Free Transcript of Episode 1.17 Connecting With Your Target Audience: Secondness in Semiotics
Semiosis 101 Season 1 Video 17 Transcript
Hello readers.
In this free transcript for the video published on Semiosis 101 on 18 Jan, 2023, we will put Peirce’s SECOND philosophical category of experience (or consciousness) into the context of visual communication… and AUDIENCES.
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.
Hey! Welcome to this week's talk. We are building up from the Things Themselves… talking about the phenomenological states that Peirce defines… the three phenomenological states that Peirce defines… in which semiotic theory operates. But more importantly that we as human beings inhabit, (whether or not we realise it or not). So, let us just dive straight in.
The previous week's video was about FIRSTNESS. This week we will deal with SECONDNESS. So Peirce… (and we are reusing again the actual tweets from this Twitter account @cspeircespeaks), which is a Twitter account that posts quotes by Peirce.
And Peirce says, "In the ideas of FIRSTNESS, SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS, the three elements or universal categories appear under their forms of FIRSTNESS". So …it is in the title! FIRSTNESS is the state where you are not aware… and then you are aware. You move from things to “ah that resembles something that I know.” Is this telling something to me that I need to know? and we are talking here from the point of view of the AUDIENCE interpreting the work that you do. Whether that is the illustration, graphic design, whatever.
So FIRSTNESS is an existent state. It is spontaneous. It is that moment when… (we are surrounded by stimuli all the time) but there is a moment when you are aware of something …so there must be a moment when you were not aware of the THING. It is in that transition from "not aware" to "aware" that helps designers and illustrators make that semiotic connection to your target AUDIENCE. But this week we are going to be dealing with SECONDNESS… which is a state where things are relative to other THINGS. Then next week we are going to deal with THIRDNESS…which is when it is all mediated by FIRSTNESS and SECONDNESS into THIRDNESS.
Okay? So do not worry if you are not following me so far… by the end of today's talk you will get a bit more of a clearer picture of what Peirce is talking about and as usual… Semiosis 101 is about putting Peirce into designer-centric terms to make it relevant to designers and illustrators. Because Peirce …not always the most clear writer about what he is meaning… but there are some great ideas in Peirce that is applicable straight into the design process.
Okay? So… we are dealing here with a sense of SECONDNESS. So, I will go to the top corner first. Now Peirce says, "I always distinctly said that the origin of genuine SECONDNESS was in experiencing. Not "experiencing." "In experiencing." So by having a "lived experience" our target AUDIENCE have more THINGS that you as designers and illustrators can connect with. By understanding what [the AUDIENCE] will encounter and what they will know helps you as designers and illustrators to tap in and HOOK them in with visual language that they will become aware of.
So "SECONDNESS is that mode or element of BEING" that state of "BE-ING" humans exist in-the-world… we are BEINGS in-the-world. We are BEing-in-the-world. So let us just go through that again. "SECONDNESS is that mode or element of BEING by which any subject is such as it is… in a SECOND subject… regardless of any THIRD or rather the category is the leading and characteristic element in this definition, which is prominent in the ideas of dyadic relativity… relation, action, effort, existence, individuality, opposition, negation, dependence, blind force."
What????
Uhhh???
Just say what you mean!!!!
And this is the example where Peirce comes from. He says all of this, but then you have to then go…
"What the hell does this mean?"
So let me just save you that headache, and let me just try and put it into some context …a designer-centric context… that will help you appreciate this idea… which will help you connect to your AUDIENCE on a philosophical phenomenological level.
Okay? So let us just look at his words again. Forget about how he phrases this and just look at what he is saying here. We are talking about SECONDNESS. So [PEIRCE] is talking about the SECOND… the second level… the second category of phenomenological state… in which we exist in-the-world. We are BEINGS-in-the-world and we exist in-the-world. So… SECOND category… we are BEINGS-in-the-world.
As Peirce says "genuine SECONDNESS was IN experiencing." We experience a lot of things in our lifetimes, which we do not always consciously process. But there is a lot there that you can tap into. So if you think about SECONDNESS as the state in which relation, action and effort of the visual language that you choose, starts to make more connections than at the Iconic level, which we talked about last week. Iconic levels at the FIRSTNESS.
This is now moving up that level to relation, action and effort… so it is no longer just about resembling THINGS that "Ooh, THAT reminds me of THIS." "THAT reminds me of THAT." "THAT resembles THIS" or whatever.
THIS now is THIS. When you see THIS it is THIS. When you see THIS it can then mean THAT. And we are helping the AUDIENCE make that connection to bigger concepts, connotatively, from the obvious to what they are looking at. So this is really bringing the AUDIENCE into the interpretation. It is making the AUDIENCE have agency of action over what we are putting in front of them. It takes effort on their part to see the relations of the visual language you are putting together to build a bigger picture of the CONCEPT your brief is asking you to communicate.
Okay? If it was just …you know… "do an illustration of a chicken." That is just an illustration of a chicken. Okay? But if that "chicken" is meant to mean something else… then this is where semiotically, you start to build up an idea, into a bigger picture. Okay? So let us just move this forward to a bit of a summary.
That in SECONDNESS… it is still within the state of BEING… a human being… BEING-in-the-world… and this SECONDNESS… the state of SECONDNESS… is connecting relations, actions and efforts… through us… our AUDIENCE… in experiencing THINGS that they have experienced in their lives. So it is finding roots from one to the other and pulling them in as visual language, to connect stronger to our target AUDIENCE.
Okay? So, by doing your research into your target AUDIENCE then you are going to be able to …you know… strengthen your visual communication. So, let us just tie this back into something we have already covered… In previous videos we have talked about Indexical representation. Now… "The Index asserts nothing. It only says THERE! It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object [concept] and there it stops."
Now, Indexical representation works within the phenomenological state of SECONDNESS.
Iconic = FIRSTNESS
Indexical = SECONDNESS
Because at the Indexical level, we are now pointing semiotically our AUDIENCE to THINGS that they already know, and saying to them… "When you see THIS… it is THAT." Okay?
So, it gives you more sign-action power to push your semiotic communication to the next level. Okay? So, the Indexical sign is intrinsically within the state of SECONDNESS… and through ideation, you can connect with your AUDIENCE by researching into your AUDIENCE and tapping into that. So let us get you to "take home" now.
Okay. So each week we do a "take home" and this bite-sized piece of applicable semiotic knowledge is… In a state of SECONDNESS a semiotic sign gains more sign-action power by helping AUDIENCES make real connections. It is within the state of SECONDNESS that our AUDIENCES move beyond spontaneous Iconic resemblances to Indexical representation. As designers and illustrators…
By researching into your target AUDIENCE's existing experiences you can connotatively HOOK them into your work by gaining insights to existent THINGS.
>as an example actual THINGS… or even ideas<
that can be a shorthand visual language hack straight into [the AUDIENCE's] attention. Now this thought exercise is within the state of SECONDNESS. Okay? and it also means that what you are doing is by just having the framework of FIRSTNESS, SECONDNESS and THIRDNESS, (without having to worry too much about it) you are already thinking that the sign-action power of Semiosis
(Semiosis = sign-action)
is moving our AUDIENCES from"not being aware that there is a particular semiotic sign working here." To… "Yes THIS resembles THAT" to then move them up to "THAT is THIS." Okay?
Next week we are going to deal with the third level of phenomenological state which is THIRDNESS… which pulls it all together. So come back for that video. But for this week? That is it for now.
Watch the free video on YouTube for the full impact…