The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction… Perceptual Changes

O’Neill, S. (2008) Interactive Media: The Semiotics of Embodied Interaction. London: Springer-Verlag.

“[Gibson’s] Theory of Ecological Perception begins by considering the relationship between living entities that perceive things in the world and the environment that surrounds them. (…) Invariant information (…) specifies the persistence of the environment and of oneself. (…) The perceiver is then aware of her own existence in a persistent environment relative to her own and others’ movements within the environment. This awareness provides us with information about the possibilities for action that the world around us directly affords. (…) Affordances then (…) are an emergent property of the physical relationship between environment and the direct perceptual acts of embodied beings.” (p50)

Annotation

The relationship between ourselves in the world, and the environment that surrounds us at any one time, is an important perceptual one. The environment is always perceptively relative to the person in that environment. They are aware that if they move, spatially and temporally that environment persistently envelope them. The perceptual changes within that environment are what guide and suggest options. How these guides and options within an environment communicate to the person is described as affordances, “an emergent property of the physical relationship between environment and the direct perceptual acts of embodied beings.” (O’Neill, 2008, p50). The calls to action that are afforded are defined within the semiotics of the visual communication.