ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the textbook is transformed by computer technology which considers the fundamental philosophical shift to the curriculum. Ligature's principal of binding visual and verbal elements in book form only came to be fully realized by de-materializing that text in the neutral but infinitely plastic electronic space of the computer. In shifting to a semiotic perspective one can see the culture and economy of the textbook design and production as an artifact of this system. In the Visual Turn this meant looking at the development of an instructional textbook as a project largely inspired and directed by graphic designers. The Visual Learning strand, which reflected the larger aesthetic intentions of the Ligature designers, also recognized such necessity, by providing a basic framework for its cultivation. Stephen Kosslyn's work in visual cognition has successfully articulated the theoretical basis for accepting 'visual mental imagery' as fundamental to cognitive processing.
