Paper, "Washington Apple in Garden of Eden" By Grace Tsai Billboards and signs resemble more to us than we often think. They contain imagery and text that often trigger conscious and subconscious meaning in our brains. Whether we notice immediately or not, visual images trigger our mood, perception, and way of thinking. As Walker and Chaplin said, viewers are not merely pairs of eyes they have minds, bodies, genders, personalities and histories. As one drives down Santa Monica Boulevard heading west toward the ocean , one immediately notices the two beautiful young man and woman posted half naked pleasantly sleeping in a forest. Then, with further observation, the text on the upper left corner typed in italic, Dreams are new sponsored by Diesel, one is further led to believe toward the dreamlike quality and the pleasant state of the image. However, as one looks further into the image, one does not feel so calm and soothing, but a zest of temptation alluring within the context. The artist of this piece represented this contradiction and attractiveness of Diesel, the famous fashion company, by creating an atmosphere of beauty, sex, and temptation. First, by setting the background in an imaginary forest with colors and metaphors seen from movies like ?Alice in Wonderland? and ?Wizard of Oz?, he/she attempts to draw connotated inference from the viewer?s histories or childhood memories. As in ?Alice in Wonderland?, Alice was in a fantasy world full of dreams and exciting new things; this excitement is further transcribed into the audience heads. Yet, in the original story of Alice in Wonderland, even though she was very excited to be in the new land, she was also very worried of not getting home. Similarly, as in Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was again brought to a mystical land full of excitement and fear of not being able to get home. The author is successful in that he/she triggers that ephemeral quality of the utopia yet transforming a subconscious sense of fear/chaos into the viewers mind by simply using the forest as the setting. The author further sets up the sense of temptation and sin by using the half naked young man and woman. In biblical terms, this can be seen as Adam and Eve under the Garden of Eden. As in the story, God granted them with all the beauty, happiness, and food they needed, however, with the temptation of curiosity, Eve failed to obey God?s request of not eating the apple from the tree. The half naked man and woman sleeping resemble the appeal and tempting nature of the land. Further, on the right corner, there is an image of a man dressed in a suit, much like Jim Carrey in ?Mask? eating a bundle of grape. His slight snickering smile resembles the devil enjoying the forbidden fruit of the land. This metaphoric imagery and juxtaposition of the serene and enticement brings settle energy of persuasion to the audience. Either in biblical terms or media driven fantasyland, the metalanguage of beauty and sex, (the 2nd ordered signifying system) , is produced organically by using the body as an instrument. The young and beautiful half naked man and woman signify the beauty and nature of being. They are being denotated as the image suggests. However, the nakedness and the positioning of the man and woman facing each other under the connotated background tree, suggests the metalanguage of sex. Further, the deer in forest suggests the natural beauty of the land, again juxtaposed with the seducing sense of sex, temptation, and beauty. All the images/signs triggers masses of signifiers and perceptions to the viewer?s head. Depending the viewer?s background in culture, histories, or preferences, these images will trigger different types of interpretations. The fashion industry tries to market their products through sex, beauty, and temptation. As this billboard has suggested, Diesel can create that new ephemeral dream, one that lures and attracts the buyer to join in the temptation of being beautiful and sexy. References: Diesel Billboard, Corner of Barrington and Santa Monica, Los Angeles. John A. Walker and Sarah Chaplin, Visual culture: an introduction, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 1997, Chapter 2: ?The concept of ?the visual??, pg.18-30. Roland Barthes: ?The Rhetoric of the Image?, from Barthes: Image Music Text. Glasgow: Fontana Paperbacks, 1977, pp. 32-51. Terence Hawkes: ?A Science of Signs?, from Hawkes: Structuralism and Semiotics. London: Methuen, 1977, pp. 123-150. Menu >> Visual Communications