{"title":"如果你愿意,就挖掘图片…:阅读普林斯的符号世界","authors":"Aggie Toppins","doi":"10.1162/desi_a_00698","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.","PeriodicalId":51560,"journal":{"name":"DESIGN ISSUES","volume":"38 4","pages":"63-75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince's Semiotic World\",\"authors\":\"Aggie Toppins\",\"doi\":\"10.1162/desi_a_00698\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.\",\"PeriodicalId\":51560,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"DESIGN ISSUES\",\"volume\":\"38 4\",\"pages\":\"63-75\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.4000,\"publicationDate\":\"2022-10-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"DESIGN ISSUES\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9931040/\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"艺术学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"ARCHITECTURE\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"DESIGN ISSUES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9931040/","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ARCHITECTURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
Dig If You Will the Picture…: Reading Prince's Semiotic World
Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016) was an innovative American musician whose life and work defied categorization. His music combined the spiritual with the sexual while spanning funk, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and roll, and pop genres. Prince embraced nonbinary gender performance and, as a Black artist of enormous celebrity, exemplified what W. E. B. Du Bois named double-consciousness: a sensibility gained from looking at oneself through the eyes of others; a “two-ness” derived from being both American and Black. Prince used multivalent signs, symbols, and codes to craft an enigmatic personal mythology. In this essay, I use Roland Barthes's poststructuralist theory and Stuart Hall's writing on stereotypes to examine Prince's semiotic world. By studying recurring motifs in his lyrics, fashion, and visual communication design, I show that Prince's signifying practices constitute a sensual text that, through illegibility, catalyzed emancipatory cultural expressions.
期刊介绍:
The first American academic journal to examine design history, theory, and criticism, Design Issues provokes inquiry into the cultural and intellectual issues surrounding design. Regular features include theoretical and critical articles by professional and scholarly contributors, extensive book reviews, and illustrations. Special guest-edited issues concentrate on particular themes, such as artificial intelligence, product seminars, design in Asia, and design education. Scholars, students, and professionals in all the design fields are readers of each issue.