Is art a form of communication? If so, what does art express or represent? How should we interpret the meaning of works created by more than one artist? Is art an adaptation, via natural selection? In what ways is art similar to—and different from—language? In Art as Communication: Aesthetics, Evolution, and Signaling, I employ information theory, the theory of evolution, and the newly developed sender-receiver model of communication to reason about art, aesthetic behavior, and their communicative nature. In this book, I consider whether art, from a biological point of view, is the province of only humans or whether animals might reasonably be said to create art. Examining the work of evolutionary biologists, art theorists, linguists, and philosophers—including Charles Darwin, Stephen Davies, H. Paul Grice, and others—I assess how well different theories of communication explain meaning and expression in art and argue that art is much more continuous with other forms of communication than previously thought.


Book Outline:
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 -  Introduction
Chapter 1. Theories of Representation and Expression in Art
Chapter 2. Signs, Signals, and Meaning
Chapter 3. Group Communication​
Chapter 4. Art as Communication
Chapter 5. Art and Evolution
​Chapter 6. Maps, Blueprints, and Other Communicative Devices
​-  Postscript

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Now available. Published by Lexington Books (an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield).

Rowman & Littlefield advertisement page: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666924367/Art-as-Communication-Aesthetics-Evolution-and-Signaling
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"Although defended by commentators like Tolstoy, the notion of art as communication has not received much attention by philosophical aestheticians as of late, but as the title signals, Art as Communication intends to redress that lacuna. Shawn Simpson puts his theory in the context of traditional theories of art as well as setting forth the approach to communication he intends to apply to art—the sender/responder model—in terms of its historical antecedents in addition to cutting-edge contemporary research. Though the material is complex, the clarity of the text is exemplary and the generous use of artistic examples engrossing in their own right. Not only is Simpson’s book a novel challenge to the debate among philosophers of art. It can serve as a welcoming introduction for ordinary consumers of art who are curious about its nature."
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— Noël Carroll, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York


“With refreshing frankness and simplicity, Art as Communication returns us to age-old questions about what matters most about art and sheds new light on them by bringing to bear a model of communication, the ‘sender-receiver’ model, that is more biologically-grounded than its traditional philosophical competitors. His discussion is grounded in a wealth of specific examples drawn from a wide-range of artforms. Shawn Simpson is admirably patient and thorough in building its case that the sender-receiver model affords a more comprehensive and unified understanding of individual and collective communication across the arts and across the human/animal divide.”

— Kristin Boyce, Vanderbilt University



                                    Errata/Corrections to the Printed Text:

Note: Most of these errors (as far as I can tell) were not in the final edited manuscript and seem to have been introduced during the printing/type-setting process. I'm currently working with the publisher to correct this...


Page 50. Bottom line. The endnote reads 56 but should indicate endnotes 5 and 6.

Page 85.  Line 20.  Correction:     Hunter 10%, Elk 90%

Page 85.  Figure 2.9.   Figure was larger in the original text:

                                         <[Psig(E1)/P(E1)], [Psig(H2)/P(H2)]>

Page 86.  Figure 2.10.  Figure was larger in the original text:

                                              [Psig(state 1), Psig(state 2)]

Page 89.  Line 29.  Correction:     Jeffrey Barrett is at UC Irvine. He is not at UC Riverside.

Page 162. Line 125.  Correction:     'she' should be he.

Page 249. Second paragraph. Correction: the first instance of 'Whether' should be What.

​Page 249. Third paragraph. Line 5: Correction: 'are' should be is.



Image Notes:
The details of some figures are a bit tricky to see in the black and white version of the text. This makes it difficult to understand some of the points I make using those images. I've included color versions of those figures below. All images are in color in the e-book version of the text.

Image credit: "Galactic Broken Yoke" (2022) [mixed media]. Michael Tapia & Shawn Simpson