Visual and Symbolic Meaning of Locality Through Cultural Product of Klong Lat Mayom Floating Market Community

Abstract

This research was to analyze the content of locality and method to symbolically communicate locality through cultural commodities focusing on the process of analyzing the meaning from the tourist commodities of Klong Lat Mayom floating community along with the framework based on semiotic theories and the in-depth information collection in the real phenomena to understand the contexts related to the research issues. The findings reveal that the locality reflected in the cultural commodities had 3 content issues, namely, 1) naturalism of life associated with water without dependency on technology and the love in the value of trees as the component, 2) traditional way of life which was simple with handicraft as the prime livelihood, and 3) in-trend culture by which the reconstruction of old things and diversity were presented on the commodities. Symbolic communication was done through 3 forms, namely, 1) paradigmatic communication which was the results of using the parts to communicate, 2) intertextuality by using clues of old things to create value with the new meaning, and 3) construction of opposites or bipolarity to clearly differentiate between urban and rural societies. The research findings could expand the perspective on the use of local culture as the factor to enhance the capacity of tourism to assure its development and sustainability.