I’m coordinator of Semiofest’s series of informal online “sessions.” These events are intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community.

Coming up on September 10th (at 2 pm UK time)…

BINARIES

One of the founders of semiotics, Ferdinand de Saussure pronounced that meaning is made through difference. Semioticians of many schools have since then run with that idea. Structuralism was based on the idea of understanding culture via universal opposites. The evolution of theory in the 1960s, such as post-structuralism challenged, downplayed or problematised binary opposites in many different aspects. It is now said by some that we live in a ‘post binary’ era. Ideas such as liminality and super hybridity are cited to argue they represent a new cultural aesthetic and the Culture Wars also plays a part. But how about binary opposites in applied semiotics in 2021? Are binaries still relevant and meaningful in our work today? We have a panel of three who all have an informed perspective on the topic of binary opposites.

Get tickets (suggested donations only) at the link above.

Our sessionists:

• NICK GADSBY is a Commercial Semiotician and Cultural Analyst, as well as lecturer in Cultural Anthropology at UCL, and founder of semiotics and brand strategy agency, The Answer. With The Answer, he has innovated a number of unique semiotic methods, including Oculog, an approach designed to analyse consumer images. Nick has worked in commercial research and brand strategy for over 20 years and he has worked with BBC, Sky, Google, Microsoft, P&G, GSK, Diageo, Coca Cola, Beiersdorf, Mondelez, Walgreen Boots Alliance, Tesco, O2, TfL. He is also an experienced conference speaker at MRS Annual Conference ESOMAR, and at events such as AQR and the Mindshare Huddle.

• THIERRY MORTIER works as a visual artist (BE/SE) as well as a senior semiotician at Kantar Sweden’s Sensemiotics department, which consults on making sensorial and semiotic insights actionable in business. He has been a recurring speaker at the Semiofest conferences (2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018) and at The Summer School of Semiotics Tartu (2017, 2019). In 2018 Differentiated non-differentiation: A diagrammatical approach to the trialectics of difference was published in Semiotica. Mortier’s main research focus is to approach semiotics diagrammatically i.e. can it be drawn?

Session host: CHRIS ARNING is Co-Founder of Semiofest and originator of the Semiotic Thinking Group on Linked In. He was head of semiotics at Flamingo Research and founded Creative Semiotics back in 2010. As a consultant he has worked on hundreds of commercial semiotics projects and has clocked up over 30,000 hours of semiotics practice. He has led large projects for BBC News, Boots, BMW Mini, Unilever, Microsoft, Kellogg’s, Radio Centre and the Government of Estonia. He also has a strong interest in education. He devised and taught the MA course Brands and Meaning at University of Warwick and most recently he developed a regular online course – How to Do Semiotics in Seven Weeks.

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS: R/D/E | BINARIES | SEMIOTICS & UX | BODY SEMIOTICS | AI & SEMIOTICS | SEMIOTICS & CINEMA | FICTIONAL DECODERS | ON COLOUR | & more.

Also see these international semio series: COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | MAKING SENSE | COLOR CODEX | DECODER | CASE FILE