Maria Giulia Dondero* Visual semiotics and automatic analysis of images from the Cultural Analytics Lab: How can quantitative and qualitative analysis be combined? https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2018-0104 Abstract: In this article we explore the relationship between semiotic analysis of images and quantitative analysis of vast image corpora, in particular the work produced by Lev Manovich and the Cultural Analytics Lab, called “Media Visualization.” Media Visualization has been chosen as corpus because of its metavisual operation (images are visualized and analyzed by images) and its innovating way of conceiving analysis: by visual instruments. In this paper semiotics is used as an approach to Media Visualization and taken as an object of study as well, especially visual semiotics. In this sense, a comparison between visual semiotics (close reading of small corpora) and quantitative analyses of images (distant reading of vast collections) are conducted from a semiotic point of view. Post-Greimassian semiotics guides this study with respect to the issue of the image-within-an-image and metavisual visualization; Peircean semiotics is employed to explain and develop the notion of diagram. Keywords: visual semiotics, big data, media visualization, quantitative analysis, diagram, metavisual 1 Introduction In this article we intend to explore the relationship between semiotic analysis of images and quantitative analysis of vast image corpora, in particular the work produced by Lev Manovich and the Cultural Analytics Lab in this field since the beginning of the century. The work of Manovich and his team is of great interest to semiotics because these researchers are conducting diachronic analyses on vast collections of images (pictorial and photographic images in particular) by means of their visualizations (Media Visualization). *Corresponding author: Maria Giulia Dondero, Langues et Littératures Françaises et Romanes, University of Liège/ National Fund for Scientific Research, 3–5 Place Cockerill, Liège, Wallonie, Belgium, E-mail: mariagiulia.dondero@uliege.be https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2320-8130 Semiotica 2019; aop Authenticated | mariagiulia.dondero@uliege.be author's copy Download Date | 7/21/19 10:11 AM