2A: Before we started the experiment we all had to read an essay by Roland Barthes called: The Rhetoric of the image and understand the meaning of polysemy! After reading this essay I had a good idea of what Barthes was talking about as he used an advertisement as an example of how an image can send out different meanings. An image on itself can mean something different for everybody but if we add specific symbols or text to it we can drive everybody into the same direction and ''make'' them get the same or similar meaning out of it.
2B: The next step was to pick three random images. So once we all had read the essay and were ready, we got together to discuss what exactly we had to do and used the Randomizer on http://www.sxc.hu/ to get the images we were gonna use for the first part of the experiment. After we all decided on which images we were going to use, we started the experiment by asking people to say something about each photo, then putting them in whichever order they wanted and making up a story.
The 3 images we used:
2C: People were very happy to help us and we got a bit carried away with how many we were asking to participate that we ended up having a lot more material than we needed. The majority of the subjects were female, you will see the range of different answers we got below!
Female (20’s) Student and Part time shop work
Don’t like the coffee picture as much as the other two.
In a cafe, a having coffee, table has a vase with a single rose in it. Man is playing a guitar in the corner, like in friends.
Female (50’s) Office worker
Coffee - Nice warm cup of coffee waiting on you - have a break.
Rose - Sunny day, summer heat, picking up a rose.
Guitar - Wonder why the guitars at that angle, beetles.
Someone husband taking them out for coffee for Valentines day and serenading them with a guitar then giving them a rose.
Female (20) Nursing student
A wee man gets up and has a coffee and then plays guitar then trims his rose bush
Female (31) Home-help assistant
Seem unrelated - no obvious story
Musician had a cup of coffee then walked home and saw a rose
Female (52) Administrator
Everyday objects, things taken for granted, taken in an unusual way to make you think about it differently.
Nice Day, gardening, cuts rose, brings rose indoors, plays music and has a cup of tea.
Female (40’s) Housekeeper
Rose - A person looking/admiring a rose - not growing it.
Coffee - Someone preparing a hot chocolate
Guitar - Wants to play the guitar/repair it.
Male (20’s) Housing company
Rose - Small red rose
Coffee - I need a coffee right now
Guitar - Learning to play the guitar would be a dream come true.
Female (18) Student
Rose - First day after the snow has cleared and it’s the most noticeable thing in the garden.
Coffee - A quiet individual owned a coffee shop looking out onto a busy road, bustling rush hour traffic.
Guitar - They have rediscovered their love for music after putting it off for years.
Female (19) Student
A nice warm sunny day when someone is playing a song with friends, relaxed atmosphere. Very vibrant, pretty image of someone taking a walk and spotting a pretty flower.
Female (50’s) Computing
Out gardening, looking at pretty roses so gets partner to take out for a coffee and their was a guitar playing.
Male (50’s) Planner
Out for a cappuccino with partner, surprised to be serenaded by a man with a guitar. Handed a red rose over as a token of affection.
Male (19) English Student
Stays up at night playing guitar, has coffee to stay up. Falls asleep and in love, has an American Beauty type dream.
Male (15) School pupil
Valentines, takes someone out to get to know them, for a coffee, write a song for them and give a rose.
Female (49) Office Worker
Rose - I picked this red rose especially for my loved one.
Coffee - My favorite drink of the day is a latte.
Guitar - I can play the guitar.
I am a famous guitarist and am famous for my top hit song "red roses". It doesn't matter where I am I have to have a latte first thing in the morning.
Female (44) Aroma Therapist
Rose - Man needs to go and get his girl
Coffee - Woman is waiting for dumb-ass to find her!
Guitar - Sweet song to remind them to remember that they love each other!
A couple have split up and neither knows why. They both know that they want to and should be together. Neither knows how to tell the other. She is sitting in a cafe, wishing that there were two cups and he was sitting opposite her, his sapphire blue eyes sparkling with happiness. She has no idea where he is. He at that same moment is walking down the road that the cafe is in, holding a single red rose and wishing he could give it to her, see her face light up and then he would know that they were ok again, no words needed, simply a look that said everything. Music starts to play and she looks up to see a guitarist on the small stage, she hadn't seen the stage before, too busy wallowing! The song reminds her of those wonderful blue eyes and she closes her eyes and says I wish I could see him now.The door opens, but she does not turn round, she knows he is there, he holds his breath, can't believe that she is really there. He walks up to her and she stands, suddenly wishing she had worn something else, too late now! He touches her shoulder and they both catch their breath. When they face each other he tells her she looks beautiful. Thank you she whispers, he replies You are beautiful.
Male 24 (Cricket Player)
Rose: People being together, St. Valentines day
Coffee: Start of a day
Guitar: Music, Oasis, Buskers in the Underground singing to the people walking passed.
It was a summer camp to America where I met my fellow band member and the woman of my dreams. I played the guitar for hours and hours. Made new friends who are on the band today. Long nights of practice plenty cups of coffee trying to be like our boyhood star’s. We got our first record label. At first major gig we had hundreds of people whistling and throwing roses at us, we even found a rose with a number attached to it.
Female (20) Speech Therapy Student
Rose: Romantic atmosphere
Coffee: All is under control (time to have coffee)
Guitar: Songs with friends (rhythm, music)
Waking up in the morning beside a friend or boyfriend, having coffee and chilling all day while listening to music. Later on going for a stroll in the country side and picking flowers.
Female (24) Student
Sitting in a cafe having a coffee and a busker comes along playing the guitar and trying to sell her a rose.
Female (20) Student
A guy gives a girl a rose but she doesn’t know who it’s from. She’s in a cafe and he plays the guitar o her and she realizes it’s him who gave her the rose. Then they have a coffee together.
This is when we actually understood in depth how an image can mean something different for every single person because they might associate the picture with a memory they have or with a person they know or a feeling they felt when they last came across a guitar, a rose and a latte. We kind of knew what the results would be for the first part and didn't expect people to think of the same thing, although we did have some similar stories. After reading through all the stories we realized that a lot of people thought of romantic things by looking at the pictures, so in order to carry on and do the rest of the experiment we had to come up with a story which we would manipulate people to come up with the same or something similar.
2D: The story we wanted our subjects to come up with was : -A couple in love on Valentines day going for a coffee date where the man serenades the woman and gives her a rose.- In order to drive people in that direction we added two hand drawn pictures, first a red heart and then a stick man and woman.
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We then went to find more subjects and get results and more stories. We limited the number of people we asked to help us down to about seven as Braque said it is enough to get a good result.
Results 3 images + heart :
Male (19) Accountancy Student
Valentines day, guy takes girl for a coffee, gives her a rose and plays her a song.
Female (31) Nursing Student
Couple sitting having a coffee, romantic scene, someone playing a guitar, valentines day.
Male (18) Business Student
Valentines day, picnic outside, boy gives the girl a rose and musics playing.
Female (17) Nursing Student
People, no a couple out having coffee, in love, guy has bought her flowers and musics playing in the background.
Female (17) Nursing Student
Musicians having a coffee in the morning, thinking about writing a love song
Female (19) English Student
Romance - girl has a flower, falls in love with a guy playing a guitar
Male (19) Zoology Student
I love coffee and it makes me play my guitar and write love songs about love and coffee and stuff
The result didn't turn out as we hoped it would because people weren't thinking of two people in love on a coffee date so that's when the stick man and woman came in the scene.
Results 3 images + heart + stick man and woman:
Male (27) Unemployed
Boy meets girl impresses her with his guitar playing skills and buys her a rose and a coffee.
Female (50’s) Service Industry
Love, Romance - two people fall in love over a coffee, music playing in the background, rose is given as a gift.
Male (23) Geography
Playing a guitar, sang a song for his girlfriend who he loved, took her for a coffee and gave her a rose.
Female (20’s) History
It’s Valentines day and a girl called Suzie meets a boy called Jack in a coffee shop, they stay there all day and in the evening a man with a guitar comes round and serenades Suzie and Jack buys a rose from him for her.
Female (19) English Literature
Children out picking flowers listening to some music whilst dreaming of being grown up.
Female (30’s) Business Student
It’s Valentines day and a couple are in love and having a morning coffee, he’s bought her a rose and ordered for a man to serenade her at their table with a special song.
Male (18) Accountancy Student
Boy and girl, together, in love, pick a flower then go and have a coffee, musics playing in background.
Female (19) English Literature
Children out picking flowers listening to some music whilst dreaming of being grown up.
(We figured out that it's probably because children usually draw stick men so we don't blame her.) Maybe a more realistic image of a couple would have led to the result we wished for. But the experiment wasn't over anyways, we had one more task to go...
2E: The next part was to add text, so in order to make people think of Valentines day and romanticism we added LOVE + 14th to our images!
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Result 3 images + LOVE + 14th:
Male (20’s) History Student
Two people on Valentines day go to a cafe for a date, one of them buys a rose for the other one and musics playing in the background.
Female (50’s) Service Industry
Girl and boy meet in a coffee bar on Valentines day, arrange to meet afterwards where the boy serenades her and gives her a red rose.
Female (20’s) Primary Teaching
Valentines day, couple having a coffee in a restaurant where there’s music playing, he gives her a rose.
Female (20’s) Tunnel Planning
Quite a soppy story - boy meets girl in a coffee shop, plays her a love song on Valentines day, gives her a rose.
Male (20’s) English and Film Student
Valentines day, two people on a date, got someone to sing for them and go for a hot chocolate.
Male (20’s) Engineering Student
Couple in a cafe on Valentines day, music in background, he gets her a rose.
Female (20’s) History Student
Boy and girl meet, go for a coffee, he gives her a rose for valentines day and they fall in love.
Finally!!! Everybody mentioned that it was Valentines day and that the couple were on a coffee date. :) ooooh ooooook so not everybody got that the man serenades the woman bit but the result was quite close in fact very close and I think that if we looked in to it a bit further we could have made everybody think what we wanted them to think!! So that's basically what Barthes says in his essay, an image has many meanings but if we take one meaning and add more details to it and some text, we can make the image have just one meaning (sign).
