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 28th March (at 2 pm UK time)…

SEMIOTICS & SPIRITUALITY

The intellectual, but also physical and emotional experience of doing semiotics not only dilutes our sense of certainty, but can engender in us a feeling of unreality — which is not dissimilar to those experiences that might be described as mystical, sublime, or spiritual. Although (most) semioticians are not mystics, like spiritual seekers we are very much in pursuit of the unknown, perhaps even the ineffable or unfathomable. Inspired by such insights, Adelina Vaca has invited three colleagues to offer perspectives on the meaning, and the lived experience, of “spirituality.”

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

Our sessionists:

• ROMÁN ESQUEDA has 30 years of experience helping brands develop persuasive messaging and design. Director of Synapsen, a qualitative marketing research company in Mexico City, he has developed qualitative methodologies using Peircean semiotics, Rhetoric, and Cognitive Neuroscience.

• MALEX SALAMANQUES is a British-Venezuelan designer and creative strategist. With 20+ years at the intersection of semiotics, culture, and speculative futures, she pioneered frameworks shaping global and disruptive Latam brands. She is a director at Space Doctors, dreams through Futureña—her Latam Futures observatory—and is a fellow at the School of Critical Design.

• ALFREDO TRONCOSO is director of the semiotics division at De la Riva Group, one of the top quant & qual research companies working from Mexico. Alfredo has taught Greek philosophy, rhetoric, and semiotics at universities including UNAM and Tec de Monterrey; and he has worked with such brands as Corona, BBVA, and Vans. In June, Penguin will publish México Rifado 2.0, a book on the country’s emergent codes that he has coauthored with Gabriela de la Riva.

Session host: ADELINA VACA is Head of Comparative Culture Studies at De la Riva Group. She has done extensive ethnographic and semiotic work with migrant communities in the US, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Her publication, Hispanic Game, focuses on the dynamics of cultural clashing in hyper-diverse communities.

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