Back to Communication Basics

The past week the emphasis has been on the quite amazing phenomenon of communication. Signs, actually. And the bright spirit who took us back to the very basics of this ‘taken-for-granted’, ongoing happening was Hans Bouwknegt. Mr. Bouwknegt taught us the ins and outs of semiotics, in particular the use of semiotics in media. Terms such as the signifier and signified, connotations and denotations were mentioned; names such as Saussure and Eco were brought up; and we have been taught that creativity is based on knowledge, and NOT only on talent.

All together a very fruitful week with meaningful insights, and I am not only talking about the lessons and theory provided. As the deadline for the search for an application company is approaching in less than a week, I am still in desperate search for one. Unfortunately I was turned down friday by a company which would have been absolutely PERFECT for me. I always thought I was pretty adequate on a communicative level, which was happily (re)confirmed and most welcomed by the potential application company, after which they decided to employ the computer nerd. Naturally, there is more to the story and there is no-one in particular to blame, but it is still a major bummer! And so the frantic search continues.

There is also a time and place for happy thoughts this rainy Friday: SOUTH AFRICA!!! Ticket prices are reasonable, I will have Bobby as my travel-buddy, and I am already thinking of which outfits to bring = exciting!

Upcoming week will be a rather busy week, with 4 instead of 3 school days and the first set of book presentations! It had been decided to apply the newly developed book-presentation-concept to the third and fourth set of book presentations, so that we have more time to gather a greater attendance and make it an even more nerve-wrecking event. I am confident that there will be an elaborately written blog on these events in weeks 10 and 16 of 2010.

Yours sincerely,
Jessica