Asun López-Varela Azcárate

By Anjan Sen and Asun López-Varela

Part of the book: Social Sciences and Cultural Studies

By Asunción López‐Varela Azcárate

Part of the book: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Semiotics

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

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 - Interdisciplinary Considerations [Working title]

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