“Meals are extremely significant moments in forming a family’s values.”
J.J.B: First and foremost the evolution of socially acceptable expectations. In a way, we have somehow managed to emancipate ourselves from basic needs. Today our behavior, our habits and our needs all bear witness to an increasing quest for meaning resulting from our education and the awakening of our sensitivity. Issues relating to the common well-being, our relationships, our fellow human beings and to ourselves are now becoming increasingly sensitive topics. In modern-day society, new ego-driven trends are spreading, among which a contemporary form of narcissism that consists of thinking about oneself and listening to oneself to nurture one’s inner being. Take by way of illustration the stereotyped life of nineteenth-century coal miners as portrayed in Émile Zola’s work. When going down the mine every morning knowing they were going to toil for fourteen hours down there, they probably did not give much thought to the mine’s identity or their own, and could not care less if public relations within the company were adapted to their needs or not. On the way home, they did not wonder if the atmosphere at home was likely to enrich their inner life and enhance their sensitivity. Today quality of life is the core value claimed by all. And when asked what “quality of life” means to them they say it has to do with giving meaning to one’s life. Of course, this quest for meaning – expressed through signs and concrete relationships to objects – arouses the interest of semioticians, who are currently starting to focus their research on a wide range of signs pertaining to this quest for meaning. As trivial as some of these signs may seem, like choices of color, which may seem quite banal, they are actually deeper than we may think.
CADI: Right, our choices are always laden with symbols.
J.J.B: Yes, always. As if repressed elements surfaced through our choices. At times in your life you focus on a certain feature – a color, for instance, when decorating your home – and then this attention turns to other semiotic elements that arouse your interest. The grounding principle remains this quest for meaning derived from a desire to give meaning to our lives in any possible way, with only one requirement: improving our quality of life.
CADI: This means that – without even being aware of it – the wider public is eager to practise semiotics, to the delight of semioticians, I guess.
J.J.B: Though Roland Barthes once said that the very nature of our society was to transform any kind of usage into a sign of this usage, we often unconsciously dote things with signification or semiotic value. The man on the street is quite often astonished to learn that semiotics and signs are all part and parcel of his daily life. In the introduction to Le signe[1] Umberto Eco depicts the ordinary whereabouts of Mr. Sigma who – surrounded by signs from dawn to dusk on a daily basis – makes everything he sees, comes across, perceives and interferes with into a sign.
1001 saveurs - final degree project by Morgane Bily, carried out with the help of Jean-Jacques Boutaud, 2008-2009
CADI: To decipher the world he’s living in…
J.J.B: Exactly. If you take a look around you’ll notice the strong emphasis put on lighting and light. This is a very significant trend. A few years ago, when entering your grandparents’ living room you’d switch on the neon bulb and that was it. Today even the most Spartan student room is equipped with at least four or five lighting devices, which bears witness to a desire to enhance one’s home with a particular feel. This desire is coupled with an unspoken will to create a kind of organic atmosphere within one’s home. Not only are people eager to create a certain atmosphere, but they also endeavor to trigger strong sensations by using more or less opalescent, iridescent or evanescent warm and cold lights and by playing with transparency and opacity. Analyzing this isotopy – this very segment of light – already suffices to show the tremendous influence of light on our relationship to the world and to everyday life.
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