Hieroglyphics, first deciphered by Jean François Champollion in 1822 using his knowledge of Ancient Greek, influenced early thought and were the precursor to modern day communication, using pictures of objects featuring their most characteristic elements.
Those well-versed in reading and interpreting them, search for the direction that a human or animal figure’s head is facing in order to decipher the meaning. Symbols reflecting Egyptian values: the eye of Horus, the sun and water glyphs, the feather of Maat representing justice, as well as the ankh – the hieroglyph for life. Inculcated images facilitating swift recognition and interpretation.
Saussure’s semiotic theory expanded on the meaning of signs, stating that they are made up of two parts, the signifier - the physical existence, such as a word or image, and the signified – what is evoked in the mind, otherwise known as the mental concept.
When faced with a plethora of images, how visually literate are you? Can you see beyond the image to the hidden context? How does the image make you feel? Why do you think that is? Can you analyse and interpret the context and relationships within the images to derive social meaning?
Scott (1994) argues that - pictures are not merely analogues to visual perception but symbolic artifacts constructed from the conventions of a particular culture.
An indispensable aspect of image interpretation is tapping into the social, cultural, historical, and political contexts using deep seated maieutic knowledge of history and social structures.
An opportunity for event participants to interpret and discuss historical, satirical, literary, media and advertising images; including video footage from a variety of international sources, using personal bias and experiences to dissect their multifarious meanings.
From the human brain to Chat GPT, a medium aimed at streamlining productivity using a combination of technology, epeolatry and logodaedaly, to provide detailed responses, with varying degrees of accuracy. GPT4’s more sophisticated, newly launched multimodal model aims to go one step further, recently making waves by accepting image and text inputs, and emitting text outputs.
With AI holding such plenipotentiary powers, now able to interpret images instead of just text, what does the future hold for linguists and their analysis of visual rhetoric?
Key take-aways:
• Interpreting a variety of international images through the ages, to communicate ideas, themes and key messages.
• Knowledge acquisition: gaining context and finding meaning.
• Multimodal metacognition and responses during the rise of AI.
Speakers:
Maria-Elena Metaxas
Elizabeth Beevers
Tia Smith
Georgina Metaxas
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