ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book investigates the aesthetics and multimodality from a broad perspective and across several domains: education, fine and popular art, and digital media. It discusses the alternative views on multimodality and aesthetics. The book examines the monument offered to all the communities that lost some of their young ones in the right-wing terrorist attack in Norway in July 2011. It explores how social semiotic multimodal analysis can contribute to understanding the social dynamics in the regulatory practices shaping the aesthetics of the visual landscapes of our public spaces. The book discusses how the aesthetics of the multimodal task may align with the norms of science, or come into tension with such norms. It also examines Instagram's photo filters as a case of semiotic technology.
