November 8th to 11th, 2004

Antonio Roberto Chiachiri Filho
semeion@uol.com.br
Faculdade Cásper Líbero/PUC-SP - Brazil

DEPICTION - FLAVORED

ABSTRACT
In the context of communication and culture, this research aims at the resources used by specialist photographers in gastronomic depiction; resources that are responsible for effects of synesthetic suggestion set off by those pictures on the receiver, so that the appetite gets much more excited and intense than the real dish could provoke sometimes.
The focus is a deep study of the ways applied by the photographer specialised in gastronomic depiction, since we know that the photographic settings and scenes are immersed in a set of artifices and simulative powers, which are able to whisper delights, as well as to trigger off or even intensify psychophysical effects, such as the rising of appetite. The gastronomic depiction, since it is a sign, - according to the way it depicts or simulates its object, - has succeed in raising the senses by calling physiological reactions in the interpreter (whatever biophysical, neurosensorial, behavioral etc), e.g., by salivating or imaginatively rebuilding that peculiar flavor of a food based on the previous taste-sign repertoire.
We are sure that this study, designed under the insights of Charles S. Peirce's semiotics, with special attention to his concepts of icon and hypoicons, can contribute to the comprehension of a seldom explored aspect in the art of photographic communication in its interrelation to the advertising.

KEYWORDS: Gastronomic Depiction, Communication, Semiotics, Taste, Sensation, Hypoicon.

Center for Pragmatism Studies
Philosophy Graduate Program
Departament of Philosophy
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - Brazil