I’ve been reading Mythologies recently. The book is really all about values and associations and how one thing, or type of thing, becomes associated with a set of values in the public’s mind. I didn’t have these thoughts in the forefront of my mind when shopping today but once home and looking at my images Barthes immediately came to mind.
Most of you will, I imagine, see the as a photo of the O2 arena and it is. Others will think of it as the Millennium Dome and remember the media discussions about the money spent on it (link) and the Millennium event where we saw the VIPs arrive late and the Queen and Prime Minister Blair hold hands and sing Auld Lang Syne. Yet others might associate it with the Millennium bug that was supposed to disabled all our computers – and that failed to appear. So lots of associations.
My personal associations are of taking my children to the Dome show that was open for about a year after the Dome opened to the public but before it was sold and adapted as a performance venue. So when I look at this photo I see much more than the simple vista because of its many and varied connotations.
anomiepete 