Illustration as Social Semiotics

Building on the affordances of the illustrator as a socially engaged communicator, this paper will survey the opportunities of illustration as a participatory practice. I will argue how in especially complex digital media/text-image relationships illustration can be considered as a form of multimodal “social semiotics”, whereby illustration becomes a container for other meanings to be held and effectively shared. I will consider the concept of intericonicity (images inside images) against my contention that illustration can also pull through (in terms of signification) extra non-linguistic meaning from referring to, or agitating against situated digital culture tropes. Furthermore, the ongoing digital prerogative that sees the rise of Ai, digital filters and software manipulation, increasingly makes the photographic image unreliable as reportage, providing in turn a change in mental bandwidth for illustrations that are emotionally charged and or co-constructed. I will argue that potentially, depending on context, this change rejuvenates the reading with an indexical more metonymic function, where the concept of the illustrator as an individual identity and or voice becomes part of the meaning making experience. This connection, perhaps once relegated as parerga (supplementary) in conventional text-image led publications has an interesting salience and value in social media and can be, in turn used to foster activist, critical, or culture jamming images and messages. This paper will be supported both by theory and an analysis of selected case-studies. As I move towards conclusion, I will offer a discussion around the emergent trends and prerogatives within augmented reality and Ai, as linked but different to social media and offer some speculative thinking (based on my own practice and that of others) regarding how digital context could mix and meet with the affordances of illustration as social semiotics considering the continued need for social engagement.