Bite Size Semiotics

An out of place traffic light

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Perchance I happened on this traffic light the same day I had started reading Discources in Place by Scollon & Wong-Scollon. In particular, I'd just read the part in the book where they discuss that a STOP sign does not mean that the sign painter should stop as soon as they pain the sign, nor should the sign be obeyed when you see it on the street in the back of a utility vehicle. Indeed, the location of the sign tends to carry large parts of a signs meaning.

So in this setting it was fun to run into a traffic light in a place where you don't usually expect a traffic light: within an airport terminal. There was a clarifying text next to it explaining that this is for airport vehicles only, but most people seemed to ignore the lights even without paying attention to the text Perhaps it is natural in such a setting to assume that, as the traffic light is so out of place, normal rules don't apply and it can be ignored? Perhaps a sign too out of place turns into an art piece in peoples' minds?

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