Some considerations on visual communication and production of meaning in plant kingdom

Abstract

Using a semiotic approach, our research has focused on two directions: primarily, on visual communication and how meaning is produced and conveyed in visually complex messages or images coming from plants, and secondly, how do viewers construct their own meanings from this visual communication. We took photos of several vegetal scenes and then investigated the production of meanings and the significance of some visual messages/signs coming from the plants under study. Our analysis aimed to highlight the relationships between the components of the visual image, the relationships between the producers of the visual image, as well as the relationships between the components of the image and those who are viewing it. The researches in the field of Biosemiotics have demonstrated that all living organisms are systems producing “meaning” with the help of signs, signs which acquire the ability to transfer information, in other words they are communicative systems which communicate by signs, and communication can be defined as an interaction based on sign relations. The notion of image within plant kingdom is related to indexicality, as essential means of visual representation, and the global significance of the visual message, that is, the meaningful communication is constituted by interaction of indexical and plastic signs. Thus, Semiotics has facilitated a better understanding not only of the complexity of the living world, but also of the communicative force of the image, based on sign relations, within plant kingdom.