are visible without cage in front of her.  Her right elbow is even in shadow so it is hard to see. The Cage brings to mind ideas of being caged, of being kept, of not being able to escape. Because it is a bird cage, I start to associate bird like things such as  not being to spread ones wings, or of some thing beautiful to see and/or hear being put on display. I start to think of flight, or lack there of and limitations. I also associate it with the phrase, "if you love someone set them free." Since these is no bird inside I see the absence of this creature being at the point where it is out and about, free, and the girl waiting to see if it shall return, bringing back its love. I also start to connect the two ideas of something being kept or caged with the girl hiding behind the cage. Is she the one being kept? Is she waiting? Or is her body only jailed while her spirit is out soaring with the bird? 
     I start to associate the text with some of the imagery. Does "Easy" refer to a place? Such as Louisiana and "the Big Easy"? Or does it refer to something (maybe life) being easy? The room does not appear to be especially fine or fancy, but the cage makes reference to affluence. Is this girl's life of affluence and prosperity give way to her questioning her position in life or where she fits in? Perhaps its a combination and a juxtaposition of place and position (or maybe I've been watching too much Downton Abbey ;) ) The font of the title (even though I cannot name it specifically) reminds me of architectural styles of New Orleans and the texture of the cloth, as well as the color perhaps, makes me think of the swamp roots in the bayou (again, maybe its my compulsive T.V. watching, but it makes think of the cat fish in the river from the opening sequence of True Blood.) At first I thought maybe it was fading from the cloth into an overlaid image of the river, but looking closer it wasn't.

Okay! Now I can go read some of this book and check out if I was reading the cover correctly. This makes me think of VTSing with my students and them asking at the end if their answers were right!  We shall see...