Mao pop art The referent of a sign can also be the starting point of a new sign triangle. Think of the tourists who take pictures of Mao’s famous painting above the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Each goes home with their own, new sign triangle – only now the object of the triangle is itself a triangle. I am doing something similar in this post when I show you images of Mao-related art works. Finally, the interpretant of a sign triangle can likewise form the starting point of another semiotic relation. The meaning that Mao has for someone could be the focus of a verbal statement, or the starting point for an artistic expression, or the cause of a salute. All of these examples produce new signs, which can in turn be the starting point for new sign relations, and so on. This process of creating chains of signs is called semiosis. An important distinction in this regard is between a …show more content…
Think of the booming industry for women’s cosmetics, which creatively cashes in on the fact that “skin tone” connotes different things in different cultures. In East Asia as well as in Europe or the US, skin tone is coded to stand for prosperity. Yet in East Asia, the “sub-codes” of this sign-function are different from the US or Europe. In the so-called “West”, prosperity is reflected in the degree to which people have leisure time. If you have the option of being outside a lot, playing golf, or going skiing, or lying on a beach, then you are “well off”. An index of this is that your skin is likely to become tanned. Conversely, if you are pale, you might be overworked and sick, which is not a good sign. In East Asia, however, tanned skin is an index of manual labour, and is consequently associated with work on a construction site or in a field. Prosperity, on the other hand, is associated with the luxury of staying in-doors. If you are a white-collar worker, or are able to work from home, your skin-tone will remain