A Brief Quotation Guide to Mixed Semiotics

We understand the relationship between the human, hardware, software, user interface is complex from our understanding of media. Langlois does a fantastic job of highlighting previous insights into theories of how we understand meaning within technology in the first chapter of the dissertation (from McLuhan toKittler to Saussure to Foucault) and pointing out the faults each one holds for understanding this new, complex environment. It is poignant to emphasis the non-neutrality and the faithlessness of these layers when it comes to meaning making: the user clicking the "browse related books" link on the Amazon.com website is not just "browsing related books."

Langlois finally settles on using D+G's schizonalysis and pragmatics (on page 74) to understand what is refered to as technoculture within an Internet framework. Suassure's sign system does not take into account non-linguistic signs and separates the medium and the message, two areas that become problematic when looking at meaning within the web and a user's interaction with the web. "Finding the machine" more accurately maps out the tool we must use to understandLanglois' case studies. I thought table 2 (84) and table 3 (87) were of prime interest, as were the textual descriptions of these charts on pages 88 through 93. They are a major KEY to the text in my opinion.

Thus, we have an actor-theory network where any actor (human or non-human) can effect one another along with the D+G framework to help us look at the case studies. While most of this information was presented very clearly and detailed at first, I felt the case studies were very helpful in further parsing out the theory framework of mixed semiotics.

For the Amazon.com book recommendation system, we have these levels (106-)

"At the a-semiotic level, the information gathered about books and users constitutes the basis for a-semiotic encodings.

Definition: "A-semiotic encodings concern the processes for gathering, storing and formalizing data." functions independently of the constitution of a semiotic substance” (1996b, p. 149).Guattari's example is that of genetic encoding, which is the formalization of material intensities into a code that is not an “écriture” (1996, p. 149), or a signifying system."
(88)

Example: "In that sense, tools used to gather data, such as cookies (Figure 3) are sites of analysis, along with other processes for transforming data intouseable information as they are defined through the amazon.com architecture."
(106-107)

"At the signifying level, the amazon.com interface can be analyzed as resulting from a
process of capturing a-semiotic encodings within signifying semiologies, and of
articulating signifying rules and discourses with broader a-signifying power formations."
(107)

Definition: "concerns “sign systems with semiotically formed substances on the expression and content planes” (Genosko,2002, p. 167). They are divided into two kinds. Symbolic semiologies involve.... substance of expression is not linguistic but gestural. Semiologies of signification, on the contrary, rely on... a linguistic one... “dictatorship of the signifier” (1996b, p. 150)"
(88)

Example: "In that sense, the processes that shape the amazon.com interface are a central site of analysis (Figure 4)."
(107)

"The central site of analysis at the a-signifying level concerns the existentialization of
users. At that level, the “Hello, Ganaele” (Figure 5) appearing each time I log onto the
website does not simply acknowledge successful connection, but also recognizes me as a
user within a specific framework.
(108)

Definition: "The work of the software, then, is not only to offer meanings, but also to interpret which meanings are the most appropriate for my profile."
(108)
" a-signifying machines circulate the planes of expression and content and create relationships between matter, substance and form that are not primarily signifying"
(80)

Example: "In that sense, the recommendation software, along with other features present on the website, is in charge of shaping the cultural perception of users. That is, in the process of
articulation between software and human actors, the software shapes the identities and
subjectivities of users. It becomes indispensable, then, to analyze how the software,
through the existentialization of the category of the user, serves to translate economic
goals as cultural subjectivities and practices within the commercial environment."
(108)

I wish to go over some basic concepts in class that will further our understanding of the text:

1. I'd also like to look at meaning/semantics/message vs. function/syntax/medium. We see a separation of these two items (Saussure) or the supremacy of the medium over the message (McLuhan,Kittler), but Langlois , along with G+D, wish for these two elements not to be separated. This allows us to look at non-signs, which I believe are related to a-semiotics. Is this the correct interpretation, as well as allowing us to renew our look at complex meaning makingsystems such as MediaWiki/Amazon. I'd like to outline this line of thought and see where the cracks in my reasoning are.
2. I had some difficulty comprehending Glossematics (especially understanding the difference between matter and substance). On page 114 and 115, I can see specifics of each category, and I think that might help in giving concrete examples. I know "matter" alters the dynamics of the message vs. the medium (87, the top paragraph).
3. Although Langlois did a great job in picking out the specificity of the technologies to illustrate the mixed semiotics framework, as I was hesitant to accept some technical descriptions. E.g., the use of Google as a discourse of the Web when it comes to looking at the "plagiarism" ofWikipedia pages in commercial websites (186), or looking at WSDL as a functional, and not semantic, markup language (120).