Everyday life is an exercise in semiotics. This makes it easier, and yet infinitely more difficult. Semiotics is a branch of knowledge that works with the study of signs. In semiotics, everything is a sign: from an overt sign like a signboard to the nuances of a fashion statement of a man wearing a skirt. Semiotics also rests on the premise that every sign is open to multiple interpretations.
Nevertheless, context provides valuable information as to what codes for what. Semiotics is invariably prevalent in all aspects of our life. A simple exercise of crossing a road becomes thus a thought-provoking application of the semiotic theory. A commute involves several aspects, and not all of us end up on the same side of the road (metaphorically and literally). For those of us who must cross roads, the reasons are clear unlike for the fictional chicken. This begs a different question, not of why, but of how the chicken crossed the road.
Assume that the chicken grows up in a small town; it is not expected to cross a lot of roads. The traffic is easy, everything it needs is near its fictional coop. But shifting to a large metro city shakes the chicken out of these assumptions. The city has three moods. The morning school rush, the mid-morning office rush, and the general largely dispersed evening rush.
An attempt to cross a road at any of these intervals leave you very chicken-hearted. The very confused chicken now proceeds to concoct strategies for said road-crossing exercise. A school, being a no speed zone, should allow for slower traffic, it assumes. But somehow the signs are to the contrary. The ruefully established speed bumps are helpful, but the semiotics are not pretty. The chicken establishes itself in front of the speed bumps. Very strategic, it pats itself on the back. The cars slow down, momentarily. The chicken cannot gather the courage to cross here. It tries to read car mechanics, the psychology. The tires flatten and rise, a cross-examination of the plausible friction of the uneven roads.
It tries a psychological analysis of the drivers towards chickens crossing the road. A deep dive into the mind. The chicken reels. But what does it behold but a few other beings crossing said streets with no dread of the oncoming vehicles! They are uncaring of the signs, there is no semiotic casing of the drivers, the streets, or the approaching vehicles. Amazed, the chicken follows said beings. The road is thus successfully crossed.
Semiotics is not always about a frantic reading of the everyday occurrences, only that which necessitates an analysis need be analysed. A school sign may indicate slower traffic, but also heavier traffic during the morning school hours. The contextual cues provide significant information here.
But the dilemma doesn’t end there. Sometimes there are no other beings for the chicken to cross the road with. The chicken is dejected. But the chicken understands semiotics, perhaps a bit too much. When Derrida talked about signifiers floating in a sea of possible meanings, the chicken was fascinated and perhaps a little intimidated. In this infinitely floating entity what contextual possibilities can combine dichotomies? The chicken is evidently not good at contextual cues.
Imagine, the chicken is attempting to cross the road. The vehicles slow down at the speed bump, but then it spots the fanciness of the said slowing vehicle. What does a fancy car semiotically indicate? The chicken thinks of “fast cars”. The chicken hesitates. The car passes by at a snail’s pace. A semiotic exception, it thinks. A school bus passes, and the chicken is too polite to allow school education to be delayed. The bus passes. A food delivery service — they have strict time slots and someone might be hungry. Chicken nods, it has known hunger pangs. And the semiotic analysis continues until the chicken has stood beside the street for a full five minutes.
And lo, when the chicken has given up all hope, the crossing guard waves the vehicles to a stop; his elegant gestures indicating a pause. The sign is unambiguous, the code is similar, and the vehicles come to a halt. The chicken crosses the street.
Semiotics is often as complicated as a person with little or completely different understanding of contextual cues trying to cross the road. While semiotics is one of the most prevalent forms of deconstructionist theories, it often goes unnoticed. Almost every activity in everyday life passes through the invisible influence of semiotics.
A phenomenological understanding makes it certain that semiotics can also be intensely personal. Vis-a-vis crossing the road, what codes as “pass” for some may not code the same for another. A deeply personal and intersectional system, semiotics becomes a complex web of meanings. In a world that is largely overtaken by technological systems, and where disruptions of said systems happen in minutes, semiotics is an oft-ignored field.
Routing communication and interaction through digital mode, we have as a population forgone our understanding of social semiotics. While humans are touted as social animals, there has been a certain shortfall in our semiotic endeavours. And a system that does not evolve is a system that falls into disuse.
While older semantic models are replaced by newer technology-enabled ones, it is inadvisable that we forgo our basic origins, where semiotics always helped us cross roads — both metaphoric and literal.
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