Free Transcript of Episode 1.15 To the Things Themselves or You’re Designing it Wrong…
Semiosis 101 Season 1 Video 15 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 14 Dec 2022, we will explore the more philosophical underpinning behind Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic representation. For the next few videos in 2023 we will get all airy-fairy with Peirce’s phenomenology roots to how sign-action (Semiosis) works.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…
…and here is the video’s transcript.
NOTE: As with any video transcript the tone used is conversational. The following transcript text features ad libs, and therefore should be read in the spirit of any semi-scripted video.
Welcome to this week's talk. This is the fifteenth in Season One so far… and we are going to, as promised from the previous videos, going to start jumping into the phenomenological underpinnings the philosophical underpinnings, of Peirce’s semiotic theory of Semiosis. To get to that point what we are going to be looking at, obviously, is To The Things Themselves.
But what are those things?
Well, that is where this level of Peirce really is crucial to understand. Peirce can be really quite obtuse in how he makes other people understand his thinking. So, let me just try, for illustrators and graphic designers, to put it into a context that will actually mean something to you guys. So, to help us, I am going to be using some tweets from a Twitter account @CSPeirceSpeaks.
Where Peirce is really useful… is because he approaches it from the angle of "existing." As human beings…we "exist!" That is what makes us who we are we "exist in the world" and it is this “NESS” part of FirstNESS, SecondNESS and ThirdNESS we are going to be exploring. [Peirce] uses the terms FIRSTNESS and SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS to describe three states essentially of "being" in which our functions operate. What we have here is a sense of what do these three terms mean? (Especially in the context of graphic design [and illustration])
Okay?
So, [Peirce] talks about First… he talks about Second…he talks about Third. So just to quickly…get a sense of what this means… The state of FIRSTNESS is… from our perspective… trying to understand our target AUDIENCE a state of ideas. We will explore that bit further.
Then the SECONDNESS is a state… as [Peirce] says here "the end of things" So, it is not the end of the world…it is the sense of “Ah, we have reached this point. This is what we now understand” (That is that is what we are going to explore a bit later on).
Then the state of THIRDNESS… you will see this time and time again… every time we have these quotes… it is a state of mediation. Of making sense of what we have experienced. So, just hold those thoughts in your head as we move forward.
In Peirce, when he talks about FIRSTNESS and SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS …is a case of building up the idea of "being"… "existing" independent of anything else… that these things "exist.” So, I will talk about it later on as a conclusion… but let us just quickly unpack this, to something that you understand.
RED. The colour RED. It exists as RED. (We won't worry about the scientific explanation of why red is red and blue is blue) but we as human beings know that the colour red exists and we know what the colour red is when we see it. That is not dependent of anything else so in the state of FIRSTNESS… the colour red is red. We spot it. We understand it. We do not have to overthink it. We know red is red. But the second level… SECONDNESS is the conception of being relative to something else.
If you start applying to the colour "red.” "RED means rage.” "RED means this.” "RED means that.” "RED means something else." Then as soon as you enter that point where you start to make relations of something that exists like red to "RED.” “Oh that is a raging colour”… that is “angry” …Then as soon as you make that connection… or your target AUDIENCE makes that connection… that is when the state of SECONDNESS happens.
It is when you actually, then definitely, get to a point of “Yeah RED. Urrgh, that is RAGE” “That is ANGER” "ANGER. Urrgh" That is when we are at the state of THIRDness. it is not just relative to IT. It becomes IT. It can be mediated to be THAT. But it is still RED. In other contexts and in other situations, it might mean something else, or it might just stay as RED. It does not matter. But, it is when somebody makes those connections going FIRSTNESS, then SECONDNESS, and THIRDNESS… that it works up to that level.
Okay, let us move forward to something that we have encountered before in earlier talks. When we start talking about Peirce's obtuse language. Now he uses three terms to describe what happens within Semiosis - within sign-action. The OBJECT… its REPRESENTAMEN… and its INTERPRETANT. But we are approaching this in Semiosis 101 from a designer-centric perspective!
So we have… well I have… replaced OBJECT with a designer-centric term that we are all familiar with as illustrators and designers the CONCEPT we need to visually communicate. (So the CONCEPT is OBJECT in Peirce's language). How we REPRESENT that… Peirce refers to that as the REPRESENTAMEN. But we will refer to that, as the visual language we choose, to cause the REPRESENTATION of the CONCEPT to visually communicate that [CONCEPT].
How the AUDIENCE interprets that [REPRESENTATION]… that is where Peirce’s language of interpreting comes in, but we were just still use the language of 'what we are understanding our target AUDIENCES do'… which is INTERPRET what we put together. [What we design]. We are talking here connotatively rather than denotatively. So we are not having to worry too much about Peirce’s language, because that is what Semiosis 101 is all about.
So forget about the three terms on the right-hand side at the top… and the three terms at the bottom… because we are not going to unpack what they mean yet. That is going to be Season Two… Season Three next year.
We have already in Season One unpacked Icon, Index and Symbol, so if you want to check them out… videos 10 to 14, and the Omnibus' in between. They are all the ones that are unpacking Icon, Index and Symbol…
Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic representation in Visual Communication Design… illustration… graphic design. Check them out for those ones. What we are going to look at here is how those states of FIRSTNESS, SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS corresponds to Peirce’s three levels of how semiotics' power works.
Okay?
FIRSTNESS… you can see at the Iconic level… and on the corresponding levels on the right-hand side… is all within the state of FIRSTNESS. That is where we know when we see red it is red.
Okay?
“Ah that is red” Indexically… then you can start going "Ah, red for fire." "Red for rage." "Red for this, red for that."
That is when we have a relation of what we see RED as… to something else… and then it is [at] the Symbolic level… when it becomes THAT. When we see RED in this context it means THAT. Think of… you know… the Soviet flag… the Communist flag… the red flag. It means something else than just a RED flag. So that is where the state of THIRDNESS comes in where it is mediated to become THAT.
So you can see within those three levels of how Peirce’s sign-action, through the triads [sets of three]… it goes from simple to complex… FIRSTNESS leads to SECONDNESS… and FIRSTNESS and SECONDNESS is then come to a mediated agreement… when we reach a level of THIRDNESS. So what does this mean for illustrators and designers?
Well again, in videos seven and eight I started to introduce you to Peirce’s big concept… [where] he defines 10 levels of semiotic signs, from the simple to the complex… from Sign One being the simple… Sign Ten being the most complex.
We have seen that already as I say in videos seven and eight… where the first corner of that inverted pyramid are the Iconic signs… the bottom part of it… the bottom four are Indexical signs… and the top right hand corner are Symbolic signs. So what we have here is a sense of… in the TEN signs… going from simple to complex… and each of them having complexity… we have the Iconic representation, Indexical representation and Symbolic representation taking the focus… depending on what a type of sign-power has got. Well let us just explore that a little bit further… in the context of [these] phenomenological states of FIRSTNESS and SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS.
So FIRSTNESS is Sign One… [It] is the pure sign of FIRSTNESS… because that is where you acknowledge "RED" …just using that as our example again… RED
Okay? Red is just red. We acknowledge it… but in your head you are already starting to think… "Well, red. I know red means something else." So whatever colour it is… whatever that is… "Ah, that means something else."
As soon as you start thinking that, then our ability to make sense of what we are viewing moves up …as the AUDIENCE [gets it] and your sense, as an illustrator or designer, can build on that by crafting your visual language to bring [the AUDIENCE] in, and a hook your AUDIENCE in from that. So state of FIRSTNESS is where the first steps are… “oh that resembles something that I'm familiar with”which then lead to state of SECONDNESS.
Sign Four in [these] Ten Signs is referred to as the "sign of experience" because we all have a lived experience and this semiotic sign is one where it is focusing the power on people's experience and as designers and illustrators you can really help yourselves by crafting your work. Then finally you have THIRDNESS… top right-hand corner…
Sign Ten is the sign of Sign Ten is the sign of pure THIRDNESS because when you reach that point everything is mediated… everything that you have designed is mediated… so let us just think about what we have got there is if we have looked at the colour red… and as First… Sign One… you acknowledge it is red… but then you start thinking about could this mean something else? leads you to a state of SECONDNESS, where it starts to be relative to other things… pointing you towards things you already know… that they may be trying to communicate or hook you in with.
The state of THIRDNESS is where you acknowledge generally that when you see THIS it means THAT. So when you see red in a particular pattern you know that, more than likely, it is referring to Coca-Cola. That is a mediated position. Yeah? It has just grown in meaning… that when we see this particular shape of RED with a white background mostly, then that means Coca-Cola. That is when the state of THIRDNESS happens.
So, To The Things Themselves… so we think about the difference of FIRSTNESS, SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS as I have outlined it to you… that we have… FIRSTNESS is as just a state of… "being" that when we see red that is a spontaneous moment when we go "Ah! Okay! That is red."
It is a spontaneous thing, as when you spot something… you SPOT it. You are not thinking about it, but you SPOT it. THEN …that is when semiotic signs start to work. Because if you do not SPOT something you just walk by …and it does not [semiotically] work. So spontaneity is a state of FIRSTNESS.
It is when get to a state of SECONDNESS that it becomes dependent… it is when we see THIS… it is driving us to make that assumption it is THAT. But then when we get a state of THIRDNESS… it is about mediation… that when we see THIS in this particular way… it is THIS because we agree it is THIS… Coca-Cola for example.
Okay? Moving forward. Again if we understand our target AUDIENCE to design and illustrate more effectively… to communicate to them… then what we really are jumping in on is the “NESS” part of this.
So, if you are having problems with FIRSTNESS, SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS… forget about that. I know I have just done like 10 minutes or so just talking about it… but it is the “NESS” bit… it is the qualitative state of "being." It is just a way of mapping that unconscious, subconscious way the brain works… that as designers [and illustrators] knowing Iconic, Indexical and Symbolic representation semiotically…you can start to hook [the AUDIENCE] in.
So, in a state of FIRSTNESS you can get your target AUDIENCE in… with a state of FIRSTNESS that you are using THINGS that they are familiar with - red as an example - to then hook them in with… "Ah, we are talking about RAGE here." "We are talking about FIRE here." …or "We are talking about POLITICS here" or "We are talking about THIS here"… and then you bring them into the state of THIRDNESS, when the AUDIENCE themselves can make that connection… because you have helped MEDIATE them to that position. "Ah! We ARE actually talking about THIS." Just to reiterate where we are with FIRSTNESS… Let us just focus in the second tweet here… "The First (FIRSTNESS) is that whose being is simply in itself.”
Now as humans, we "EXIST" no matter what whether or not the colour red exists or not, or whatever else it is and it does not refer to anything else… it just EXISTS. That colour red… We EXIST. But as soon as you start recognising THINGS then we all naturally move to the state of SECONDNESS. In the state of SECONDNESS… again Peirce’s language can get in the way but let us just focus in on the first tweet.
Peirce says he always "distinctly said that the origin of genuine SECONDNESS was IN EXPERIENCING.” It is not just about experiencing… it is about BEING in the moment OF experiencing. Because at that point you are looking at the world differently… and as part of that, that is what helps us as designers and illustrators… to make connections to our AUDIENCE by visually HOOKING them in.
I mean you can call that aesthetically… but it is hooking them in to then help with the visual language that you have chosen to take them on that visual journey as they are EXPERIENCING what they are looking at… to get more information out of what you have designed… that they were maybe not intending to get… that will then lead you finally to the state of THIRDNESS… where it is being mediated into exactly what [the AUDIENCE] need to take home from your design.
That is the way you can actually engage in this state of phenomenology which is basically about existence… about experience… about tapping into that target AUDIENCE aspect of…as fellow humans… they experience THINGS in the way they experience THINGS… and if you can tap into understanding HOW your AUDIENCE will approach THINGS… then you can improve your visual language to actually HOOK them and keep them hooked.
[IN JANUARY] we are going to dig deeper into the state of FIRSTNESS, in the sense of illustration and graphic design and what does that mean? How do we build on just the sense of red (or whatever it is)?
So come back next week [FOR SHORTS] and we will [IN 2023] start digging deeper…into Phenomenology. We will start with FIRSTNESS… but that is it for [2023].
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…