FLOATING SIGNIFIERS

20th century students of semiotics sometimes refer to floating signifiers, as in "race as a floating signifier." Detached from its referential context, a signifier can be put to the service of almost any referent or any signified.

So what exactly is the referent of this image at the right?

The referent I initially associated with this image is the formula in physics for velocity. Not the meaning of it, just it - the mathematical formula. I recognize it as an equation for solving velocity problems. The difficulty here is that the image of the referent can easily be made to float.

Let's put this another way: with the mechanical reproduction of images came a loss of loyalty among signifiers. I grabbed this image of a physics formula not from a physics classroom but from a television ad for women's athletic shoes where it stood equivalent to this image of a female body climbing onto a motorcycle. Or, to be more precise still, the meaning of the formula was turned into an elaborate PUN which connected the concept of "velocity" (the laws of physics) to the body achieved by applying these laws of physics to exercise - the act of disciplining the body in order to achieve an appearance. On another occasion, we shall explore the Foucaultian themes in this kind of advertising.