FROM IMAGE TO MEANING: A SEMIOTIC CRITICAL APPROACH TO THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE VISUAL STIMULUS IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD CERAMICS

Abstract

At the theoretical level, this research aims to identify the representations of visual stimuli in contemporary international ceramics from a critical semiotic perspective. By seeking to deconstruct the semantic structure of the ceramic image as a visual text open to interpretation. Because ceramics have not remained merely a material or decorative medium, but have become loaded with complex cultural and intellectual discourses in their structural system. This study employs an analytic semiotic approach that combines the concepts of Roland Barthes, Charles Peirce, and Umberto Eco, with the aim of identifying the mechanisms of meaning production within ceramic work, starting from the image as a visual stimulus and its subsequent symbolic and cultural connotations. The research comprised four chapters, beginning with the general framework of the study, which included the research problem, and concluding with the following question: How do the representations of the visual Stimulus in contemporary global ceramics function as semantic patterns that produce meaning through the semiotic structure of the image? The problem was then followed by the importance of the research. The goal of the research, which sought to identify: From Image to Meaning: A Semiotic Critical Approach to the Representations of the Visual Stimulus in Contemporary Universal Ceramics, followed by the limits of the research objectively, temporally and spatially, as well as the identification of the most important research terms, and then the theoretical framework of the research, which was determined by two main topics: The first topic: Structural Semiotics: From Language to Image, and the second topic:  Visual Stimulus: from perception to interpretation, while the third topic: visual representations in the artwork, then followed by indicators derived from the theoretical framework and previous studies. Then came the third chapter, which included the research procedures and analysis of the research sample models. The research concluded with the fourth chapter, which presented the research results and their discussion, along with conclusions, recommendations, suggestions, and a list of the research sources.