Semiotic Analysis Of Mural’s Denpasar
on
ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 17.1 Oktober 2016: 89 - 95
Semiotic Analysis Of Mural’s Denpasar
I Gusti Agung Mahadipa1*, I Gede Budiasa2, Putu Weddha Savitri3 123English Department Faculty Of Arts Udayana University [agungmahadipa@gmail.com]1*, [budiasa.igede@yahoo.com]2
3 [weddha@fs.unud.ac.id]3
Corresponding Author
Abstrak
Penelitian ini berjudul “Semiotic Analysis of Mural’s Denpasar”. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menggambarkan verbal dan visual apa yang terdapat pada mural serta hubungan antara verbal dan visual di dalam membentuk makna serta ideology yang terkandung dalam mural.
Data dalam penelitian ini diambil dari daerah sekitaran kota Denpasar. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan teknik mengumpulkan datayaitu teknik mengambil foto. Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis secara deskriptif dan kualitatif dengan menerapkan teori Dyadic oleh Ferdinand de Saussure serta Tingkatan Pertandaan oleh Roland Bhartes.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa (1) mural yang diilustrasikan yang ditemukan disekitaran kota Denpasar terdiri atas tanda verbal dan visual yang memiliki bagian teks dan gambar. Kemudian, (2) hubungan antara tanda verbal dan visual saling mendukung untuk menyampaikan pesan kepada pembaca dan ideology yang disampaikan oleh pembuat mural adalah ingin membagikan kejadian atau peristiwa yang terjadi di masyarakat saat ini.
Kata kunci: semiotik, mural, ideology, masyarakat, makna
The development of the conception by human mind is based on the perception on meaning to what it refers. Often, we see something that we already know then it could presume the name of the thing easily. It can be illustrated by our everyday activities on the way, we see the traffic light with red light then we immediately stop the vehicle. In this sense, it is called as a sign which refers to our concept of mind.
In communicating our feeling or condition, signs can form codes to each other. Such as saying a love of a man to his beloved woman gives her beautiful stem of rose. The sign itself can be drawing, photograph, and painting which extend to areas like art and photograph section. So the signs which we see could be considered “visual sign”.
Then, what if mural takes as a part of signs, since it came a long time ago to represent their aspiration from the creation of arts to criticize against something that cannot feel right in that situation. According to (Hornby, 2010: 972), mural is a painting, usually a large one, done on a wall, sometimes on the outside of a wall of a building. Most people consider mural as visual art or as a part of act of vandalism. It is popular art. Unfortunately the majority of people are ill informed and do not understand what the culture is about. It is about self-expression. We are adding something colorful to a blank surface that others will see admire. It may not be fully appreciated at the moment, but in due course, it will be recognized as an art form.
In interpreting signs around, we need knowledge of how the way of signs could be interpreted as well as what it is interpreted. The study about sign and its meaning is known as semiotics. Saussure (cited in Chandler, 2001) defines semiotics as the science of signs in society.Semiotics focuses on something that can be taken as a sign. Therefore, the sign of the mural takes a meaning that can be incorporated in the study of semiotics. On the other way, mural can interpret its meaning to represent human life and social activity. The aspect of understanding in this mural is based on the society’s point of view.
This study expands to the variation of data source in form of mural that no one has used mural as data. Therefore, this study analyzes the mural in the visual and verbal aspects that can be more interpreted deeply in representing human life and social activity.
Based on the elaboration of the background above, the problems of this study can be formulated as follows:
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1. What verbal and visual signs are illustrated in the Mural in Denpasar?
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2. How the mural relates verbal and visual signs in creating message and
ideology?
The study is specifically aimed at:
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1. Identifying the verbal and visual signs are illustrated the mural in Denpasar.
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2. Connecting the verbal and visual signs of mural in Denpasar and ideology.
There are some steps being done to show that this study belongs to semantic research. Such steps include data source, method and technique of collecting data, method and technique of analyzing data and the last method and lastly are the technique of presenting analysis. This study applied the field research as the method to collect and to analyze the data.
The data were taken from some murals around Denpasar city. The authors of those murals are some mural communities in Denpasar city of which the time of producing the murals was unknown. The data were chosen based on their contents. Only the murals that contain images and texts are selected. Moreover, the murals found in public places were used as the data, in this case, the public places include school, university, traffic light, etc.
Murals around Denpasar city were chosen since the contents behind these are interesting to serve as social messages or critiques towards society for the past or nowadays. In addition, these murals represent the phenomenon that still exists in society.
The data were collected using the documentation method, particularly taking photos. The techniques in collecting the data were done in three steps. First,murals that contain images and texts were searched and collected by visiting public places around Denpasar. Furthermore, the selected murals were captured by camera. Finally, the data were identified and sorted based on the visual and verbal signs of the murals.
The collected data were descriptively and qualitatively analyzed. The reason behind this choice was that the data of this research were words and pictures and would be described qualitatively. In order to analyze the data, some theories were applied.
They the theory of semiotics proposed by Saussure (1983) and Bhartes (1957). Meanwhile, there were some techniques used to analyze the data. Firstly, the theory of Saussure was used to find the signifier and signified of verbal and visual signs of the murals. To get the signified aspects, first the signifier aspects should be explained. Then, by using the theory of Bhartes, the order of signification was analyzed deeply into denotative, connotative and myth or ideology.
There were five data of murals were used in this study. The analysis of one data
is described as follows.
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a) Verbal Signs
The analysis of verbal signs based on the signifier and signified can be seen in the following table:
|
Signs | ||
|
No |
Signifier |
Signified |
|
1 |
NOT FOR SALE |
It shows that the thing is not for sale |
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b) Visual Signs
The analysis of visual signs based on signified and signifier can be seen in the following table:
|
Signs | ||
|
No |
Signifier |
Signified |
|
1 |
Three children hold white plates saying “NOT FOR SALE” in each plate |
It shows that each child hold a plates, saying “NOT” “FOR” “SALE” |
|
2 |
A grey dimension set as background of the mural |
The grey color and form of dimension background are to create the readers’ perspective. |
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c) Denotative Meaning
Based on the visual and verbal analysis above, the mural in data 2 denotes that there are three children holding planks saying not for sale. Each holds plank with word “NOT” “FOR” “SALE”; those words have signifier and signified. According to Hornby (2010: 1004, 583, 1305) the word, “NOT” is literally used to give the following word or phrase a negative meaning, or to reply in negative. Furthermore, the word “FOR” means concerning somebody or something and the word “SALE” means the act or the process selling something. The mural creator wants to emphasize a message to the readers through these verbal and visual signs that people “on the frame” are not for sale.
-
a) Verbal Signs
The analysis of verbal signs based on the signifier and signified can be seen in the following table:
|
Signs | ||
|
No |
Signifier |
Signified |
|
1 |
It shows that the thing is not for sale |
Something that is not for exploitation and it is displayed to make us wonder to criticize on society surface. |
-
b) Visual Signs
The analysis of visual signs based on signified and signifier can be seen in the following table:
|
Signs | ||
|
No |
Signifier |
Signified |
|
1 |
It shows that each child holds a plates, saying “NOT” “FOR” “SALE” |
It portrays that children cannot be sold. |
|
2 |
The grey color and form of dimension background create the readers’ perspective. |
The pattern is square and the background color is grey which signs that the dark situation and clouds face still happens to many children. |
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c) Connotative Meaning
Based on the visual and verbal sign of the mural, the connotative meaning is the children exploitation and human trafficking still happen in the society. Most of the victims are the underage children that violate the law. The mural is also supported by other verbal signs such as “JANGAN HANYA BERDOA” and “BUAT ANAK KOK COBA COBA”, meaning that we do not just exploit the children and the parents do pray to hope best can get. The sad face in the mural shows implicitly that their parents and people have carried the children’s right away.
The relationship between the verbal and visual sign on the mural supports each other. In one side, the verbal sign, the mural text is pointed. In the mural, there is a text which emphasizes a message to the reader. On the other side, the visual sign helps show the situation through the picture. This supports the meaning of the mural and the text entitled “NOT FOR SALE”. Furthermore, the mural creator portrays the situation that there are three children with sad faces holding the white plank.
Based on the mural, it can be seen that there is still human trafficking particularly children exploitation in the society. It cannot be denied that these actions
still happen everywhere. The reason is that in Indonesia the prosperity level is still overlapping so that the violation case of underage children often happens. The ideology that can be revealed from this mural is the criticism towards the society to stop human trafficking and children exploitation that can carry away the children freedom and right.
The analysis shows that the mural found in Denpasar City consists of verbal and visual signs. The murals show the text and the picture so that the verbal and visual signs illustrated in mural around Denpasar City have data about what the messages this study tries to analyze. The mural on average contains the topic of mural and initial of mural’s creator.
In verbal and visual, the murals are supporting each other to create the meaning. As a result, the readers can understand what the messages want to share by the mural creator. The ideology itself is made by the perception of the readers. This study tries to reach the understanding of the mural from the social point of view.
Barthes, Roland [1964].1967. Elements of Semiology (trans. Annette Lavers & Colin
Smith). London: JonathanCape
Chandler, D. 2005. Semiotics for Beginners. Aberyswyth University, Available at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html. [Accessed: 4 February 2015].
Hornby, A.S. 2010. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary; 7th Edition. London: Oxford University Press.
Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1916 [1959] Course in General Linguistics. [Trans. Wade
Baskin.] New York: McGraw-Hill.
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