Reflections on semiotics, visual culture, and pedagogy

Abstract

Art education is reluctantly but steadily shifting from a modernist disciplinebased field towards a more interdisciplinary and semiotic approach to visual culture studies. This interdisciplinary approach to our field connects directly with Peirce's ideas on pragmatism, plays of musement, and especially his notion of the importance of a community of inquiry. This paper will consider the ideas of Charles Sanders Peirce and his followers as they relate to contemporary art education. Semiotics, with its emphasis on codes, signs, and their interactions, is especially appropriate for rethinking the learning and teaching processes in art, as well as parameters which may constrain learning in the art education field.