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Dumbs for Safety

There’s nothing quite like a safety campaign that doesn’t consider what it communicates unconsciously through semiotics and messaging. This is classically displayed in the Mums for Safety campaign . It doesn’t matter how you ‘spin’ the framing and priming of this campaign its message promotes the opposite of what it seeks to uphold. Of course …

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Gesture in Risk Matters

  A gesture is an embodied communication that signals a bodily sign with or without language. When we wave goodbye or shake hands on ‘hello’ we communicate symbolically which is the power of embodied communication. Whether the ‘pat on the back’ is a metaphor or a physical gesture, it conveys more than descriptive (phatic) language. …

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Why Metaphors Matter in Risk

  We all use metaphors in how we speak and communicate to each other. Metaphor is poetic language that requires imagination to understand how a bridge is created for understanding. A metaphor is a mechanism that uses an image to convey meaning about something else (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor ). Essentially a metaphor is a paradox, we try …

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The Search for Meaning in Safety Models

The Search for Meaning in Safety Models There is a huge chasm between three things: the intent and design (assumed philosophy) of a model, the semiotic diffusion of the model and what humans make of the model. Models and symbols are not neutral nor objective. All models are semiotics and as such seek to explain …

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Symbols Matter

Symbols Matter We learnt this week that symbols matter. The unprecedented protest of signatures on change.org this week (Defend Our Opera House: Support Louise Herron) demonstrates this. In less that a week over 300,000 signatures were gathered against the NSW Government’s decision to project advertising for a horse race on the Sydney Opera House. It …

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