“INVISIBLE SIGNS” presented by Giles
Symposium:
- ISEA2008: 14th International Symposium on Electronic Art
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Presentation Title:
- INVISIBLE SIGNS
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Abstract:
“sign n: something that indicates or expresses the existence of something else not immediately apparent” _Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 2005
INVISIBLE SIGNS attempts to reflect the prevalence of the sign within society whilst additionally raising questions as to their use, function, interpretation and meaning as part of our everyday experience.
Focus here relates to the physical and metaphysical support for such mechanisms / devices and the impact that these have viscally when this is removed.
The prevalence of the sign in contemporary society is unprecedented, whether this be information signage, such as a notice that instructs, advises, informs, warns or commercial signage which is designed to cause recognition, familiarity and affiliation with the viewer.
In this respect signs, signage and other way finding systems act as a symbolic language which have become an integral part of our global mediated environment.
Indeed the unconscious way in which we receive, digest and understand these insignia has become second nature, resulting in the signs themselves rendered essentially ‘invisible’ to us within our daily landscape, everyday experience and in our actual mediation of these.
Utilising a set catalogue of realistic motifs that co-exist within our environment ‘Invisible Signs’ attempts to provide a platform whereby the viewing and perception of the traditionally mundane, ordinary, given, and the known are imbued with an sense of the existential.
Via the subtle distortion of our perceptions and experience of these everyday emblems one begins to experience a visual juxtaposition of ideas and cultural elements that serve to act as a parallel to that of contemporary society.
Emphasis here is placed upon the field and use of photography in order to reflect upon the ubiquitous nature of the physical sign within society, whilst particular interest relates to the way in which we receive, digest and understand these transmitters of meaning within a public arena.
