IMAGE SEMIOLOGY AS A POSSIBLE SIGNPOST FOR READING NON-VERBAL SOUND/MUSIC IN AUDIOVISUAL SYSTEMS

Abstract

This paper aims to point out the possibility of applying image semiology onto reading non-verbal sound/music areas in audiovisual systems such as television and film. The theoretical approach to (film/television) sound implies systematic borrowing of the musical model. Consideration of sound as musical text, which is being applied in many of its segments even today, originates from claims that all (film/television) sounds possess the nature of musical tones, which is not insignificant since almost all acoustic occurrences could be analysed in this way. But this is exactly the thing we must not do. The work of music and (non-verbal) sound in audiovisual structures is not determined exclusively by musical characteristics and therefore their quality cannot be considered from the perspective of the so-called pure music which was created to function per se, unconditioned by reasons beyond music. The value of applied (film and television) music and non-verbal sound lies in co-addressing together with image and narration and therefore it is necessary to look for new modes to read auditive images. In this case, the basic hypothesis of the paper is that we can determine a (sound) object in the way that semiology provides for image texts. Comparing theses of image theorists (art, film, television) and sound theorists is a way of finding not only related characteristics of the two phenomena (the acoustic and the visual), but also productive ways to analyse the acoustic field, which results in development of methods and vocabulary suitable for complex sound materiality.