On the semiotics of the image and the computer image

How can we understand the word "image"? There are many possible definitions but here, not merely for the sake of convenience, we will use the most generally accepted definition: the image is the planar space- place of signification. The object of our analysis will, therefore, be a visual plane, or plane of expression, made manifest through a medium, in relation to a second plane, the plane of content. By expression plane, we mean the occurrences, on the plane of manifestation, offered by a specific medium. These occurrences establish reciprocal relations of difference and correlation, which can be combined into systems of relations, in other words, into structures. The identification of meaning derives less from the recognition of a discrete number of signifying units than from a preliminary perception of differences, oppositions, and correlations (Greimas 1991: 37-38) which give rise to signification. Turning the attention to interpretation, we know that this is not a static activity which can be defined unequivocally and which is based on the identification and description of a predetermined number of correlations between expression and content. For this reason, we can use the term narrative structure to refer to the meaning process which emerges, generated from forms — both in the plane of expression and the plane of content, in correlation — recognized as possibility. The production of a narrative structure derives, in the final analysis, from the dynamism of the relations to be established. At this point, we must distinguish, above all, between narrative structure in a static image (paintings, drawings, and photographs) and in a dynamic image (video, cinema, television, and computer graphics). The paper addresses the veridiction process of the image and what might be the features of an image that trigger the mechanisms of veridiction. By veridiction we mean a representation that the image projects outwards "that tends towards a certain reality, or rather, a certain concept of reality" (Greimas 1985: 101).