Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Semiotic Conceptt of Mass Culture Objects
Sonja Briski Uzelac
; Umjetnička akademija, Rijeka
Sažetak
The old system hierarchies of cultural differences (oppositions high/low, elitist/populist, original/
serial, pure/applied) are no longer what popular culture debates are structured around. The
recognition of such a new state is not an expression of “the culture of criticizing going numb”
(H. Foster), but rather an awakening of an attitude towards the culture of consumerism, which is
no longer an object of despise but “a source of status”. One of the central topics connected to the
contemporary mass culture based on a consumer’s “object of desire” is focused on the semiotic
concept of its nature. What makes an object “desirable” is external to it; it is not its internal
functionality and utility, but it is what functions in the mass culture as a brand, as a fi ctional
semiotic text of an identity, in terms of a signifi er independent in the usage of communication
channels, effects, cliches, genres and mass culture codes. It is a procedure, which in the process
of globalization and commercialization of culture, fatefully merges design and “branding” at the moment of any object’s identity forging. As an example of the questioning of these processes from the point of view of an independent author, the article explores the paradigmatic case of the IT brand identity construction, as presented by fashion designer Tonči Vladislavić. Semantically constructed as a meta brand following the post-conceptual signifi er practice, it is literally realized as a “seal”, i.e. copyright protected and registered and, like a virus, further developed as a new auto-refl exive semiotic glossary which questions and paraphrases different (binary) cultural modes of life (traditional/contemporary, then/now, working/fashionable, male/female, manufactured/high-tech, unique/serial).
Ključne riječi
object; semiotics; mass culture; brand; IT
Hrčak ID:
199538
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.12.2010.
Posjeta: 1.163 *