Document Type : Original/Research/Regular Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Painting, Faculty of Arts, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Master of arts in Arts Research, Faculty of Arts, Soore University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The history of human social life is full of the examples of societies which have represented “The Other” through the visual and verbal media. The main point of the “other” definition is the importance of “difference”; in other word, the “other” is not always hostile, but its existence is necessary to identify and differentiate the “self”. Societies have always constructed several “others” to obtain local/national unity. From the point of political interactions in globalized world, visualizing the independent “self” is very important, as well is the illustrating of the relation between the “self” and “others”. Although, modern media is widely used for this visualizing, some contemporary versions of traditional media proven to be applicable yet; environmental advertising is an example of this sort of media, which has a long history in political propagandistic use.
Billboards, in public urban sites, may convey instant and localized messages to their numerous audiences. In this regard, in addition to displaying cultural values of a society in order to enhance cultural and national unity, environmental propaganda is also used to portray and distinguish the “self” from the “other”. Illustrating political approaches in urban billboards, in which the interaction between the “self” and the “other” is shown by the use of pictorial signs with explicit and implicit concepts familiar to their specific audiences, not only make the government’s political approach (in relation to the “other”) observable, but also (by visualizing the reasons of a political decision) makes it acceptable. “The truth American Style” billboards, with explicit reference to Islamic republic of Iran and United State of America negotiations in the first half of 2010s, are the examples of this sort of environmental propaganda. It was not the first time that environmental propaganda in Iran had been used to illustrate a political issue with reference to a problematic relation with the “other”, but the straight connection between what can be seen in these billboards and the political event, is the reason of selecting “Truth American Style” billboards as our case study. So, by analyzing the visual components of the picture of America in mentioned billboards, we try to explain the explicit and implicit concepts and the main message of these images. The main research questions are: 1. What are the main features of the image of the “other” in the “Truth American Style” billboards? 2. What are the semantic implications of the visual elements used to construct the American image in these billboards?
For answering the questions of the research, a qualitative research method based on descriptive-analytic study of visual and verbal documents has been used. The research samples include 5 billboards that were displayed in different locations of Tehran in the first half of the 2010s. The pictures of the billboards were studied with the approach of visual semiotics from the perspective of visual representations of the “other”, and the meaning of the signs were defined. The concept of the "other" in intercultural communication and the way it can be represented visually is the theoretical basis of the present study, and data analysis was performed based on the classification of codes in Umberto Eco (1932-2016) visual semiotics.
Umberto Eco, Italian semiotician, and novelist, believes that all semiotics is not made up of "signs" but of "semantic roles". Eco is among the semioticians who considered the verbal semiotics as not appropriate for visual analysis. Relying on Pierce's theories, he argues that although the possible meanings created by the signs are hypothetically infinite, these meanings are in fact limited by social and cultural contexts. Eco, in his studies on semiotics, explains the different ways of invention of signs and offers a new classification of them. He believes that the main concern of semiotics is the interpretation of signs; in other words, in order to read and understand a sign, one must pay attention to the context in which the sign is created and used, and on the other hand, to the reader and his/her social experience. These two are important categories in reading and perceiving the sign, and define the limits of interpretation (Eco, 1976). According to his theories, the invention of a new symbol means the establishment of a new correlation between a form of expression and a content, which requires the production of new codes (ECO, 2008: 87-88). Codes can be considered as institutions that modify, determine and, most importantly, produce meaning (Sojudi, 2011: 144). In his studies on visual semiotics (1988; 1985), Eco divides visual codes into 10 categories based on the type of interpretive relationship that is established between the form of expression and the content.
As it was conceived from Eco’s semiotics, the semantic reading of visual signs is not possible without considering the cultural and historical context of the creation of image. “Truth the American Style” collection consisted of five billboards with the same theme and some differences in pictorial details. These billboards are commissioned by the Owj Arts and Media Organization and produced by the House of Designers of the Islamic Revolution. “Truth American style” billboards had been issued at the height of the Iran nuclear negotiations, which led to some controversies and the premature end to the exhibition of these billboards. The billboards were unveiled at a time when the Iranian two main political parties were at loggerheads over the Islamic Republic of Iran's negotiations with the United States. In this regard, by defining the signs which make the picture of America in the “truth American Style” billboards and reading them semantically, one can understand the explicit and implicit meanings of the images, and the overall message as well.
In “Truth American Style” billboards, two counterparts of the negotiation are identified with explicit signs such as national flags. On the other hand, the text of "Truth American Style", which is embedded in both Persian and English in the image, is deliberately in conflict with the narration of the image and provides the audience with the necessary anchor to read other signs of the visual text. From the point of syntagmatic relations, the image of “other” is created with the juxtaposition of iconic symbols such as weapons, military uniforms, and black dogs, which are generally in conflict with diplomatic negotiations. By the way, the representation of body language and staging in these works are such that the “other” is conceived as aggressive and violator. The main message of the image, which is in fact "American dishonesty," is best illustrated by the contrast between the American negotiator's tuxedo and military trousers. The overall reading of the billboard’s pictorial signs portrays the “other” as deceitful and untrustworthy (in short, as enemy). The importance of engaging the audience with the message of this set of images has led the designers to ultimate use of cultural codes in a way that limits the implications of the visual signs as much as possible and make the message of the billboards clearly visible. For this reason, the photomontage technique has been used to simulate the objective reality and therefore becomes acceptable and believable for the audience. Finally, since the signs must be interpreted in their historical context, it can be said that the “Truth American Style” billboards, by portraying the United States as an enemy, intends to influence public opinion and promote the views of one of the most powerful domestic political parties. In fact, the producers of these billboards, in addition to protesting the foreign policy of the government of the time, by showing the reasons for the unreliability of the United States in these pictures, have represented their legitimacy in disagreement over political negotiations with United States of America.
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