Intermedial cognitive semiotics: Some examples of multimodal cueing in virtual environments

In this chapter, intermediality is explored from an interdisciplinary perspective that uses neuroscience as well as cognitive-semiotic concerns and insights from online digital communication, presenting it as a process where biophysical, technological, and interpersonal factors interact. Shared attention as well as spatial and temporal cueing – eye contact and the sonic modality – are explored from a task-oriented and social interactive dimension. The spatiotemporal impact of the mediating context is highlighted by moving from the role of visual cueing, in a brief reference to Al Davison’s autobiographical graphic novel The spiral cage, to a more detailed analysis of Annie Abrahams’ (2010) online project A fragmented relation, where cueing is dependent not just on spatial frames but also on the temporal dynamics introduced by the aural dimension recorded in an online environment. The paper tangentially touches upon the role of affect in communication.