Abstract

The paper has as a starting point the theoretical background offered by Jean Baudrillard’s system of objects within a certain environment which is believed to be in a permanent change and expansion. Objects create the sociology of the interior design and any transformation in the ambient mirrors a transformation in the mental structure of its inhabitants. Therefore, the paper is a comparative study of the traditional and modern environment that aims to outline the shifting from the moral to the functional dimension of objects, and to illustrate the manner in which they interact with man’s needs and reflect his way of living. To exemplify these mutations two objects have been selected, the clock and the portrait, in order to reflect the way in which man relates to time through the objects around him. This approach enables us to trace the becoming of these objects from their practical function to a symbolic and meaningful one as part of socio-cultural system. Moreover, the semiotic framework of Jean-Marie Floch will help analyse the four semiotic valorisations of the modern counterparts of the above-mentioned objects, the watch and the photograph, as they appear in the slogans of Rolex and Kodak. Further on, he paper explores Barthes’s conception and understanding of myth as metalanguage through which the dominant power communicates its ideological standpoint and reaches the conclusion that these two objects create, in fact, a modern mythology.