Iconic Instagram

Iconic Instagram

Image 1: New Instagram Logo, Paulo del Valle. Sourced from flickr.com

A picture says a thousand words, but what happens when a thousand is not enough? Space and place on Instagram is obviously shaped and defined by images, but often pictures alone are not enough to express meaning. Through using symbols and words, context and place are created. Pictures and iconography become a combined narrative on Instagram. 

Tuan (1991) notes that “words enhance the picture by directing attention to sensory effects that cannot be directly shown, such as sounds and fragrances.” A user could simply post a photo of a coffee, and another user could use iconography (the visual images/signs/symbols that can be used to interpret another thing) to understand that the original user might be at a café. But by adding a caption, the context of the photo is increased, thus a connection to place is reinforced.

Personally, I prefer to caption my posts, as it expands on what my followers cannot see from the limited screen size. What sounds, scents, and feelings did I experience while taking that photo? People would not know unless I explained what ‘truth’ was missing from what is shown: “The words supply a temporal dimension to landscape that the visual image alone cannot provide.” (Tuan, 1991.)

Iconography is an interesting theme, as everything on Instagram (and essentially the world) is influenced and referenced from something else. Ben Davis discusses this in a review, in which he says that “all those #selfies, [are] self-portraits. All those vacation vistas are #landscape.” This is a prime example of how language and image form a narrative. It is a modern day repetition, the same narrative on a new platform. Instead of calling it a ‘self-portrait’, language creates place in which we just have to call it a ‘selfie’. It orientates users in the 21^st century media they are using.

Language is equally important as image, as it tells what is not seen. On the same hand, the image shows what is told. Both are tools used on Instagram and in real life to orientate us.

 References:

Davis, B. (2014). Reviews Ways of Seeing Instagram. Retrieved from https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/ways-of-seeing-instagram-37635

Kuttainen, V. (2016). Stories of Place: Story Lines. [PPT]. Retrieved from learnjcu.edu.au {Used for concepts}

Tuan, Y.F. (1991). Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, volume 81. (No.4), pp. 684-696. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563430 learnjcu.edu.au

Valle, P.d. (2016). My Instagram Logo project. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/125606505@N08/26692507240/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BFSR6RlhQfP/

By Néa O’Connor  

Word Count: 337