Connotation is where visual signs acquire ideology by intersecting with cultural meaning structures.

Evidence

Reciprocity. No thing or event has a fixed, intrinsic meaning; its meaning only emerges through interaction with other things or events. This is equally true of the particular items within any cultural system, of the individual’s relationship to any given piece of culture, and of the individual’s actions in society. … A fundamental circularity is involved in all cultural systems. No legal precept is valid in itself, but only in relation to other legal precepts. A line has no intrinsic length; it can be measured only by comparing it with another line. The validity of any scientific or philosophic proposition depends on its relation to another proposition, the validity of which ultimately depends on the first. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 72 (#expands, via linked claim)

Both also maintain that “ideology” is not a simple form of false consciousness, to be explained as a set of myths or simple false constructions in the head. All societies require specific ideologies, which provide those systems of meaning, concepts, categories, and representations which make sense of the world, and through which men come to “live” (albeit unconsciously, and through a series of “misrecognitions”), in an imaginary way, their relation to the real, material conditions of their existence (which are only representable to them, as modes of consciousness, in and through ideology). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 628 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Ideological unity forms through connotative condensation and an axial interpellation; Connotative codes link visual signs to ideology, history, and power.; Misunderstandings at the connotative level require reference to social power and ideology. (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Meaning in culture emerges only through interaction with other elements #expands (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 72
• Misunderstandings at the connotative level require reference to social power and ideology. #expands (0.70)
• Ideology is a material system of meaning, not merely false consciousness #expands (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 628