Semiotic Phenomenology of Visual Rhetoric

The challenge of communicating ideas of cultural§sustainability by visual means was rarely studied for§the lack of theoretical/methodological approaches to§cope with the visual-human interaction. In this book,§a theoretical framework comprising rhetoric,§semiotics, phenomenology, and a mixed-method§"concurrent nested qual+QUAL" strategy, were§developed to explore residents' experience engaging§with the visual phenomenon of public graphics and§public art in public housing. Its focus concerns how§design, meaning, and experience of visuals evoked in§residents a sense of cultural sustainability. The§study identifies a rhetorical situation in the§semiotic neighborhoods of housing, that communication§and perception of cultural sustainability involved§the rhetorical encoding of intended meanings into§designs, which residents decoded, generating cultural§meaning that evoked thoughts, feelings about the§vitality of their community, continuity of culture -§result of "visuality," interrelationship among§design persuasion, visual signification, viewing§experience. This book bridges the fields of§communication and sustainability, pushes forward the§new area of study - cultural sustainability.