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imprint of the sound . . . the impression `retrousse' is thus brought about by the reflected from the object is selectively
that it makes on our senses'. 4 4 When modification of an expression element controlled. It is such manipulation of the
considering the visual channel we can which itself has no counterpart in the codes of transmission which gives rise
similarly distinguish between the content plane. Once commutation is to what Eco terms tonal codes. These
physical and the social fact. Panofsky established, paradigms follow. In carry the optional variants which are
writes, 'When an acquaintance greets `identikit' pictures a great many tokens of equivalent to the prosodic features of
me on the street by removing his hat, the type 'face' are generated by combining natural language." A photograph, for
what I see from a formal point of view `signs' drawn from paradigms established example, may exhibit 'hard' or 'soft'
is nothing but the change of certain through changes in a small number of focus, large or small grain, and thus carry
details within a configuration forming expression elements (the 'figures' — lines, such connotational oppositions as
part of the general pattern of colour, shadings, and their relations) which in masculine/feminine.
lines and volumes which constitutes my themselves have no significance. Metz has written : 'Modern studies, as
world of vision'.' In identifying the At this point the argument concerns much in semiotics as in the psychology of
configuration as an object (gentleman) iconic signs of a different type from that perception, cultural anthropology, or
and the change of detail as an event of photographs. Eco however notes that even in aesthetics, no longer make it
(hat-removing), he observes that he has an iconic sign may signify either some of possible to oppose as simply as in the
overstepped the limits of purely formal the emergent features of the object by period of Saussure the conventional and
perception and entered a sphere of conventional schemata or, as in the case the non-conventional, the schematic
meaning. of photography or realist painting, it may and the non-schematic'. The partial
Eco similarly maintains that, in simulate perceptual conditions that similarities between photographic
perception, the brute stimuli of a given permit the perception of the object itself, perception and everyday perception
perceptual field are ordered and `permitting a psychological transaction . . are not due to the fact that the first is
interpreted according to learned schemes : equal to the one that would come about natural, but to the fact that the second is
`There's a principle of economy, both in were one concerned with putting into not; the first is codified, but its codes are
the recollection of percerved things and shape (so as to produce a perceptum) rn part the same as those of the second.
in the recognition of familiar objects, and several stimuli from the so-called The analogy, as Umberto Eco has
it's based on what I shall call "codes of "natural" perceptive field'. 4 9 clearly shown, is not between the effigy
recognition". These codes list certain and its model, but exists — while
features of the object as the most remaining partial — between the two
meaningful for purposes of recollection Eco's analysis is linguistic in its perceptual situations'."
or future communication: for example, I inspiration in that it looks for levels of When discussing such larger units of the
recognize a zebra from a distance without `articulation' in the visual image. It is linguistic text as sentences, the linguist
noticing the exact shape of the head or further guided by linguistics in that it need make no reference to phonological
the relation between legs and body. finds one of these levels, that of the facts. Nevertheless his knowledge that
It is enough that I recognize two `figures', to be composed of expression the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign
pertinent characteristics — four- elements which have no equivalent on the is guaranteed by the phonemes prevents
leggedness and stripes'. 4 8 Such content plane. (Like phonemes, 'figures' him from making errors based on false
pertinent features Eco terms 'signs'," are meaningless in themselves; they only assumptions about the nature of
the 'emergent properties' which we produce meanings in combination with language. Similarly in our analysis of
abstract from the continuum of sense one another.) However, where he finds photographic texts we may generally
impressions which constitutes our actual that his data cannot be packed into the find that we do not need to refer to such
perception of an object. The yet two 'boxes' provided by linguistics an account of the technical formation of
unordered elements from which 'signs' (roughly: one for sounds, one for words) the image as that given by Eco. Such
are constructed Eco calls 'figures'. Eco constructs a third rather than accounts are as yet provisional :
These are the various elements of attempt a cramming job. The linguistic nevertheless, they are essential in
perception, meaningless in themselves, model is not imposed willy-nilly, with guarding us against the pitfalls of an
which we might begin to analyse in terms disregard for empirical facts. The result unreflectingly naturalist attitude to
of such oppositions as light/dark; is a tripartite system having little in photographs.
horizontal/vertical; straight/bent; common with its linguistic ancestor.
acute/oblique; etc. They are Received habits of thought have V
`conditions of perception (eg subject- accustomed us to oppose the schematic In some naive applications of the
background relationships, light to the non-schematic. On closer linguistic analogy, photographic images
contrasts, geometrical values) consideration, however, we may are seen as equivalent to words. An act
transcribed into graphic signs according recognize these two states as highly of reflection, however, shows that an
to the rules of the code'. 4 8 Finally, the theoretical, the rdeal antipodes of a image is more like a complex utterance
`most simply catalogued' elements in unified world. We should more than it is like a word. A photograph of a
Eco's tripartite system of articulations realistrcally speak of degrees of man is less the equivalent of 'man' than
are the %ernes', the iconic images schematization, or iconicity, of signs it is 'A middle-aged man in an overcoat,
themselves. (Eco speaks of 'grades of arbitrariness wearing a hat, walking through a park . . .
As an illustration, consider the and motivation'). Moreover, at any point etc', or some other such list, depending
example of two silhouette heads which on this scale we will find that there is a on the particular image. Even a 'close-up'
are identical in all features except the complex interplay of codes which may of the hat alone, with no discernible
nose — one is 'aquiline', the other themselves be independently described. detail around it, proclaims not 'hat' but
`retrousse'. The 'seine' in this case is Eco has provided a provisional list of ten `Here is a hat, seen from above; it is a
the iconic image (head) which may be interacting codes in the visual image. 5° trilby, the band is soiled . . . etc.'
decomposed into the 'signs' (throat), For example, codes of transmission Christian Metz has made the following
(chin), (lips), (nose), (brow), (crown), construct the 'determining conditions' observations, which are as apposite of
(nape). We are accustomed to seeing the for the perception of the image. The dots still as of film images: '(i) Film images
sign (nose) rendered schematically of a half-tone block, the apparent lines are, like statements and unlike words,
(via another iconic interpretent) as two of a TV image, are obviously examples infinite in number; they are not in
lines. One line is horizontal, the other, of such codes and are equally obviously themselves discrete units. (2) They are in
about twice the length of the first, meets based on arbitrary conventions even principle the invention of the speaker
one end of this horizontal line at an angle though they may closely approach the (in this case, the film-maker), like
of about 6o°. The sign (nose) in this high iconicity of 'photography proper'. statements but unlike words. (3) They
example may thus be decomposed into The photograph, however, is not yield to the receiver a quantity of
the figures 'lines' (more accurately, innocent of arbitrariness for its being in a indefinite information, like statements
perhaps, 'changes in direction and more directly causal and apparently but unlike words. (4) They are actualized
segmentation of line'). These lines have unmediated relationship to its referent, units, like statements, and unlike words,
no intrinsic meaning. The change of because the interaction between the which are purely virtual units (lexical
significance from 'aquiline' to photographic emulsion and the light units). (5) Since these images are

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