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 December 27th (at 2 pm UK time)…

COMMUTATION TEST

When we swap out a marketing campaign or brand’s signifiers for close alternatives, which signifiers are revealed to be meaningful… and which meaningless? L’udmila Lacková Bennett has invited semioticians from various fields to discuss the “commutation test,” an overlooked methodology from structural semiology that could prove a useful tool for commercial semiotics. 

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

Our sessionists:

• TATIANA JARAMILLO is a designer, semiotician, researcher, speaker, and creative strategy consultant based in Turin. She leads innovation and strategic-planning mission-driven projects for global brands.  Her work is focused on environmental, social and governance principles application.
• BRIAN KHUMALO is a Ph.D. student in anthropology at the University of Florida. His research interests span a range of topics within human ecology, cognitive anthropology, and biosemiotics. He has worked on related issues, including fisheries management, cognitive mapping, and local tenure systems in Tanzania, Seychelles, France, and the Solomon Islands.
• ALEC KOZICKI is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu. His thesis constructs a transdisciplinary approach to give insight on how we, as creators and users, are living within technology. In 2023 Alec established Semiozic, a semiotic consultancy.
• NICOLA ZENGIARO is a biosemiotician and expert in animal studies and ecosemiotics. He is a researcher for the CULT-UP (Upcycling and Cultural Heritage) project, lecturer at the Scuola Holden in Turin, and editor of the journals Animal Studies and Animot.

Session host: L’UDMILA LACKOVÁ BENNETT teaches linguistics, semiotics, and digital humanities at Palacký University in Czechia. She is an executive member of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies and vice-director of the International Semiotics Institute. She is editor-in-chief of Linguistic Frontiers, associate editor of Biosemiotics, and associate editor of the book series Numanities. 

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