Visual Language Syntax

Veteran

This is a photograph of a war veteran standing before the monument at National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, reading the names of the solders that were killed in combat.  He is missing one leg and standing next to his wheel chair with his back turned to the photographer, supporting himself with crutches.  The veteran is dressed in a suit with a beret covering his head. The photo looks to have been taken during the daytime.

Responses/Feelings in terms of representational content.

Sadness

Pride

Sacrifice

Remembrance

Pain

somber

Symbols

Wheelchair = Injured in combat

Missing leg = amputated

Standing up = strength

Facing wall = reading

Suit = importance

The underlying composition of this visual representation contributes to the responses and feelings that come up when viewing this photograph. The veteran is standing still by himself, and appears to be remembering his fallen comrades and other memories from the war. His amputated leg suggests that he was injured in combat and may be in physical or emotional pain. With his back turned, the tone seems to be more somber. 

Meaning 2

Representational

The role as a whole is represented as bicycle tires, tubes, and wheels making up a chair.

The materials used may encourage a sense of excitement in a user or viewer who is familiar with and a fan of bicycles.

It relates to the abstract level by being built with non-conventional materials, symbolizing a bicycle.

Abstract

The wheels, tires, and tubes are functionally abstracted by being curved, bent, and shaped into a usable chair. 

Despite the materials being abstracted, the viewer will immediately understand what is being expressed and be able to appreciate the unique idea.

This abstraction symbolizes a wheel and at the same time, the chair represents a wheel through the use of materials.

Symbolic

The chair maintains a role of symbolic communicative purpose.

The chair may cause the viewer to reminisce about past experiences riding a bicycle.   

It relates to the abstract level because of the way it is manipulated, this is not the natural shape of a wheel, yet it still is decoded as one. Because of the use of materials, the chair clearly symbolizes a bicycle wheel.  

Meaning 1

Representation

A representation is, “a visual message or part of a visual message that is tied to what we see and recognize from environment and experience.” In other words it is the most realistic visual model next to experiencing the object in real life; given that it is a clear picture with good lighting. This photo represents the Seattle Branch Library, located in Seattle Washington. This direct reporting of visual details carries a large amount of detail and facilitates a remote visual experience of what the library and surroundings look like during this time of day. Car movement is represented by the streaks of white headlights and red brake lights along the surrounding streets. The dimly lit sky and the lights glowing through the library windows represent nighttime. Lastly, the building itself, in its exact geometric shape, color, and surroundings represent the Seattle Library.

Abstraction

“Abstraction, visually, is simplification toward a more intense and distilled meaning.” Abstraction can take two paths, one being pure abstraction, and the other a mere symbol with meaning attached (which is arbitrarily assigned). In the case of this piece of abstraction, the object is stripped down to minimal representational information and draws no connection with familiar visual data, environmental or experiential. The artist who painted the displayed piece of art mentions that it is a jellyfish abstract.  When looking at it, one can understand why the artist assigned this meaning; derived through the concept of thin jellyfish-like tentacles attached to round bulbous-like jellyfish bells.  Without this arbitrary assignment of information, the meaning of this painting would be unknown and left to the imagination of the viewer.

Symbolism 

Use of symbols demonstrates “symbolic thinking”, which is a “stepping stone to language.” In the United States it is universally understood that a yellow sign with a man walking between two lines denotes a pedestrian crosswalk.  This sign is considered a symbol because it does not carry a large amount of detail; containing only a human figure walking between two lines.  In order for this form of visual communication to become a universally understood message, public education is necessary.  The sign is packed full of crucial information that provokes both thinking and language. On the one hand a driver will see and understand it as a sign cautioning them that the designated area provides the pedestrian the right to cross.  While n the other hand a pedestrian will see and understand it as a sign for having the right to cross the street safely at that specific location.