The Visual Semiotics and Rhetoric of Groupe μ: Opening a Dialogue Between Linguistics, Aesthetics and Cognitive Science

This article presents the semiotics and rhetoric of the Belgian research collective Groupe μ, with a special focus on its contribution to visual semiotics. The distinction between two kinds of visual signs, plastic and “iconic” (or pictorial), is accounted for. The varieties of visual rhetoric according to the analyses of Groupe μ are explained and exemplified. These analyses are instances of an open dialogue between cognitive science and aesthetics, and incentives for its continuation.