Chapters authored
Cognitive Semiotics: An Overview By Asun López-Varela Azcárate
This chapter revises evolving theories on cognition in relation to semiotics, the transdisciplinary study and doctrine of sign systems, and meaning-making. Cognition entails very complex networks of biological processes and actions that encompass perception, attention, manipulation of objects, memory mechanisms, and the formation of knowledge by means of direct experience as well as by learning from others, for which forms of communication and comprehension are also necessary. In view of this complexity, many different disciplines are involved in the study of cognition. These include neuroscience, anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, semiotics, linguistics, and more recently, computational intelligence, information processing, and neural networks used in machine learning, to name but a few. The chapter opens with an introduction to the field of cognitive semiotics and continues with a brief presentation of the interdisciplinary evolution of the 4Es. It also includes an in-depth discussion of Peircean semiotics in relation to the approaches known as wide cognition.
Part of the book: Mind and Matter
Perspective Chapter: Intermedial Comparative Literature – From the Sister-Arts Debate to the Twentieth-Century Avant-Gardes By Asun López-Varela Azcárate
This chapter traces an overview of the evolution of the ekphrastic exchanges among the so-called sister-arts until the emergence of the concept of the total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) and the artistic syncretism of twentieth-century avant-gardes. The discussion is framed within Intermedial Studies, an interdisciplinary area that merges aspects of semiotics, communication studies and comparative literature, among other disciplines. The chapter focuses on the major technological shifts that have shaped the discussion. It does not contemplate the digital convergence, which is explored in the chapter “Literature Review on Intermedial Studies from Analogue to Digital” as part of InTech volume The Intermediality of Contemporary Visual Arts.
Part of the book: Comparative Literature
Literature Review on Intermedial Studies: From Analogue to Digital By Asun López-Varela Azcárate
This chapter traces an overview of the evolution of the research on Intermedial Studies in the last two decades. It expands the research presented in the InTech volume Comparative Literature. Interdisciplinary Considerations, in a chapter entitled ‘Intermedial Comparative Literature: from the Sister-Arts Debate to the twentieth century Avant-gardes’. The literature review offers a description of the major interdisciplinary contributions that have shaped the field of Intermedial Studies, with areas such as media and communication studies, art history, and the visual arts, including theater, dance and performance, sequential art (comics, graphic novels), photography, radio, film studies, electronic literature, videogames and Artificial Intelligence.
Part of the book: The Intermediality of Contemporary Visual Arts
Techno-Poïesis and Intermedial Semiosis in David O’Reilly’s Videogame Everything By Asunción López-Varela Azcárate
Building on recent research in posthumanist and neomaterialist thought, the study considers a techno-poetic consciousness that blurs the distinction between the natural and the artificial (human-made) and pays attention to small but significant natural elements, silica in particular, and their deep influence on the development of human life and, more recently, digital culture. Adopting an intermedial semiotic approach, the chapter interweaves perspectives from semiotics, art, and mythology to analyse Everything, a videogame created by Irish filmmaker and game developer David O’Reilly. The game and its short video serve as a case study in the evolving landscape of interactive gaming. By shifting player perception through spatial immersion and scale traversal, Everything fosters a relational understanding of existence and challenges anthropocentric perspectives, with implications for eco-cultural education and gamification trends. In this way, the chapter discusses the evolving digital spaces of artistic creation.
Part of the book: Literature as an Art Form
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