Thawi Nuea Kaan: A Semiotic Analysis of Buddhist Aesthetics toward Intellectual Art through the Integration of Charles Peirce's Theory

Abstract

     This study aims to analyze the biography and aesthetic dimensions of Buddhist art associated with Thawi Burunakhet through archival and museum media, and to categorize semiotic content for the composition of the documentary song Thawi Nuea Kaan. Employing a document and exhibit based content analysis supplemented by field observation (without primary interviews), the research integrates an intellectualartistic framework with Charles Peirce's semiotic model to extract core meanings and key lexical items that reflect cultural and artistic values. Findings from the semiotic coding distinguishing iconic (formal/visual), indexical (actions/events), and symbolic (cultural/ideological) elementsare used as evidence based source material for creative composition. The study demonstrates a method for translating historically grounded semiotic insights into musical narrative and lyrical structure, thereby producing a documentary soundtrack that is both interpretively rigorous and culturally resonant.
    Results indicate that the biographical and historical sources can be organized into principal themes: professional life, collecting, restoration, Buddhist artistic aesthetics, and honorific recognition. Each theme functions as a semiotic domain that conveys appearance, practice, and cultural value. These semiotic groupings were designed as imaginative environments for composition, enabling the resulting song to operate both as poetic work and as contemporary media that communicates cultural heritage deeply and sustainably. The project thus proposes a pathway for transforming exhibited objects into intellectual experiences through the integration of semiotic analysis and artistic creation.