Research Task:

For this research task, I have been asked to compare the two images below by British artist William Hogarth in 1751, called ‘Beer Street and Gin Lane’, and identify how Hogarth has used denotation and connotation. I will explain what has he shown literally through denotation to support his anti-gin/pro-beer argument and what is implied through connotation. I found the image on Google Images as I was unable to find it on Bridgeman.

• Connotation is used to describe the associations we have with that image.
• Denotation describes the obvious, literal things in an image.

Semiotics uses connotation and denotation as a way of describing actual and intended meanings.

Comparison and Analysis:

Connotation:

GIN LANE:

• The lady in the middle of the image has just dropped her baby down the side of the wall, but the look on her face means she doesn’t care or isn’t aware. She is obviously intoxicated and considering she has exposed herself and her legs are covered in sores I assume she is a prostitute. She is more interested in getting out her tobacco (if it’s tobacco).
• The people are dressed in rags and are extremely thin.
• There are a lot of dead people in this image.
• A man and dog share a bone showing just how hungry and poor they are.
• I had to look up the snail on the wall as it was a strange thing to add! I found out that snails have been linked to the sin of sloth, which represents excessive laziness.
• A man hangs in the background in the rafters.
• A fight has broken out with one man wielding a chair!

https://escargot-world.com/snail-symbolism/#Spiritual_and_Religious_Symbolism

BEER STREET:

• There are a lot of hard-working people in this image.
• There are two men sitting together, one is a blacksmith and the other is a butcher – you can tell by the tools they are wielding.
• Even the man behind the door gets a beer, maybe this is to signify friendliness and community.
• There is a feel of the industry through the image – people are working together, a man fixes the brick path, and two women are on their way to sell fish. There is also an artist fixing up the pub sign.
• The people are dressed well and are very round, so they eat well.

Denotation:

GIN LANE:

The people in this town are sick and dying. They are all highly intoxicated. They are dressed in rags and are extremely thin. The lady in the center of the image on the stairs is so intoxicated she has dropped her baby down into the gutter below, she is exposing herself and has sores all over her legs, from researching why she would have this I realised this is possibly syphilis rash/sores which signifies she is a prostitute. A fight has started outside the pub with one man wielding a chair and another man lying in a wheelbarrow still being fed gin! There is a lot of death in this image from the person hanging from the rafters in the back to the right to the woman being placed into a coffin in the background. A man and his dog share a bone, showing how poor and also signifying the lack of humanity. The building is in disrepair with a building toppling over imminently. There is a woman in the far right, it looks like this is giving her baby gin! Everyone in this image either looks furious, sick or has a weird look of giving up on their face, like the prostitute.  

BEER STREET:

The people in this town are hard-working individuals who enjoy a beer at the end of their working day. They are good clothes and eat well you can see by their abdomens (probably not eating well by today’s standards!) The overall feel of the emotions is happy and comfortable. The people work hard, and you can see their professions but what they are carrying, the two ladies are selling fish to the market and the two men sitting down are wielding tools that would be used if someone was a blacksmith or a butcher. There is an artist who is painting the pub sign, he has an enthusiastic look on his face although he is still dressed in rags, maybe this shows the job differences and the amount a person gets paid depending on what profession they do. There is a basket of books shown in the foreground on the right, maybe this signifies an increase of knowledge. People are also shown to be able to read in this image in comparison to Gin Lane. The buildings are still in disrepair but there is now scaffolding shown in the background, signifying that repairs are taking place. There is a collective look of satiety and almost smugness on the faces of these people. 

Exercise 1: you are what you eat

For this exercise I need to choose a proverb to illustrate and produce two different versions, one implying the ‘good’ and the other the ‘bad’ meaning implied by the advice. I need to think about how I use the two images in relationship to one another. How can I create a comparison between the symbolism of the good with the bad?

I started this exercise by looking for a proverb through a list a found on the internet. I found the one below to be a good fit as I started getting ideas as soon as I looked at it:

My chosen proverb: Knowledge is Power

Ideas of how I can translate the proverb into illustrations showing good and bad:

Good:

• A child reads academic books and takes in the information in order to become smarter.
• Getting a degree gives you more of a chance of getting a good job.
• Listening to your partner in a relationship makes the relationship stronger.
• A scientist in a lab discovers a new element/species/cure.
• Finding/inventing more eco-friendly energy resources.
• COVID scientists finding vaccines to stop the pandemic.

Bad:

• The knowledge needed to create a nuclear bomb.
• Knowing people’s weaknesses and using them against them.
• Computer hackers, hack into passwords and use them for their own benefit.
• A German 1930-40s girl reading Mein Kampf surrounded by Nazi propaganda = brainwashed.
• A person tied to a chair with energy (power) being drained from the brain and used for electricity (fictional).
• Countries withholding information from their people e.g. China and their version of Google.

My chosen Good and Bad:

Good: COVID scientists finding vaccines to stop the pandemic.

Bad: The knowledge needed to create a nuclear bomb.

Thumbnail sketches:

Initial Ideas:

Good:

Bad:

Process of creating the designs:

Good:

Bad:

Final Designs:

Good: COVID scientists finding vaccines to stop the pandemic.

Bad: The knowledge needed to create a nuclear bomb.

Evaluation:

This exercise was fun, I feel like I picked the best initial sketch thumbnails out of the bunch. There is a clear difference between the good and bad illustrations. I have made sure the colours are also shown as positive and negative. I think both images speak for themselves and are quite obvious what they are and if they are bad or good. I think if I was to change anything I would add more wording or COVID imagery to the ‘good’ illustration as anything could be in that injection.

Reference:

https://www.engvid.com/english-resource/50-common-proverbs-sayings/