/lit/ - Literature

James Gibson. He invented the theory of 'affordance'. It's very different from the traditional ideas of sign and signified in that there's not necessarily an 'intention' behind the sign. If you see a branch on a tree, that offers an affordance for climbing. The possibility of climbing may not have came to you until your observed the presence of that branch.
It's interesting to think about this in terms of say Parkour, where you will see a city in a completely different way compared to a regular person. It also is very important for Industrial Designers to grasp affordances, things like the concave curves of a drink bottle that afford a place to grip, or distinguishing between a push handle and a pull handle.