My iPod, My iCon: How and Why Do Images Become Icons?

Abstract

This paper engages the cultic following of Apple computer through an examination of their brand image, here represented by the famous iPod silhouette commercials. I argue that Apple employs the techniques of the Orthodox icon, constructing a mode of seeing known as symbolical realism. This mode cues the reader to see with their divine eye, recognizing neither a realistic portrayal of an actual event nor a symbolic representation. Instead, the viewer sees the advertisements as a hypostasis of the immersion in music. This mode of seeing deflects attention from Apple's ideological gain and invites viewer participation in a cult celebrating the immersive experience. In short, the ads construct a visual enthymeme whose missing element is the user. By participating in the ritual of seeing through symbolic realism and thereby completing the enthymeme, the iPod is transformed into my iCon, bestowing the commodity, and by extension the corporation, with cult value.

Keywords:

• Ipod
• Icons
• Visual Rhetoric
• Symbolic Realism
• Cult Value

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. John Murphy, Dr. Christine Harold, Dr. Kevin DeLuca, Dr. Kristy Maddox, Dr. Jarrod Atchison, Kristen McCauliff, and David Cisneros for their comments and assistance. The author would also like to thank Dr. Watts and the reviewers for their valuable insights.

Notes

1. For instance, Lester Olson defines iconology as the study of images and defines icons as a type of image “manifest in form and denotative in function” (Olson, 1987, p. 38). According to my interpretation, the Benjamin Franklin images that Olson analyzes are not icons since they lack any inherent connection to the concept signified. Instead, they are fictionalized drawings that are an arbitrary, if none the less potent, choice to symbolize the importance of American unity. Furthermore, Dana Cloud equivocates icons with “enduring, easily recognized images” (Cloud, 2004, p. 288). Palczewski follows Cloud and Olson.

2. The term “through” here is used to signal a distinction made by Richard Lanham between looking through images to their meanings and cultural circulation and looking at images, focused on the particularities of their composition, features, and form. See (Lanham, 1993) and (Lanham, 1993).

3. Carole Blair faults rhetorical criticism for an over-emphasis on “symbolicity,” or, the meanings of a message rather than their potential uses by audiences. She argues that this blunts our understanding of rhetorical consequence. See Blair (1999).

4. This conceptualization stems mostly from the writings of C. S. Peirce in his essay, “The Icon, Index, and Symbol.” (Peirce, 1932, pp. 156–173).

5. Umberto Eco claims this is a widely held assumption in semiotics. See Eco (1976), Leff & Sachs (1990), and Osborn (1986).

6. Edwards & Winkler (1997, pp. 295–296). It is admittedly a little unclear whether Edwards and Winkler only contend that the reappropriations are not icons, or whether they mean the original image was not an icon. In my opinion, the reappropriations are not icons, but the original image follows the techniques and logic of iconography. I think the icon is one type of representative form, and I try to clarify it here.

7. This is where I diverge with Peirce's (1932) conceptualization of icons, particularly in relation to photographs. An index, according to Peirce, is a signifier whose relationship is not based on resemblance, but is based on a “dynamical connection,” “physically connected” with the signified (p. 170, 168). Examples include footprints as signs of an animal or pointing to indicate direction. Peirce calls the photograph an index on numerous occasions, because the photograph is leaves a physical trace of light from the real signified. “Photographs, especially instantaneous photographs, are very instructive because we know that they are in certain respects exactly like the objects they represent. But this resemblance is due to the photograph having been … physically forced to correspond by point to nature. In that aspect, then, they belong to the second class of signs, those by physical connection” (p. 159). My analysis should illustrate that photographs might be an index, icon, or symbol, in numerous possible combinations. Peirce's classification assumes predigital age limitations in doctoring photos and a similar assumption about the concrete and abstract that this paper critiques.

8. For a summary, see Jay (1993, pp. 21–26).

9. While I will focus on the theological argument, this is not to ascribe determinism to the theological over the historical. Many other political and cultural factors contributed to the outbreak of iconoclasm as well. For instance, many historians believe Emperor Leo III began destroying images to remove a major political opponent, whether the monks who controlled education of the time or the Jews and Moslems whose influence was rising at the time and whose holy book explicitly condemned images of God. See the footnotes in Ouspensky (1992a, pp. 107–109).

10. Besancon claims the appropriate term, historically and theologically, is to “write.” He also notes the Church's discouragement of the use of symbols. See (Besancon, 2000, pp. 134, 121–122) For discussion of the Church's discouragement of realistic portraiture, see Ouspensky (1992a), Chapter 10, “The meaning and content of the icon”).

11. See the edited collection: Heller & Vienne (2003).

12. Barthes (1977), p. 44). Of course, these authors address photographs, which may have more of a documentary effect than television images. Yet, images in general still create the effect Barthes discusses to at least a degree.

13. For some of these arguments, see Messaris (1997) and Tanaka (1994). In relation to cigarette advertising, see Pollay (1991).

14. For just one example of the “iPod Generation” moniker, see “The iPod's key role in business change” ( 2006).

15. The iPod generation is used in many places. The iPod revolution comes from (Serwer, 2005). The “world-changing” phraseology comes from Van Camp (2004). The “iPod economy” comes from Bulik (2004). The age of iPod politics can be found in Poniewozik (2004).

16. Levy (2004).

17. Some may object to my analysis of a televisual text and a still image according to the same terms. Some argue that still images are more likely to be icons. Both Schneck and Hariman and Lucaites draw this conclusion. See Schneck (2003, pp. 111–112) and Hariman & Lucaites (2003), p. 57) Additionally, Marshall McLuhan (1964) disparages those who fail to distinguish between the still image and the televisual. Yet, I believe my analysis will answer this accusation of a false analogy. Furthermore, McLuhan seems to agree with my point. He compares the television image to the icon on multiple occasions. His description seems on par with my own. “In visual representation of a person or an object, a single phase or moment or aspect is separated from the multitude of known and felt phases, moments, and aspects of the person or object. By contrast, iconographic art uses the eye as we use our hand in seeking to create an inclusive image, made up of many moments, phases, and aspects of the person or thing. Thus the iconic mode is not visual representation, nor the specialization of visual stress as defined by viewing from a single position. The tactual mode of perceiving is sudden but not specialist. It is total, synaesthetic, involving all the senses. … The TV image, that is to say, even more than the icon, is an extension of the sense of touch” (McLuhan, 1964, p. 291). This does not mean every TV image is an icon, but that the media contains the possibility of reverse perspective and the gestures of address that are aspects of icons.

18. See http://adtunes.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1534&st=0 (accessed September 17, 2008).

19. Similarly, Ouspensky (1992b, p. 499) argues that much of the icon's perceived authenticity results from the harmony between elements—the structure, techniques, materials, objects presented—and the overall message. Every element included is deemed necessary for the whole, similar to how, in the iPod ads, music, person, music player, and scene are necessary to experience immersion in music. Nothing extraneous is added.

20. For an interesting analysis on the noisy state of culture, see Simonson (2001).

21. The consistency of content and form is a major point throughout Ouspensky's work, but especially in the final chapter. See (Ouspensky, 1992b).

22. This description of linear perspective comes mostly from Jay (1993, pp. 51–60). Also see Bolter & Grusin (1996).

23. In another sense, the advertisements also literally intrude into the spaces of our living rooms. To understand this, we must expand the boundary of this text to include the final seconds of the broadcast immediately prior to the commercial. Of course, the eager social scientist would find it extremely difficult to catalog which actual broadcasts precede the iPod advertisements. Neither can we expect such omniscience from the designers. Regardless, all of the prior moments can be categorized as noise, whether a clip from a favorite show or a despised ad. In the age of noise, advocates must deal with distracted audiences and an environment that drowns out many messages. One solution, pursued by PETA according to Simonson (2001) as well as a plethora of marketing campaigns, relies upon louder, discordant messages. Yet, while the iPod commercials are certainly loud, the volume does not encompass their strategy. Instead, part of the commercial's rhetorical force relies on a stark contrast from the noise of other broadcasts. The ads sell escape from the surrounding noise, engulfed in a sound and moment of your own. The noise of the previous segment quickly dissolves into the loud, all engulfing visual and auditory sensations. The ads start abruptly, jumping immediately into the song and the swaths of neon color. While the cuts are rapid, the consistency of scene and song creates the impression that, for thirty seconds at least, the viewer experiences a single, coherent moment. The moment drowns out all other sounds and images. The dancers and the artists sing the same tune and dance to the same rhythm, even when not on the same screen. No other words or sounds interrupt the progression or integrity of the song. In a similar fashion, the details of setting evanesce into a solid neon backdrop; the noisy surrounding world becomes deprived of all substance and detail. As Roland Barthes (1972) states, “Colouring the world is always a means of denying it” (p. 94). In short, the commercial jumps out of the television screen into the viewer's world by distinguishing itself from the normal programming.

24. On occasions, painters conveyed shadows or an exterior source of light, but only on the images in the setting they wanted to symbolize as earthly, sinful. Linear perspective and shadow were used by icon artists, but they are part of a general structure dominated by inverted perspective (Ouspensky, 1992b, p. 492).

25. Perhaps his mesmerization explains his trenchant turn to iconoclasm. He dislikes the commercial because it suggests the product is “timeless” rather than “transient junk.” The iPod should not be revered—“Because I'm the one with the eternal soul here.” His comments should sound familiar and illustrate the continued relevance of our discussion.

26. Trubetskoi (1973) states, “This ability is shown in our icons in different ways: sometimes by the turn of the evangelist's head toward an invisible light or spirit, as he momentarily stops his work … sometimes not even by a turn but by the pose of a man entirely immersed in himself … But this listening is always depicted in icons as a turn towards something invisible. This is what gives the evangelists’ eyes their otherworldly expression. They do not see their earthly surroundings” (p. 56).

27. McLuhan's (1964) distinction between hot and cold media, with television representing a cool medium demanding a high level of viewer participation, seems appropriate here. He argues that television constantly addresses the viewer, requiring their intimate participation to complete the image. “In TV, the viewer is the screen” (p. 272). He even concludes the TV image is iconic. For him, television and the icon primarily address the sense of touch rather than sight.

28. Kahney (2005), p. 10)

29. Lukas Hauser, Smash the Ipod, Wired News, 2001, October 23, paragraph 18, http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,47812,00.html. (accessed March 27, 3006).

30. The different uses of the iPod can all be found in (Kahney, 2005).

31. Quoted in Kahney (2005), p. 49).

32. Goodell, Jeff. 2003, December 3. Steve Jobs: The Rolling Stone Interview. In Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 27, 2006, from http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939600/steve_jobs_the_rolling_stone_interview/(last paragraph).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Jenkins

Eric S. Jenkins is a Ph. D. candidate in Speech Communication at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on consumer media