Semiotics, the process of viewing. These Infographic maps explain how we process a perception, and how the viewed object triggers an unconscious content in our mind. This explains a lot about us and our social relations. This presentation is a first step in the world of Semiotics which will lead to the topic of ADVERTISING in the presentations from InfoGraphicMentors. www.infographic-mentors.

1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
The process of VISUAL PERCEPTION.

2. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Looking at an object or a scene is performed in 2 modes. The information received is
being processed for survival and adaptation first, and then for meaning (Semiotics).
1. Mode 1: I observe a target view.
2. Mode 2 : The target observes me.
3. When the view is a new environment, then the observer will
process a Darwinian mind cycle for survival and adaptation.
4. When the view is another person, then a special process starts.

3. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
.
Mode 1: I look (gaze) at the object.
2. I start to analysis in search for
meaning and sense giving in a
Semiotic process.
1. Unconsciously, I
check the Evolutionary
Trajectory for safety.
3.
I Prepare
for action.

4. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Mode 2: I am being observed by the view: the gaze.
!!
Some elements will pop up with a personal message,
as if the view reads my inner thoughts and triggers me to take action.

5. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
“ To perceive the World is to co-perceive oneself “.
The viewing is an iterative process until a stable mental picture has been reached,
or until a mental compromise for relevance is achieved.
The viewer differentiates (ask for details) and integrates the inputs ( tries to make sense of
the inputs). This goes on till a stable view of the view is reached which is called an IMAGE.
a detailed example : >>>
I look to I am looked at
The observing gaze (act) The internalizing on the Other
Foucault

6. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
To perceive the World is to co-perceive oneself. Differentiation.

7. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
To perceive the World is to co-perceive oneself. Differentiation – Integration
We create a version of the view, an Image that fits best our own Self.

8. The process of VISION. Psychoanalytic
In some cases people do not manage to re-integrate the parts of the picture and can
make no sense of a whole. The person will focus on a specific part or element and get
obsessed what is called PARANOIA.
The process of iteration is interrupted and no stable and balanced
meaning or sense is reached. This is mostly due to some blockage during infant development or
to the unbalanced development of the EGO which has created a self image out of touch with the
real person he or she is. This brings us in the field of Psychoanalyst.

9. The process of VISION Psychoanalytic.
Looking at a scene might trigger the tension between DEMAND and DESIRE.
Seeing an object might trigger an insatiable DEMAND to a specific object that becomes a fetish.
Some woman buys a pair of shoes anytime they approach a shoe shop. By satisfying that need
they hide a real suppressed DESIRE. In extreme cases, this will be called NEUROTIC
behavior.
The opposite does also exist. The object is at reach and needed, what should trigger the action to
obtain the object. On the contrary, it triggers an action to reject the needed product; what
communicates an insatiable DESIRE. Anorexia is such a case: the food is there and the
patient refuses to consume it...only to demonstrate her or his desire.
[a desire is fundamentally barred from consciousness. A wish is something you want in conscious–Freud, Lacan]
In all these cases the normal visual process gets stuck and switches to a trajectory which can be
pathologic; but in most cases will influence our behavior or choices.....even the one for selecting
partners.

10. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
The Darwinian cycle starts when a new scene is viewed.
In the iteration of scanning the details of a view, there is a logical purpose in
the sequence of the points of attention which are the primary instincts linked
to survival, dominance and the generation of offspring.
Here are the different steps we go through when we see a NEW unknown scene.
1 We first detect the colors and then ... is anything moving?

11. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
2 ... @ what distance ? flight or fight ?
3 is the Environment threatening ?

12. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
4 Is the Environment supportive to me?
Can I meet the challenges ?
Are people supportive people ?
Any Cooperative networks ?

13. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
6 … any mate for mating around ?
7 time for play and … testing !

14. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
8 is the place right for nesting… a habitat for you ?

15. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
9 … yes we can !
first we search for a match by checking on: eyes.
face.
body language.

16. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
10 We look for values
... hoping to find happiness.

17. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
1111 The Darwinian cycle ends when there is no priority actions needed and the
12 view can take over the role to reveal its
13 story or message.
11OK, now I can listen
11
12In fact, I listen to what my unconscious tells and this is done in
13the Language from the unconscious.

18. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Mode 1: I look (gaze) at the object.
1.1 New object or scene : start a Darwinian cycle of observation.
1.2 No action required: start the processing for meaning.
Mode 2: I am being observed by the view: the gaze.
1.2 No action required: start the processing for meaning.
- The physical processing will not be discussed here.
The main thing is to know that a complex signal processing is
behind, which converts an upside down picture, and which
codifies the distance and angles of the objects from the position
of the eyes.
- The Mental processing: learning a new language
is the next topic.

19. The process of VISION. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
The new Language by which the visual elements captured are converted in
‘meaning’, is different from our spoken and written languages.
The study of SEMIOTICS helps to map how the new language operates as well as the
knowledge of the UNCONSCIOUS.
For the Unconscious we rely on the works of Freud and Lacan to map what might be of
relevance in understanding the processes of view and gaze.
Be aware also Freud and Lacan are not uncontested in their theories on the unconscious.
We only can aim to reproduce a coherent picture.
The content from psychoanalytical science is shown in next
slides in this color

20. The process of VISION. The Unconscious
Everything which serves externally to manifest our internally is called
language. Chomsky.
Language reproduces Reality. Jacques Lacan.
Language fails to provide the ‘truth’ about himself;
that’s why he will seek in the Image from others to identify himself.
In the psychoanalysis, 3 systems are recognized: pre-unconscious,
unconscious and the conscious. Their mental functioning is different from
the thought-processes in the conscious.
The primitive mental process of the unconscious flows freely
to express unconscious wishes ( primitive hallucinations).

21. The process of VISION. The Unconscious.
The primary processes do not recognize differences in time (past, present, future)
and cannot express negation or contradictions.
The dream thinks mainly in visual images. Freud.
What we see insight. is an image of what we have seen outside before.
Consciousness can be controlled only for a tiny fraction by introspection.
Niklas Nuhmann. This is demonstrated clearly in the forms of perceptions.
In Perception there are 2 modes: the reception of information via our senses,
the mental insight following the reception.

22. The process of VISION. The Unconscious
The percept in mode 1 is analysed on the content of
Information,
Salience (attractive)
Framing.
in mode 2 is Identity
Subjectivity
The interpretative.
Michael Forrester: Psychology of the Image -2000.
This is also expressed in the metaphors:
knowing as seeing and seeing as knowing,
indicating the difference between image/sensation and image/knowledge.

23. The Unconscious
The unconscious is composed of signifiers in the dimensions of visual imaginary.
This creates the condition for Language.
Poetic language is close to the form of unconscious language. Laplanche.
Grouped unconscious signifiers form an unconscious idea.
Add to this a concrete plan, and a verbal expression, and you get a conscious idea.
Lacan indicates 3 levels of being:
- before the unconscious; what we cannot know.
- between the unconscious as language and the conscious language.
- between signifier and signified in conscious language.
From this Lacan derives that knowledge of the unconscious should come from what we know
about language operates.
Lacan comes to the conclusion that the Unconscious is purely and simply a discourse
of signifiers ( without signified – so no signification )

24. The Unconscious
A . ,
!=
Signifiers in the Unconscious Signifiers in the Conscious claim a signified.
The Unconscious is not the message, it is another text written underneath which must
be read by illuminating from behind with the help of a developer.
Leclaire: La réalite du désir.

25. The process of VISION. Mode 1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
The book of nature is written with characters different from our alphabet.
These characters are triangles, squares, circles, spheres, pyramids, cones and other
geometric figures. Gallileo
There There exist universal shapes to which everyone is subconsciously conditioned and to
which they which they can respond if their respond conscious control does not shut them off.
Henri Moore
Shape is an exteriorisation of an internal meaning. Wassily Kandinsky
The way our brain reads a view is by decoding colours, shapes, l i n e s
and com position s in search for
feeling and meaning.

26. The process of VISION. Mode 1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
the reading of Shapes : examples from Fashion.
the shapes are : the female triangle, the male active triangle
and the power base of the pentangle.
In the example of elegance, is the female
triangle dominating together with the power
pentangle.
When the main purpose is seduction
by elegance, the S curve will dominate
together with the male triangle.

27. The process of VISION. Mode 1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
the reading of Compositions: examples from Fashion.
this example combines Shape and Proportions.

28. The process of VISION. Mode 1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
How Lines create messages.
When looking at a picture, we unconsciously absorb
the canvas of the lines which create the composition.
The artist always start by balancing the canvas.
Some compositions can be very complex :

29. The process of VISION. Mode 1. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
colours Colours play a special role in the creation of
sentiment and meaning.
Cold Warm
Example of social connotation
Relationship with Shapes

30. The process of VISION. Mode 2. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Mode 2: I am being observed by the view.
The canvas contains all possible lines, shapes, colors, figures and compositions that
ever have been created or will be created by man or man/machine.
The canvas asks the artist: which one do you want to show?

31. The process of VISION. Mode 2. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Mode 1: I look (gaze) at the object.
Mode 2: I am being observed by the view.
A specific view can trigger our unconscious to release inner messages.
This is particular true in the process of viewing abstract art and bi-stable pictures.
bomb & BLUFF Figure & Ground

32. The process of VISION. Mode 2. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
What I am seeking is not the real and not the unreal, but rather the
unconscious, the mystery of the instinctive in the human
race. Modigliani.
The person who views a piece of art is part of the process of art
creation.
The unconscious works much faster than what we can
communicate in conscious mode.
I am only the conscious part of the landscape which I paint.
Cézanne .

33. The process of VISION. Mode 2. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Mode 1: I look (gaze) at the object.
1.1 New object or scene : start a Darwinian cycle of observation.
1.2 No action required: start the processing for meaning.
Mode 2: I am being observed by the view: the gaze.
Mode 1 and mode 2 together brings us to the topic of INTERPRETATION.
There is a wide scope of elements that will influence Interpretation.
some are optical illusion based interpretations,
other have a philosophical artistic interpretations,
but all will be interpreted by the skills, personality, knowledge and
mood from the person who looks at the picture, image, scene.
Some examples follow:

34. The process of VISION. Interpretation. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
psycho messages and optical effects.
What we see is not necessarily what ‘ is ’.
there is the painted landscape on the glass
and the real landscape outside.
Renée Magritte
W

35. The process of VISION. Interpretation.
The example of looking at Art.
Yet when an image is presented as a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole
series of learnt assumptions about art. Assumptions concerning:
Beauty Truth Genius Civilization Form Status Taste, etc.
Frans Hals The women Regents from the Old Men’ s Home at Haarlem 1664
This is a commissioned painting where the commissioners
expected to be reproduced with a message. The painter
himself can put a hidden message from himself towards
the viewer. There is the symbolic which dominate in any
period of time and there are the cultural and esthetical
norms valid in that period. The painter might have got the
intention to depict the characters of the figurants, and the
viewer will read the physiognomy differently.
Ref. John Berger: Ways of Seeing

36. The process of VISION. Interpretation. The example of Art.
For the Impressionists, the visible no longer presented itself to man in order to be seen.
Mary Cassatt
Claude Monnet
Ref. Wikipedia

37. The process of VISION. Interpretation. The example of Art.
For the Cubists the visible was no longer what confronted the single eye, but the totality of
possible views taken from points all round the object (or person) being depicted.
Paul Cézanne ( pré-cubism)
Albert Gleizes : L’homme au balcon.
Ref. Wikipedia Juan Gris: Portrait of Pablo Picasso

38. The process of VISION. Interpretation.
1. Mode 1: I observe a target view.
2. Mode 2 : The target observes me.
3. When the view is a new environment, then the observer will unconsciously processes a Darwinian mind cycle for
survival and adaptation.
4. When the view is another person, then a special process starts.
In the case when we observe another person we again can split in a mode 1 of intake of
the direct information and a mode 2 where the other person will start talking to our
inner(even if no direct gaze is exchanged or in case there is gaze of the other person, this
person does not react with physiognomy or spoken language.

39. The process of VISION. Interpretation.
Physiognomy and Body Language is a specific topic which also starts with
a Darwinian observation cycle and a translation in primary unconscious
signifiers as basic patterns.
Physiognomy
Body Language

40. The process of Interpretation.
In the Darwinian observation cycle goes the first and main attention
to the eyes and the hands. ( 50 % of the connections in the brain are for the
coordination between eyes and hands ). This is during the observation the
continuous mode of priority attention.
The other sequence is observation of the face,
the neck,
arms with the hands,
the body/trunk
the lower members.
Then follows the check on the cohesion and balances on the body members and the whole which
reveals the health of body and mind.
Next goes the focus on the physiognomy of the face: eyes (shape, implant, expression), front (shape,
size), implant of nose, chin, cheeks which are indicators for the character of the person.

41. The process of Interpretation.
The response Gaze: The challenge to your Ego.
Upon the conclusion of the Darwinian check cycle, will the gaze puzzle
you the observer with questions. The gaze is not a reflection who that person is,
what he does, likes or dislikes; no the gaze present a mirror to the observer. If I am the
observer, I will start wondering how ‘ I ‘ can compare myself to the Other. This comparison is
the image I have of myself and that is my EGO, which is not the same as my Self.
My Ego is absolute Imaginary build over time by the association of images from Others and by
attributing selected features of the Other to myself, the image of my own, my Ego.
This is an extension of what happened in my childhood. Lacan.
“ Looking at the Other, it encounters an uncomfortable resistance; a conscious look that is
directed outwards into a self-consciousness that returns to its agent’s anxiety in relation to the
scrutiny of an externalized anonymous Other. “ Lacan.

42. The process of VISION. Interpretation. Psychoanalytic.
From psychosexuality follows that our psychic organization
strives to find an object that can satisfy our desire.
The gaze of the other will initiate the
desire for the desire of the Other . Lacan.
This principle finds it application intensively in Advertising; with the display of a
person expressing a desire will psychologically transfer this desire to the viewer.

43. The process of VISION. Interpretation. Psychoanalytic.
The desire for the DESIRE is processed in 4 steps. Maurice Merleau -Ponty .
1 2 3 4
-being for me -being for the other -the other being for me -the other for the other
when in the gaze between one person and the other a conflict arise,
there might be a conflict in the person himself.

44. The process of Interpretation.
‘ My first instinct when I see an animal is to say “hello”.
My first instinct when I see a person is to avoid eye contact
and hope it goes away.‘
Your look on the world tells more
about yourself than it reveals
of what is real.

45. The process of VISION. Interpretation. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
Your interpretations are BIASED !
There exist 19 kinds of Social Biases.
8 types of Memory failures can bias your interpretation.
The Decision Making process can fail according 42 causes.
There are 35 cases of Probability / Belief biases possible.
Ref: http://www.scribd.com/doc/30548590/Cognitive-Biases-A-Visual-Study-Guide
“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation
prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”
Friedrich Nietzsche.
the end of the presentation

46. 1nf0 Graphic Mentors
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
you are free to copy and to build on this publication for your own purpose provided you
mention the author Ronny Julius C Verlet and refer to InfoGraphicMentors.
Commercialisation is prohibited.
Louise Liz Verlet designer
GrapChicque

47. The process of VISUAL PERCEPTION.
Read online for free. https://issuu.com/ronnyverlet/docs/237023118-signs-of-life-and-life-
of
Order a print copy.
http://www.peecho.com/checkout/ronnyverlet-hotmail/246090/signs-of-life-and-life-of-
signs-1nov2016
Signs of Life. Life of Signs.