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.
Here’s a complete list of Semiofest Sessions:
2025
MEDICAL SEMIOTICS (1/25)
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SIGN (2/25)
SEMIOTICS & SPIRITUALITY (3/25)
SEMIOTICS OF PLACE (4/25)
& more to come
2024
SEMIOTICS & CINEMA (1/24)
SEMIOTICS & MUSIC (2/24)
SEMIOTICS & ETHICS (3/24)
SEMIOTICS & POLITICS (4/24)
LIMINALITY POST-PORTO I (6/24)
LIMINALITY POST-PORTO II (7/24)
FICTIONAL DECODERS (9/24)
ON COLOUR (10/24)
JURI LOTMAN (11/24)
COMMUTATION TEST (12/24)
2023
SEMIOTICS OF SUSTAINABILITY (3/23)
BIOSEMIOTICS: WHAT’S NEXT? (4/23)
AI & SEMIOTICS (6/23)
READING CULTURE: NEW METHODS (7/23)
BODY SEMIOTICS (9/23)
SEMIOTICS & THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD (10/23)
ANALYZING THE UNANALYZABLE (11/23)
2022
[I took 2022 off from coordinating sessions.]
SEMIOTICS & UX (2/22). Dominika Noworolska, Sarah Johnson, Lucia Trezova.
FLASH DECODING (3/22)
SEMIOTICS & BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS (4/22). Anna Clifford (England), Asif Noorani, (England) Shubho Roy (India), Nick Southgate (England). Host: Chris Arning.
10th ANNIVERSARY SEMIOFEST (6/22)
SEMIOTICS AS EXPERT TESTIMONY (9/22): Chris Arning, Kaie Koppel.
2021
SEMIOTIC SQUARE (4/21). Josh Glenn (USA) and Maria Papanthymou (Russia) discussed the uses of the so-called “semiotic square” in our practices — before inviting the attendees to share their own ideas.
ASK THE SEMIOTICIAN (5/21). Luca Marchetti (Italy/France), Gabriela Pedranti (Spain/LatAm), Charles Leech (Canada), and Vladimir Djurovic (China) responded to queries about client management, demonstrating the validity of semiotics, and more.
COVID CODES (6/21). Sónia Marques (Portugal), Seema Khanwalkar (India), Maciej Biedziński (Poland), Ximena Tobi (Argentina), and Wei Fen Lee (Singapore) spoke about their culture-specific contributions to Semiovox’s global COVID CODES study.
R/D/E (7/21). Al Deakin (England), Natasha Delliston (England), and Malcolm Evans (Wales) discussed new and improved ways for semiotic practitioners to deploy the Residual-Dominant-Emergent (RDE) framework.
FUTURING (8/21). Tim Stock (USA), Gemma Jones (England), Malex Salamanques (England), and Hamsini Shivakumar (India) shared their experiences in leveraging non-semiotic methodologies to help clients catch a glimpse of what the future might hold… and also to help shape that future.
BINARIES (9/21): Thierry Mortier (Switzerland), Nick Gadsby (England), and Chris Arning (England) shared their perspectives on the Saussurian notion that binary opposition is the means by which individual elements of a “semiosphere” have meaning.
HIGHS & LOWS OF SEMIOTIC PRACTICE (10/21). We dedicated a session to discussions of the following questions: How did you find your way to doing semiotics? What major challenge(s) do you struggle with as a semiotician? What advice would you give to young person about the highs and lows of an applied semiotics practice?
THINKING WITH OBJECTS (11/21): Sónia Marques (Portugal), Lucia Laurent-Neva (England), and Josh Glenn (USA) shared their approaches to analyzing objects in order to reveal hidden aspects of social reality.
C.S. PEIRCE (12/21): Mariane Cara (Brazil), Chris Barnham (England), and Hamsini Shivakumar (India) shared examples of how they’ve applied the pioneering US semiotician C.S. Peirce’s frameworks in their own practices.