Reading Cultures.Politics of Representation Essay

Reading Cultures.Politics of Representation - Essay Example While studying semiotics; however one must  consider  that there  is applied  semiotic structures as for instance architecture, dress or cuisine. Any edifice is a refuge and a  certain  message (Hall, 1980:58). Semiotics maybe applied to cultural studies to artifacts as literary texts, photographs, popular songs, food, road signs, advertisements, and clothing.  Semiotics does not  seek  to  find  the  importance  of texts but to be conversant with the process through which they become  meaningful  and how they are differently  being interpreted.  Representation is the  production  of meaning,  discourse  and  image  (Hall, 1997:3). Looking at the  advertisement  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Istanbul European capital of culture†, there are  several  cultural aspects about Istanbul and the people of Istanbul that  are brought  out. ... Big,  colorful  palaces built in the Ottoman Empire  style  of houses have been the way to in the Middle East even in the ancient times. From the images, it would be  rare  to find someone mistaking Istanbul to a city in the U.S, because of the unique buildings. There is a lot of use of horses as a mode of transport, of  course  representing how long they have been using them. The use of boats can also be seen and, it represents a  mode  of  transport  that is free and readily available from the way a  boat  flies in between buildings. In the advertisement, there illustrations of how easily one can  move  around the city from using the suspension bridge, to moving from one place to another via en electric train. Most of the modes of transport in the advertisement started in the ancient times. All through the advertisement, there is dancing. To bring out the  significance  of dancing in understanding the city of Istanbul, is the  code  of dressi ng used when dancing, the movements and the musical instruments used. All these elements used in the advertisement cannot be specified to  represent  only the city of Istanbul; it could be another Islamic city like Dubai or even Qatar. With that in mind, the same elements can only be associated with an Islamic community. Let us use an  example  in the use of color  white  as used by Andrew (1996:12). White  is  commonly  associated  with  peaceful  and, good times like weddings and, that is why people wear white wedding dresses, but in some places, white  is associated  with severe  thing  such as death.  Considering that, it is necessary to  note  how  specific  mode of dressing, the  architecture  and dancing are to a community. The meaning of the images shown in the advertisement is that Istanbul is an