Theories of Roland Barthes - approach to understanding images.
If you've not seen this photo then you see it for what it is, literally. Just a photo of young people sat on a sofa. Happy, celebrating maybe, on a night out.
If you've seen the show then you will automatically see this differently because you know the characters and their backgrounds etc.
Semioticians - Work with semiotics and try to unload meanings with signs and images.
Signifier - What you can see.
Signified - What it suggests.
Denote - Shows a man in front of a building
Connote - Status, power, friendliness.
Uses symbolism to project a message. For example a 'dome' on a building symbolises the architecture of Rome, Rome is power and intelligence.
The culture as in time and the area of an image needs to be known to fully understand an image.
Another example is how a dragon can be seen in very different ways when on a flag, compared to a computer game or a church window.
Can you look at a swastika and not associate it with what it's caused as oppose to it just being a shape.
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