Download or read book The Semiotics of Toys and Games written by Theo van Leeuwen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-10-17 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on extensive research over more than two decades, this book focuses on toys and games as resources for play. It analyses their functionalities as well as their symbolic meaning potentials, exemplifying how they are used in different contexts, such as home and preschool, and how these uses are regulated by parental, pedagogic and marketing discourses. Building on the work of semioticians such as Barthes, Baudrillard and Krampen, as well as on the social semiotics of Halliday, Hodge, Kress, and others, the book introduces a framework for the multimodal semiotic analysis of physical objects, and the ways in which they are digitally translated into words, images and sounds. It also introduces a multimodal framework with a focus on designs for and in learning. It then applies these frameworks to a range of toys and games for young children including teddy bears, dolls, construction toys, war toys and digital games. Throughout it shows how the toy and games industry contributes to changing the nature of childhood and the way children learn about the world. Accessibly written, the book will not only be relevant to students and scholars of multimodality and semiotics, but also to early childhood educators and parents of young children.

Download or read book Toys and Communication written by Luísa Magalhães and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-14 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are few scholarly books about toys, and even fewer that consider toys within the context of culture and communication. Toys and Communication is an innovative collection that effectively showcases work by specialists who have sought to examine toys throughout history and in many cultures, including 1930’s Europe, Morocco, India, Spanish art of the 16th-19th centuries. Psychologists stress the importance of the role of toys and play in children’s language development and intellectual skills, and this book demonstrates the recurrent theme of the transmission of cultural norms through the portrayal, presentation and use of toys. The text establishes the role of toy and play park design in eliciting particular forms of play, as well as stressing the child’s use of toys to ‘become’ more adult. It will be beneficial for courses in education, developmental psychology, communications, media studies, and toy design.

Download or read book Games are not written by David Myers and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we reconcile a videogame industry's insistence that games positively affect human beliefs and behaviors with the equally prevalent assumption that games are “just games”? How do we reconcile accusations that games make us violent and antisocial and unproductive with the realization that games are a universal source of human joy? In Game are not, David Myers demonstrates that these controversies and conflicts surrounding the meanings and effects of games are not going away; they are essential properties of the game's paradoxical aesthetic form. Games are not focuses on games writ large, bound by neither digital form nor by cultural interpretation. Interdisciplinary in scope and radical in conclusion, Games are not positions games as unique objects evoking a peculiar and paradoxical liminal state – a lusory attitude – that is essential to human creativity, knowledge, and sustenance of the species.

Download or read book The Shared Space of Play written by Francesca Berti and published by LIT Verlag. This book was released on 2023-07-10 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The similarities between traditional games in different regions of the world, from past to present, arouse both awe and curiosity. The playful - yet educational - discovery of these practices offers the opportunity to observe the experience of play as a space for similarities between cultures. When research on play conducted with children is enriched by the recollections of play from parents and grandparents, especially in the context of a multicultural classroom, a choral narrative emerges, laying down the basis for intercultural education. Children discover the 'shared space of play', where they can meet and relish, together with teachers, the richness of cultural diversity, and also learn more about prejudice and Othering processes.

Download or read book The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games written by Gabriele Aroni and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Video games are among the most popular media on the planet, and billions of people inhabit these virtual worlds on a daily basis. This book investigates the architecture of video games, the buildings, roads and cities in which gamers play out their roles. Examining both the aesthetic aspects and symbolic roles of video game architecture as they relate to gameplay, Gabriele Aroni tackles a number of questions, including: - How digital architecture relates to real architecture - Where the inspiration for digital gaming architecture comes from, and how it moves into new directions - How the design of virtual architecture influences gameplay and storytelling. Looking at how architecture in video games communicates and interacts with players, this book combines semiotics and architecture theory to display how architecture is used in a variety of situations, with different aims and results. Using case studies from NaissanceE, Assassin's Creed II and Final Fantasy XV, The Semiotics of Architecture in Video Games discusses the techniques used to create successful virtual spaces and proposes a framework to analyse video game architecture, ultimately explaining how to employ architectural solutions in video games in a systematic and effective way.

Download or read book Semiotics and Visual Communication II written by Evripides Zantides and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-18 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this book consist of selected papers that were presented at the 2nd International Conference and Poster Exhibition on Semiotics and Visual Communication at the Cyprus University of Technology in October 2015. They investigate the theme of the Conference, Culture of Seduction [the seduction of culture] and look at Seduction as in “deception”, not sexual enticement, but as a mechanism of attraction and appeal which has often been the case in many communication strategies and approaches used by mass and popular culture. Seduction has historic and increasing agency in visual communication—the urgency to entice viewers is ever more powerful in difficult economic times, in an increasingly hyper-real world – and designers are led to become exceedingly complicit in its strategies. The contributions here cover a range of approaches from theoretical aspects of seduction in verbal and nonverbal communication, public spaces, design and meaning, seductive strategies, and advertising design, as well as fashion representations and packaging design.

Download or read book The Video Game Theory Reader written by Mark J.P. Wolf and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of Pong and Pac Man, video games appeared to be little more than an idle pastime. Today, video games make up a multi-billion dollar industry that rivals television and film. The Video Game Theory Reader brings together exciting new work on the many ways video games are reshaping the face of entertainment and our relationship with technology. Drawing upon examples from widely popular games ranging from Space Invaders to Final Fantasy IX and Combat Flight Simulator 2, the contributors discuss the relationship between video games and other media; the shift from third- to first-person games; gamers and the gaming community; and the important sociological, cultural, industrial, and economic issues that surround gaming. The Video Game Theory Reader is the essential introduction to a fascinating and rapidly expanding new field of media studies.

Download or read book Toys Play Culture and Society written by Jean-Pierre Rossie and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accompanying CD-ROM contains ... "the 144 original color photos and other illustrations ... [and] the volumes of the collection Saharan and North African toy and play cultures : Children's dolls and doll play ; The animal world in play, games and toys ; [and] Commented bibliography on play, games and toys [and the same 3 titles in French]"--Page 4 of cover.

Download or read book Dictionary of Semiotics written by Bronwen Martin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1999-12-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A much-needed guide to the terms and models used in the semiotic approach. Over the past few decades, semiotics has increasingly gained in popularity and yet, to many, the very term remains an enigma. But, until now, there has never been a dictionary that simply expresses the terms and models. The Dictionary of Semiotics' entries are based on the theory evolved by the Paris School of semiotics founded by A.J. Greimas. This invaluable guide combines a wordbook with detailed explanation of theory and a host of practical illustrations-all accessible to students of all levels. A specialized lexicon of semiotics' metalanguage follows an initial definition of the concept, coupled with a brief historical overview of the elaboration of European semiotic theory. The definitions are expressed in lucid terms and further clarified by easily understood examples. Finally, a semiotic analysis of "Sleeping Beauty" provides a practical example of the method, both illustrating how semiotic models can be helpful in probing effects of meaning on the textual surface and showing how to integrate them into wider contexts.

Download or read book Toy Theory written by Seth Giddings and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-11-05 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel interpretation of the history and theory of technology from the perspective of toys, play, and play objects. Toy Theory addresses the relationships between toys and technology in two distinct but overlapping ways: first, as underexamined cultural artifacts and behaviors with significant technical attributes and, second, as playful and toylike dimensions of technology at large. Seth Giddings sets out a “toy theory” of technology that emphasizes the speculative, experimental, and noninstrumental in technological paradigms and argues that children’s playthings, rather than being the most ephemeral and inconsequential of technical devices, instead offer analytical and anthropological resources for understanding the materiality and imaginaries of technology over time. After defining toy theory in general and conceptual terms, Giddings examines different types of toys to explore shifting relationships between the microcosmic symbolic or mimetic content, material and technical constitution, and modes of play of toys and toy-related artifacts, on the one hand, and prevailing, macrocosmic, technological paradigms and imaginaries, on the other. Taking a broad historical and genealogical view, Giddings traces contemporary postdigital toy and play culture to precedents from the neolithic through to the Enlightenment to consumer culture from the early nineteenth century to the present day.

Download or read book Understanding Media Semiotics written by Marcel Danesi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Media semiotics is a valuable method of focusing on the hidden meanings within media texts. This new edition brings Understanding Media Semiotics fully up to date and is written for students of the media, of linguistics and those interested in studying the ever-changing media in more detail. Offering an in-depth guide to help students investigate and understand the media using semiotic theory, this book assumes little previous knowledge of semiotics or linguistics, avoiding jargon and explaining the issues step by step. With in-depth case studies, practical accounts and directed further reading, Understanding Media Semiotics provides students with all the tools they need to understand semiotic analysis in the context of the media. Semiotic analysis is sometimes seen as complicated and difficult to understand; Marcel Danesi shows that on the contrary it can be readily understood and can greatly enrich students' understanding of media texts, from print media right through to the internet and apps.

Download or read book The Place of Play written by Maaike Lauwaert and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating, eclectic analysis of the changing geographies of play in contemporary society.

Download or read book Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age written by Albrecht Classen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-08-05 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jan Huizinga and Roger Caillois have already taught us to realize how important games and play have been for pre-modern civilization. Recent research has begun to acknowledge the fundamental importance of these aspects in cultural, religious, philosophical, and literary terms. This volume expands on the traditional approach still very much focused on the materiality of game (toys, cards, dice, falcons, dolls, etc.) and acknowledges that game constituted also a form of coming to terms with human existence in an unstable and volatile world determined by universal randomness and fortune. Whether considering blessings or horse fighting, falconry or card games, playing with dice or dolls, we can gain a much deeper understanding of medieval and early modern society when we consider how people pursued pleasure and how they structured their leisure time. The contributions examine a wide gamut of approaches to pleasure, considering health issues, eroticism, tournaments, playing music, reading and listening, drinking alcohol, gambling and throwing dice. This large issue was also relevant, of course, in non-Christian societies, and constitutes a critical concern both for the past and the present because we are all homines ludentes.

Download or read book Role play as a Heritage Practice written by Michal Mochocki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-29 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Role-play as a Heritage Practice is the first book to examine physically performed role-enactments, such as live-action role-play (LARP), tabletop role-playing games (TRPG), and hobbyist historical reenactment (RH), from a combined game studies and heritage studies perspective. Demonstrating that non-digital role-plays, such as TRPG and LARP, share many features with RH, the book contends that all three may be considered as heritage practices. Studying these role-plays as three distinct genres of playful, participatory and performative forms of engagement with cultural heritage, Mochocki demonstrates how an exploration of the affordances of each genre can be valuable. Showing that a player’s engagement with history or heritage material is always multi-layered, the book clarifies that the layers may be conceptualised simultaneously as types of heritage authenticity and as types of in-game immersion. It is also made clear that RH, TRPG and LARP share commonalities with a multitude of other media, including video games, historical fiction and film. Existing within, and contributing to, the fiction and non-fiction mediasphere, these role-enactments are shaped by the same large-scale narratives and discourses that persons, families, communities, and nations use to build memory and identity. Role-play as a Heritage Practice will be of great interest to academics and students engaged in the study of heritage, memory, nostalgia, role-playing, historical games, performance, fans and transmedia narratology.

Download or read book Out of the Garden written by Stephen Kline and published by Verso. This book was released on 1993 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely and innovative book provides a detailed history of marketing to children, revealing the strategies that shape the design of toys and have a powerful impact on the way children play. Stephen Kline looks at the history and development of children's play culture and toys from the teddy bear and Lego to the Barbie doll, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He profiles the rise of children's mass media - books, comics, film and television - and that of the specially stores such as Toys 'R' Us, revealing how the opportunity to reach large audiences of children through television was a pivotal point in developing new approaches to advertising. Contemporary youngsters, he shows, are catapulted into a fantastic and chaotic time-space continuum of action toys thanks to the merchandisers' interest in animated television. Kline looks at the imagery and appeal of the toy commercials and at how they provide a host of stereotyped figures around which children can organize their imaginative experience. He shows how the deregulation of advertising in the United States in the 1980s has led directly to the development of the new marketing strategies which use television series to saturate the market with promotional "character toys". Finally, in a powerful re-examination of the debates about the cultural effects of television, Out of the Garden asks whether we should allow our children's play culture to be primarily defined and created by marketing strategies, pointing to the unintended consequences of a situation in which images of real children have all but been eliminated from narratives about the young.

Download or read book Using Semiotics in Marketing written by Rachel Lawes and published by Kogan Page Publishers. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In what can seem a complex, abstract field, this book is an invaluably clear, practical resource on how to seize the tremendous opportunity that semiotics offers to better understand your consumers. Semiotics is big business. It is most famous for its unique ability to decode visual images and is the only market research method which provides a systematic, reliable and culturally sensitive method for interpreting what visual images mean. Semiotics sheds new light on consumers and the world they live in, stimulates creativity and innovation, guides brand strategy, and finds solutions to a plethora of marketing problems. Using Semiotics in Marketing will help marketers looking to launch new brands, reposition existing brands, or rejuvenate established ones. Written by one of the original founders of commercial semiotics, Using Semiotics in Marketing outlines precisely what semiotics is and why it matters, before moving on to demonstrate how to run a successful commercial semiotics project. Packed with fascinating case studies proving how visual imagery is interpreted differently across cultural, racial and social demographics, it provides essential insights into understanding consumers. This results in better ads, websites, packaging and social media content - ultimately driving brand growth and profits.

Download or read book The Semiotics of Clowns and Clowning written by Paul Bouissac and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-28 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last 300 years circus clowns have emerged as powerful cultural icons. This is the first semiotic analysis of the range of make-up and costumes through which the clowns' performing identities have been established and go on developing. It also examines what Bouissac terms 'micronarratives' - narrative meanings that clowns generate through their acts, dialogues and gestures. Putting a repertory of clown performances under the semiotic microscope leads to the conclusion that the performances are all interconnected and come from what might be termed a 'mythical matrix'. These micronarratives replicate in context-sensitive forms a master narrative whose general theme refers to the emergence of cultures and constraints that they place upon instinctual behaviour. From this vantage point, each performance can be considered as a ritual which re-enacts the primitive violence inherent in all cultures and the temporary resolutions which must be negotiated as the outcome. Why do these acts of transgression and re-integration then trigger laughter and wonder? What kind of mirror does this put up to society? In a masterful semiotic analysis, Bouissac delves into decades of research to answer these questions.