Affordance as a method in visual cultural studies based on the theory and tools of vitality semiotics. A historiographic and comparative study of formal aesthetics, iconology, and affordance using the example of Albrecht Dürer´s Christ Among the Doctors from 1506

In a historiographical and methodological comparison of Formal Aesthetics and Iconology with the method of Affordance, the latter is to be introduced as a new method in Visual Cultural Studies. In the extension to epistemologically relevant aspects referring to style and history of artefacts, communicative and thus action-relevant and, beyond that, decision-relevant aspects of artefacts will become important. In this respect, it is the share of artifacts in life that the new method aims to uncover. The basis for this concern is the theory and methodological tools of Visual Semiotics, which I have already presented. A direct comparison of the three methods based on the same example should clarify the points of contact and the respective performance of the methods. For this purpose, the Christ among the Doctors of Albrecht Dürer from 1506 will be used, which was already examined in 1905 by the prominent representative of Formal Aesthetics Heinrich Wölfflin and at last 1943 by the founder of Iconology Erwin Panofsky. With the new method the communicative-action and decision relevant aspects and thus their share in life should be shown.