ABSTRACT
These characteristics often occur together. There are many instances when illustrating something becomes inextricably associated with the acts of exemplifying it and speaking on its behalf. One means to bring them together, however, is to act on Stuart Hall’s advice that: ‘representation is the production of meaning through language’ (Hall, 1997). In saying that, Hall did not mean that only speech and written text could represent things. Rather, he recognised that all human cultural activity communicates and that all forms of communication can be thought as purposeful arrangements of signs and symbols. These can be decoded in the same way that we might try to understand an unfamiliar language.
Students of cultural representations, for example, may examine clothing, gesture and facial expressions using the same conceptual framework that deals with written language or visual images. They would argue that clothing and gesture are media by which humans communicate with each other, for example, expressing affection, anger, pride or pleasure. By doing so, they constitute conscious arrangements of signs and symbols that can be analysed as forms of language.
