What makes a semiotician tick? SEMIOVOX’s Josh Glenn has invited his fellow practitioners in the field of commercial semiotics, from around the world, to answer a few revealing questions.

Paris…

SEMIOVOX

When you were a child/teen, how did your future fascination with symbols, cultural patterns, interpreting “texts,” and getting beneath the surface of daily life manifest itself?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

When I was a child (and it’s the same today!), the most difficult thing was to understand why adults would say one thing but then do another. How could the language, the words, be so disconnected from reality? I never understood. It was my first “human behavior fascination”….

SEMIOVOX

Describe your first encounter(s) with the theory and practice of semiotics.

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

I initially set out to study Physics. In a class on Science History, we were assigned to read an essay on the topic by Roland Barthes. I thought it was awful — meaningless. I didn’t understand a word! But then later, as I went on to study Modern Literature and then Linguistics, I rediscovered Barthes via Mythologies. Wow! For whatever reason, this time I completely got it — in fact, it was an epiphany. I’ve read and re-read it many times, and will keep doing so. It’s hard to explain, but I seem to read it from a new point of view each time.

SEMIOVOX

How did you find your own way to doing semiotics?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

I was passionate about Linguistics, but wanted to take the discipline further — into “living or embodied” knowledge, by applying these theories to the body in movement and human behavior. I discovered Paul Ekman [a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions] and Desmond Morris [the zoologist who studied human behavior and evolution]. Inspired by their research, I decided to apply the structure and methods of semiotics to it.

SEMIOVOX

What are the most important attributes of a good semiotician?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

Structure, method, going deeper, and good communication skills — for sharing her treasures and discoveries!

SEMIOVOX

What three books about semiotics have you found the most useful and enlightening in your own work?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

• I mentioned Mythologies — which teaches us that every object around you can teach you something about you, your culture, and your society.
• Jean-Marie Floch’s Sous les signes les stratégies [translated as Semiotics, Marketing and Communication: Beneath the Signs, the Strategies]. It is so well-structured and wise… c’est incroyable.
• Joseph Courtés’ Introduction à la sémiotique narrative et discursive. Courtés established algorithms of human behavior — for example, by observing of people standing near coffins that those who stand the closest tend to be the most expressive, and also to wear the most black.

And I must mention two other books…

• Odilon Cabat’s Sous le sceau de la marque — which applies [the comparative linguistics and mythology scholar] Georges Dumézil’s analytic framework to brand communications, from cheese packaging to logotypes. It’s an amazing work — I love it.
• The psychologist James W. Pennebaker’s The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us. Pennebaker finds a person’s use of “low-level words,” such as pronouns, indicative of sex, age, and personality traits. What a pleasure to discover that you speak the way that you are.

SEMIOVOX

When someone asks you to describe what you do, what is your “elevator pitch”? How do you persuade a skeptical client to take a chance on using this tool?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

“Where everyone else sees things, a semiotician sees meaning. Would you like to see meaning too?”

SEMIOVOX

What specific sorts of semiotics-driven projects do you find to be the most enjoyable and rewarding?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

Here are four such projects currently on my mind.

• In April, for my client Winamax [France’s largest online poker site], I’ll do a training session about nonverbal communication and behavior — one that will involve the world’s best poker players. I can’t wait for this workshop.
• I’m fascinated by language and philosophy. During a recent project for one client, an international leader in the Beauty space, I was asked to analyze a particular word that’s quite ordinary to French people… but controversial in other markets around the world. I’d like to find semantic solutions for those kind of problematics.
• Since 2019, here in France, the so-called Loi Pacte legislation has aimed to foster entrepreneurship and innovation, facilitating the growth of businesses and creating jobs. Which means there’s plenty of work to be had in helping businesses define their purpose with the right language.
• I enjoy working on brand strategy and content — for which I typically employ Greimas’s model for the generative trajectory of meaning in discourses. I’ve added Jungian archetypes to the model — a revelation.

SEMIOVOX

What frustrates you about how semiotics is practiced and/or perceived, right now?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

I find it frustrating that so few people know what semiotics is….

SEMIOVOX

Peirce or Saussure?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

I love Saussure’s structuralism — a “squared” vision, with no uncertain terms, in which everything is clear, aligned, obvious. But I like Peirce because he is a philosopher, one wants to deal with world visions and experimentations.

SEMIOVOX

What advice would you give to a young person interested in this sort of work?

ELODIE LAYE MIELCZARECK

Read a lot — papers, articles, books — across a wide range of topics, fields, and authors. Read writers even if (especially if) you disagree with them… it’s a great way to force yourself to see things from a different perspective.

In my own reading, I have become more and more impressed with postmodern philosophers and sociologists. Bruno Latour, with his question of Where to land? [the French title of his book Down to Earth is Où atterrir?]; Michel Maffesoli’s prediction of “the time of the tribes” [his book Les Temps des tribus argued that mass society would result in re-tribalization]; Judith Butler’s concept of “agency”; Gilles Lipovetsky’s concept of “sacred authenticity”… they’re all so accurate!

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