Transgressive Pic Assignment

I located this sign in a secluded storage closet at my place of work, Goldstein Student Center south campus at Syracuse University.  One day when I was instructed to take out the garbage I came across this sign.  As I walked into the closet I dumped the garbage out and turned around to exit the room.  This was my first week at work so I was still trying to become accustomed to my surroundings.  That is when I saw the sign on the back of the door.  The room was depressing and it looked as though not many people ever entered it.  It smelt like rotten garbage and it was full of old recycling bins that looked to have been sitting there for ages.  This is probably why management didn’t take action in trying to take down the sign and put up a new one.  As I read the sign I noticed that two words were crossed out, but these two words changed the entire meaning of the sign.  I instantly thought that the person who crossed out the words was very clever and intuitive.  I wouldn’t consider this sign to be transgressive in nature, but since words were crossed out (meaning of sign changed), I do consider this sign to be transgressive.  I find it interesting how just crossing out two words can make a sign go from being a (symbol, icon or index) to being transgressive.  A transgressive sign means a sign that is in the wrong place and contradicts its surroundings.  Another example of this can be seen in the works of Bansky, when he wrote on the wall next to a security camera, “Who are you looking at.”  I believe that the employees of Goldstein Student Center have made this sign for the purpose of designating the storage room as a place to smoke.  Probably, they have been able to get away with smoking while on the job and they want to tell others they can do the same.  I feel that the community of the Goldstein Student Center (managers, students, employees, janitors and other people who visit) decide if the sign is transgressive or not.  I don’t believe any public uproar has occurred over this sign.  If there was I am sure management would have taken it down by now.  For this week’s research I wanted to take my own pictures and find a sign that is transgressive in my own life.  Sure I could have looked up a sign on Google images, but finding a sign in real life was a lot more appealing and interesting to me personally.  I look forward to studying transgressive semiotics in the future; I am really interested in this concentration of study.

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