It took Spinoza and structuralism to teach Deleuze that meaning is not necessarily attributed to the cinematic sign

In his books on the cinema, Gilles Deleuze describes the sign as an expression of semiotic matter. Importantly, expression is a process whereby semiotic matter is molded into form (sign), but this process is not rightfully guided by any structure transcendent to semiotic matter itself. It is the result of matter’s self-modulation. Using an early essay of Deleuze’s called ‘How do we recognize structuralism?’, I take a closer look at the cinema books and unpack exactly what is involved in the process of expression, and the implications of expression for established ideas of the sign and meaning in semiotics.