A semiotic phenomenology of visual rhetoric: Communication and perception of attributes of cultural sustainability in the visual environment of public housing

The challenge of communicating ideas of cultural sustainability by visual means is recognized in the design community but rarely studied, in part for the lack of theoretical and methodological strategies to cope with the complexities of visual-human interaction. In this dissertation, an integrated theoretical model of visual communication, referred to as the RSP framework, comprising rhetoric, semiotics, and phenomenology, is constructed. Its assumptions provide theoretical foundations for an inquiry into residents' experiences engaging in the visual phenomenon of "new signage" and "estate art" in Hong Kong public housing estates. The focus of study concerns how and to what extent the design, meanings, and experiences of the phenomenon evoke a sense of cultural sustainability in residents.;A mixed-method "concurrent nested qual+QUAL" research strategy was developed to approach the research problem. The theory-driven methodology embeds semiotics within the dominant strategy of phenomenology. I began with a reflective process of "bracketing," providing a descriptive account of the researcher's experience of the phenomenon. Qualitative interviews were conducted in four estates with 26 participant residents including elderly people, workers, housewives, and students. Standardized open-ended questions elicited participants' readings of designs within the social context. They were "nested" within in-depth conversational questions which generated participants' full descriptions, first-person accounts of visual experiences as interpreted within amore private individual context.;Bracketing identified that a rhetorical situation exists in the semiotic neighborhoods of study estates wherein relocated, resettled residents appear to have "a sense of disorientation" as well as "aspiration to prosper." These sensibilities are addressed through the provision of residential name signs and public art. The nine vignettes extracted from the data are reconstructed descriptions of specific participants' profiles and their unique visual experiences. The socio-semiotic analysis of the design of visual objects entailed seven cultural codes of visuals, including, for example, "innovative hi-tech" and "poetic nostalgia." The codes represent cultural values underpinning the community. Phenomenological reduction of residents' descriptive data resulted in seven phenomenological themes, such as "envisioning progress and prosperity" and "encouraging cultural learning." Together the themes constitute a structure of shared experience, indicating the perceived attributes of cultural sustainability. Further, reflections on the data uncovered five interpretive positions underlying participants' experiences, such as "preparation" and "appreciation." Themes and experiential conditions are the essences of experience without which the perception of cultural sustainability could not have emerged.;A synthesis of findings suggests that the phenomenon is a visual rhetoric seeking the persuasion of values significant to residents through encoded meanings transmitted through design. The communication and perception of attributes that contribute to cultural sustainability of residential community involved residents decoding the meanings of visuals, which evoke thoughts and feelings about the vitality of the community and continuity of Chinese culture. Perceiving cultural sustainability requires residents' thinking, remembering and judging the meanings of one's experience to the self. It is a result of "visuality" - interrelationships among the persuasive power of design messages, signification of visual objects, and viewing experience of people - conditioned by the interpretive positions taken by residents within their social context. The inquiry shows that the communication process can be understood through approaches of rhetoric, semiotics, and phenomenology.;As a result, this dissertation bridges the fields of visual communication and sustainability. It unveils their enhanced social values when these fields are integrated, strengthens their knowledge base especially by its theoretical and methodological implications; and in particular, it pushes forward the new field of study referred to as cultural sustainability.