Tonight's reading was over how meaning is achieved through the interpretation of image.
Production of meaning involves at least three elements besides the image itself and the procedure:
1) The codes and conventions that structure the image and can't be separated from the context of the image.
2) The viewers and how they interpret or experience the image.
3) The contexts in which an image is exhibited and viewed.
Most images have a meaning that is preferred by their producers, as their creation is intended to be interpreted a certain way. As an audience of the image, we have no way to know for certain what meaning the producers intended for their creation. With analysis of the image, we can get a feeling for what we believe was intended, but without hearing directly from the creator, we won't know for sure.
I found the discussion of "The Most Wanted Painting on the Web" to be an interesting look at the different preferences for aesthetics in regards to paintings as grouped by country. The evidence found by Pierre Bourdieu's survey showed that generally people prefer soft landscapes and pictorial realism over abstract minimal compositions. I wonder if the reasoning for this is that to the general population, it is easier to interpret an image of something they can relate to, as it is a representation of something in the real world. This would make sense as the average individual may not have an educated or proper understanding of what constitutes "good" taste and aesthetics as far as current culture suggests.
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