Semiotic Analysis of the Collection of Resistance Art Festival Posters Based on the Two Axes of Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Signs

Introduction

Posters of the Art of Resistance Festival are one of the fields of formation of symbols and signs affected by the Islamic Revolution. The juxtaposition of the two factors, "image" and "text", is important in the design of these announcements. Symbolic relations appear in the design of the mentioned announcements in two ways: the axis of paradigmatic and the axis of syntagmatic. In the axis of paradigmatic, one element replaces another element. In the axis of syntagmatic, two or more elements are placed next to each other these relationships in some posters implicitly and in others explicitly convey the desired concept to the audience. In this research, the structural relations of signs in the posters of the resistance art festival will be identified.
Emamifar, Sajoudi, and Khazaei (2010) in an article entitled "Semiological examination of announcements from the emergence of the Islamic Revolution of Iran until 2001" investigated how meaning is produced in the design of posters from the Islamic Revolution of Iran until 2001. In an article entitled "The Art of the Islamic Revolution", Rahnavard (2000) investigated and analyzed the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1979 and its influence and expression on the culture and art of Iran. Talebi (2017) in his article entitled "Reflection of Islamic components and values ​​in the art of resistance" examined the posters of the first decade of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.
This research aims to investigate the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes of signs structurally and the types of relationships related to them in some posters of the resistance art festival, as well as analyzing the explicit and implicit meanings of visual and written signs in them. Accordingly the two following questions will be investigated:

Based on what relationships do visual and written signs in the posters of the resistance art festival form the meaning transfer process?
What roles do these relationships play in the meaning of the poster?

 

Methodology

The research method is descriptive-analytical. Collection of library and documentary information was through note-taking and image reading. Data analysis is qualitative. Statistical population is a collection of posters from the 5th Resistance Art Festival that was held in 2018. The sampling method is selective.
 

Discussion

The semiotic relationships in the resistance posters can be classified into two axes syntagmatic and paradigmatic signs. In the analysis based on the paradigmatic axis, relationships are based on 3 factors, which are: contrasting relationships, analogical relationships, and comparative relationships.
 

Conclusion

The poster "We come from the grandson of Abel of the Sun, who stand against the Cain of Darkness", is placed in the category of contrasting relationships. This relationship means the difference between the elements in the work in terms of position, orientation, and attraction of the elements to each other. This poster conveys to the audience the concept of good and evil in the confrontation between Iran and its enemies. The poster "I am a revolutionary" belongs to the category of analogical relations. Analogical relations compare the relationship between the elements in the text or narrate the artwork that in this announcement, due to the replacement of the fisted hands form on parts of the letters, an analogical connection arises in the mind. In the poster "The ax was from our family, we didn't know", comparative relations are strengthened due to the relations of paradigmatic of the ax instead of one of the branches of the tree and also the existence of conflict between the two. In the analysis based on the syntagmatic axis, relationships are divided into three categories: spatial relationships, sequential relationships, and conceptual relationships. The "Happy the 40th Spring of the Revolution" poster is placed in the axis of syntagmatic signs due to the juxtaposition of visual elements, and due to the placement of different components and elements in the image, it is placed in the category of spatial relations in the axis of spatial syntagmatic of signs, because spatial relationships mean the placement of the components and elements of the work in different axes of the image. The "Unity is the Code of Victory" poster is also placed in the axis of syntagmatic due to the juxtaposition of different components of the image in the poster, and according to the definition of sequential relationships, due to the placement of elements based on the alternation of the theme of the work and the creation of meaningful relationships with each other, it is in the category of sequential relationships. The poster "Iranian lion spills the blood of every hyena of disbelief", due to the juxtaposition of two images of lion and hyena, as well as the way the elements are placed and their proximity and the type of reading, is placed in the category of conceptual relations in the axis of syntagmatic of signs; conceptual relationships mean the reading of images and elements in them as well as the type of their relationship with each other. In all the works, when a visual sign metaphorically expresses the concept of revolution and Iran, understanding the meaning of the sign occurs on the axis of paradigmatic.