Coding in images vital to meaning

is the smallest known variable of an image and it can be identified through its three main characteristics.
Firstly, it must be physically perceptible, meaning that it must in some degree be visible, audible or tangible or one must be able to smell or taste it. When one gets home from work, he/she may know what type of supper they will be having through the pleasant smell coming from the kitchen.
Similarly, unless the physical appearance is apparent, detection of fire is almost always by the smell of burning substances. Secondly, it should refer to something and therefore it has a representative character. In linguistics, the letters ‘d’, ‘o’ and ‘g’ arranged in that sequence would directly refer to one member of the canine family.
Lastly, because it is a representation of something else, it has to have an interpretative character.
Signs are what make up an entire composition. They may not all have direct meaning, but their combined characteristics, and in the order in which they are grouped may make up the meaning of either language or images. If a sign or, more commonly a combination of signs are arranged in such a way that they convey a meaning, it/they become(s) a visual, signifying code.
Codes of form exist only in and through the way people use them. Editorial cartoonists may use satire for example, but it is only a technique with no physical appearance. These are culture and context-based.
The use of the colour red brings out so many different meanings across the world, meanings that are not always shared by these communities. Additionally, codes function intertextually. One can only learn to understand and interpret a code through other codes used elsewhere. One can only stop at a robot controlled intersection in a foreign country if the red light means the same thing where he comes from.
Another character of the code is that it is dynamic — it has the ability to change. The Shona word “ndaakubaya” used to only mean one was about to shoot at, or stab something but now it has become a word commonly used by the youth to mean, “I am now going”. The bearer cheques Zimbabweans used as legal tender during the mid 2000s have now become a part and parcel of litter in the streets. Codes may mean one thing today and quite another the next day.
Codes are essential components in semiotics as it is through them that meaning can be deduced. An essential ability of the code is its ability to provide two different layers of meaning, the main signifying range and the typical signifying range. The former answers the question, “how are the codes used in the (composition)?” while the latter responds to “what meaning(s) is/are produced?”
Codes therefore engage the viewer at two different levels. In editorial cartoons, the reader has to first identify what is in the composition — for example, a man with pockets hanging out of his trousers, a sad face and torn out shoes with the words “January Disease” inscribed at the top. That would be a process of identifying the codes in the composition.
After, the reader may then realise that the composition is a social commentary about how many spend heavily during the festive period and begin to face the hard truth at the start of the new year that they have little or nothing to spare for the month.
Techniques used to unite components of an image to enable them to convey meaning jointly maybe described as codes of content. This is also referred to as the visual mode of the composition in still images.
In editorial cartoons for example, people, furniture, scenery, buildings, streets or any identifiable object created by the cartoonist and within the composition fall into this category collectively forming the content of the image. These codes are in varied shapes and sizes. The round head on top of an almost oval-shaped torso balancing on top of two stick-like objects collectively give an image of a human being.
The shapes are all signs and if presented independently, they may mean something else. The shape of the head alone may indeed look like an egg, or even part of some logo. It is important to stress that codes are cultural-based. What one culture sees may not necessarily mean the same to another.
A picture of a man raising his hand and displaying an open palm may mean he is showing support for one political party. The same gesture may simply mean he is waving goodbye in other cultural paradigms.
Some words too may mean one thing in one culture and quite something else in another. Some codes are universal and would mean the same to just about everyone. Facial expressions, or emotional discharge may not be the most difficult to decode. Worldwide, a smile is represented by formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth as an expression denoting pleasure, joy or amusement.
Identifying codes in images is a way of deconstructing a composition and identify firstly the signs, then their clusters so as to reconstruct meaning. But without understanding of the cultures compositions are made in or prepared for, the intended meaning may not be fully comprehended.