Prompt: In your language of choice, write continuously in your notebook for 5 minutes about what you noticed while trying to spend an entire day saying only what you absolutely must say. Don’t edit, or correct, don’t stop, just write. Feel free to share or not.
This week’s task brought to you by Sonali:
Look for the Plot
When you are walking to the subway or sitting in a cafe, notice who and what is around you? Imagine you are in movie. Ask youself: What is the plot? What’s about to happen here?
“Deconstructing almost any visual scenario (or scene) can be revealing. Consider each part separately from the whole. Imagine drawing each and everything in your field vision.” (Start with something that you encounter everyday and see if you can see things you never saw before by drawing using the blind contour drawing technique. What do you notice?)
If you haven’t already, please sign up for a 15 min remote or in-person meeting. If you are unavailable during the meeting slots, please contact me to find another time.
Review, revise, and repost your reading response based on feedback/questions and discussions with your peers.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.
2. The Message Cycle & Models of Communication (30 min)
Last class, we looked at semiotics theory (the theory of signs and meaning in communication). We started with French philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure, who identified a sign as composed of a signifier and a signified. The signifier is that part of the communication process that carries the message (sound, image, text), and the signified is the concept delivered to the receiver.
Careful analysis of the message cycle can help us to understand when our communication works and when it doesn’t – and why. If we are aware of these concepts and the communication models, we can be more effective communication designers!
The Communication / Message CycleHall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That : A User’s Guide to Semiotics, 2012
Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication
Check out the following video to reinforce the following concepts: sender, intention, transmission, noise, receiver, destination, feedback.
Shannon and Weaver Model- Davidson & Naffi, University of Ontario, Institute of Technology
Transactional Model of Communication
This model emphasizes the importance of context, feedback, and the dynamic nature of communication, reflecting the complexities of contemporary communication in various contexts such as interpersonal interactions, organizational communication, and mass media.
Key elements include:
Sender: The person who originates the message and encodes it into a form that can be transmitted.
Message: The information being transmitted from the sender to the receiver.
Channel: The medium through which the message is transmitted (e.g., face-to-face, email, phone call, social media).
Noise: Any interference or distortion that may disrupt the communication process, such as environmental distractions, language barriers, or differences in interpretation.
Context: The situational factors surrounding the communication, including cultural norms, social dynamics, and physical environment, which can influence how messages are sent, received, and interpreted.
Receiver: The person who receives the message and decodes it to understand its meaning.
Feedback: The response or reaction from the receiver, which may be verbal or non-verbal, providing information to the sender about how the message was received and understood.
Transactional Nature: Communication is seen as a continuous, interactive process where both parties exchange roles as senders and receivers, with each participant influencing and being influenced by the other.
Messages take different paths between the sender and receiver and back again via different mediums.
Noise is the distortion in the meaning of a message, whether intended or not. It affects whether or not the message has successfully reached its destination.
Truth in communication. Where a message says it is from may be very different from where it is really from. It can sometimes be hard to determine the intention of the sender, and that can affect how we understand the message.
In preparation for this week’s reading, let’s go through the reading together. You will be reading and annotating an excerpt from Roland Barthes’ 1977 essay, “Rhetoric of the Image.” This essay is challenging, but it contains important tools for deconstructing visual design using a semiotic approach, including “close reading” of visual images. The use of visual images to communicate meaning is called “Visual Rhetoric.”
Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.
!! Reminder !!
No class next Thursday! See you on February, 29th at 2:30pm.
Communication Design Theory
An in-depth introduction to communication design theory, this writing intensive course examines theoretical perspectives of design practice within the larger discourse of design and visual culture.
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