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.

Cape Town/Frankfurt…

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?

INKA CROSSWAITE

My parents enjoyed travelling and so from my first days, we often journeyed around the world. I became intrigued with other places, people, foods, and languages.

Reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince as a teenager, the illustration of a “hat” which was actually a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant triggered a lasting fascination with the way we are preconditioned to understand and interpret the world. Later on, I started reading the works of Sartre, Kafka, Hesse and [the Austrian-American psychologist] Paul Watzlawick. Their writings inspired my thinking about the way we give meaning to life, people, places and objects; and about the importance of communication.

SEMIOVOX

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

INKA CROSSWAITE

At the University of Frankfurt, I studied Sinology, German Literature, and Theatre, Film & Media Studies. These subjects introduced me to semiotic theory; the works of Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, Eco, and Benjamin amongst others were mandatory. I was fascinated by their ideas, models, and thoughts.

Eventually, I decided that I needed to study something more practical — and trained as a medical technologist. I worked at the [German federal agency] Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in an HIV research group. This was exciting work, but the prospect of living in South Africa with my partner made me leave both Germany and this career path.

In South Africa, I went back to school studying Social Anthropology, History of Arts, and Archeology. For my doctoral thesis, I explored the changing meaning of African artefacts as they travel through the world, are sold and later displayed in museums, other public spaces, and in private homes. I was concerned to understand the cultural and social patterns of how we interpret objects in different contexts. In many ways, I had then formulated my approach to applied semiotics without ever thinking that I would be doing it for a living some day.

SEMIOVOX

How did you find your own way to doing semiotics?

INKA CROSSWAITE

I was teaching Anthropology at the University of Cape Town when a colleague there told me that Added Value was looking to hire a semiotician based in South Africa. I thought, “Let’s give it a try.” I was asked to decode the South Africa automobile category, which I was able to do with the help of excellent papers by Malcolm Evans and Ginny Valentine, from which I got a sense of how to apply semiotic theory to decoding brand communications. I worked at Added Value for eight years, then founded IC Semiotics in 2013. 

SEMIOVOX

What are the most important attributes of a good semiotician?

INKA CROSSWAITE

A good semiotician is…

1. A researcher, for whom the most important attributes are curiosity, openness, empathy, imagination, and the wish to dig deep into a subject. Also: self-reflection.
2. An analyst, for whom structured thinking, attention to detail, and patience are essential. 
3. A consultant, who must be pragmatic. While our academic peers can flourish in intellectualism, we need to deliver practical solutions to clients’ needs in a simple and clear manner. 

SEMIOVOX

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

INKA CROSSWAITE

• Clifford Geertz’s essay “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” I’m impressed not only by Geertz’s notion of “thick description,” but also by his smart and conversational writing style.
• The Senses Still by [Greek cultural anthropologist] C. Nadia Seremetakis. Her essays introduced me to a different cultural perspective based on the historical and ethnographic analysis of sensory memory.
• Stuart Hall’s Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. One of the best and most comprehensive explorations of how language, visuals, and discourse work as “systems of representation” to produce meaning constantly constructed by society.

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?

INKA CROSSWAITE

I talk up “cultural insights” rather than “semiotics.”

One persuasive approach is to say: “Qualitative research gives answers to consumer’s needs and perceptions of brands. Yet, culture drives their behaviour — and in order to understand consumers’ relationships with brands it is important to understand the culture that is impacting and influencing them. Understanding culture enables us to unpack unconscious cultural patterns which shape consumer behaviour and attitudes – insights that consumers are not always able to articulate.”

SEMIOVOX

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

INKA CROSSWAITE

I embrace every project as a new challenge — there is always something new to discover. I enjoy digging deep in to a category or a cultural concept to identify the change of codes and cultural change in general. What’s most rewarding is working with clients and/or their creative agencies to implement the most relevant insights of the analysis into brand strategies.

SEMIOVOX

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

INKA CROSSWAITE

I love the work! I am embedded within a network of very interesting and inspiring semioticians and clients. It is great to see semiotics growing, and clients recognising its practical value. 

SEMIOVOX

Peirce or Saussure?

INKA CROSSWAITE

Both…. But one of my key influences is Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist anthropology, and Lévi-Strauss was inspired by Saussure. So I feel closer to Saussure.

SEMIOVOX

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

INKA CROSSWAITE

There is no straightforward way to become a semiotician. Hence, get to know other semioticians, work with them and attend conferences. Be curious, study in an interdisciplinary manner, ‘collect’ as many diverse experiences as possible, train your observation skills, and don’t get stuck in theory.

MAKING SENSE series: MARTHA ARANGO (Sweden) | MACIEJ BIEDZIŃSKI (Poland) | BECKS COLLINS (England) | WHITNEY DUNLAP-FOWLER (USA) | IVÁN ISLAS (Mexico) | WILLIAM LIU (China) | SÓNIA MARQUES (Portugal) | CHIRAG MEDIRATTA (India / Canada) | SERDAR PAKTIN (Turkey / England) | MARIA PAPANTHYMOU (Greece / Russia) | XIMENA TOBI (Argentina) | & many more.

Also see these series: COVID CODES | SEMIO OBJECTS | MAKING SENSE | COLOR CODEX