This book explores the art's transformation in an increasingly industrialized world, challenging traditional boundaries between artistic creation and industrial production. By introducing an innovative semiotic approach to aesthetics, the work provides a comprehensive framework for understanding art's evolving role in contemporary society.

At a time when artistic practices are increasingly intertwined with industrial processes, this study presents a new methodology for analyzing meaning across diverse artistic expressions. The author skillfully navigates the complex terrain where creativity meets industrial production, revealing how art continues to generate significance beyond purely aesthetic considerations.

Bridging the gap between theoretical analysis and practical understanding, the book reimagines art as a dynamic system of meaning-making that transcends traditional disciplinary constraints. It offers scholars, artists, and cultural theorists a revolutionary lens through which to examine the intricate relationships between creativity, industrialization, and cultural expression.

Zhao Yiheng is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Sichuan University, specialising in semiotics, narratology and formal theory. He is the author of Principles and Deduction of Semiotics, Generalised Narratology, Philosophical Semiotics: The Formation of the World of Meaning, and Art Semiotics: Meaning Analysis of Art Forms

Translated by Liu Jia, associate professor and supervisor of postgraduates in the College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Sichuan University. She has long been engaged in translation education, research and practice, and was appointed as the 7th director of Translators Association of Sichuan, and the 6th and 7th director of Chengdu Translators Association; translated publicity documents and materials for many departments of Sichuan province and Chengdu city, and participated in a number of large-scale translation projects, counting above one million words of translation and reviewing services; published the Chinese versions of Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative (2025), Narrative Theory, Literature and New Media: Narrative Minds and Virtual Worlds (2025).