The hosts of Semiofest Warsaw 2026 have extended the deadline for presentation proposals — until November 23rd. Semiofest Sessions coordinators Josh Glenn and Adelina Vaca recently asked the team a few questions about the forthcoming conference and its metaphorical theme: VISCOSITY.
JOSH & ADE
Please tell us a bit about the Semiofest Warsaw team…
PAULINA GOCH-KENAWY
I’m a Warsaw-based semiotician and co-founder of CultureTellers. A long-time Semiofest participant, I’m now co-organizing the 2026 edition, bringing the same curiosity to decoding culture as to my lifelong passion for writing fiction.
MACIEJ BIEDZIŃSKI
I’m an applied brand semiotician and cultural strategist, based in Warsaw. Together with Paulina I’ve co-founded CultureTellers — a semiotic research boutique and consultancy. And I’m a co-organizer of Semiofest Warsaw 2026.
ANIA ŚCIECHOWSKA
I’m a strategic marketer with a philosophical mindset. I have over 20 years in insights across home furnishing, FMCG, and pharma. I love turning research into action and spotting the patterns that shape human choices. I’m always curious about the why behind decisions. Big sci-fi fan and a proud Trekkie.
MARCIN KLAUS
I’m a qualitative researcher and co-founder of Insight Shot. I explore mental and cultural shifts that shape everyday thought and behavior. With a background in mathematics, psychology, and Lacanian psychoanalysis, I track how people speak, desire, and narrate meaning.
ANNA RABCZUK
I’m a graphic designer and sociologist by education, visual storyteller by profession, an educator promoting spontaneous creativity, an advocate of a hands-on approach, and a lover of all things rare.
JOSH & ADE
How do the five of you know each other?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
We’re a group of friends and collaborators whose paths have been crossing for decades. Some of us first met on research projects, others during philosophical workshops or at art exhibitions. Over time, we’ve shared conference stages, brainstormed strategies, and even vacationed together. Paulina and Maciej co-founded CultureTellers, a hub for cultural insights and semiotics. Many of us have partnered on projects through that network. These professional and personal connections span more than 20 years and countless conversations about life, meaning, media, and culture.
JOSH & ADE
Why host a Semiofest in Warsaw?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
Warsaw is our city, whether we were born here, grew up here or chose it later in life. It is a city of contrasts and layers, and we want to share its energy with the Semiofest community.
The “un-conference” in the Polish capital will serve as a platform for local hubs to connect with the international community, share knowledge, and foster future collaborations. This can lead to the development of a strong network of semiotics professionals, connecting Central and Eastern Europe with the broader global community. We also aim to bring a more international and innovative approach to cultural analysis as an inspiring point of view for the Polish research community.
JOSH & ADE
When we learned that the 2026 Semiofest theme would be VISCOSITY, we were intrigued and excited. Are we correct in assuming that you’re deploying this scientific term as a metaphor for a system’s resistance (or openness) to change and transformation?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
Yes, that can be one of the interpretations of our theme! However, when we we first discussing viscosity internally, we were amazed how rich, open to interpretations and broad this metaphor can be. That’s why we are so excited to explore it further with Semiofest community.
Viscosity comes from physics, but it is also a great way to think about culture today. Neither solid nor liquid, neither fluid nor fixed. It slows things down, makes signs stick, and sometimes prevents them from letting go.
When we think about viscuous phenomena, two qualities stand out: thickness and stickiness.
Thickness signals density and resistance — slowing down, intensifying, concentrating. It can show up in your new everyday ritual aimed at reclaiming meaning, in curated cultural choices in a world of excess, or the self-focus of neural networks in human or machine learning processes. Yet it can also create obstacles: clogged systems, garbage islands pressing against the flow of life.
Stickiness on the other hand highlights how things and ideas cling. You may see it in creative recombinations of signs, in hybrid cultural mosaics that open new possibilities and hold together against all odds, in bots testing the pull of conspiracy theories, or in stereotypes that refuse to fade. Stickiness can enable hopeful connections, but also reinforce exclusion.
JOSH & ADE
Thank you for that helpful explanation! What sorts of VISCOSITY-themed presentations do each of you hope that the conference will feature?
PAULINA GOCH-KENAWY
I’m deeply interested in the tension between speed and depth in today’s culture — in what resonates, what sticks only for a fleeting moment because it’s fresh and appealing, and what endures over time, for better or worse, giving us either grounding or resistance. In this sense, viscosity becomes a fascinating lens: It captures the cultural forces that slow us down, make meanings linger, and create friction in an otherwise fast-moving world. It’s about how ideas, symbols, and emotions resist speed — how they thicken, persist, and shape our collective experience. I’d especially love examples from today’s literature — that would make it even better!
MACIEJ BIEDZIŃSKI
I see viscosity as a potent metaphor that invites proposals from across the many places semiotics is practiced. For example, it can inspire biosemiotic reflections on how species form sticky assemblages, enabling entangled lives and communication; but it an also inspire us to think about the semiosic mechanisms by which meanings congeal around brands, places, nations etc. Between these poles, I hope we will receive proposals that test the metaphor in various fields — for example education, creative and artistic practice, AI and the digital sphere, as well as media, traditional culture or everyday lives.
ANIA ŚCIECHOWSKA
One of the core values of Semiofest is fun, and therefore I am really hoping to see some non-typical contributions that will stretch our current understanding of what the un-conference might be! More playfulness does not contradict the idea of deep conversations; and playfulness can lift us all up.
MARCIN KLAUS
I hope the concept of viscosity will reveal analogies that show similar dynamics across different domains of contemporary reality, especially between social phenomena and material systems. I believe that the construction of meaning has its own Anthropocene dimension: the registers that were once separate are now blending together, generating new qualities.
ANNA RABCZUK
I’m a very beginner semiotician, and a somewhat more experienced designer and researcher. So I’m most interested in talks that engage with design, especially typography. I’d be really excited to see viscosity explored in the context of letters! At the same time, I’m also keen on contributions that examine our relationship with technology — not only AI, but also by taking a step back to consider physical devices, such as ubiquitous screens and smartphones.
JOSH & ADE
Your responses are really getting us thinking already, thanks for that. Might each of you also go a step further, and name a specific example of sociocultural viscosity that springs to mind?
PAULINA GOCH-KENAWY
A recent book that comes to mind is Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. Conspiracy theories are built by freely attaching arguments supporting a chosen thesis (for example, a scientific one). This is the opposite of scientific reasoning, which is based on collecting data first and then drawing conclusions. As a result, we get another, distorted image of reality, glued onto our own — like two or more realities strangely fused together, with the second one being, in some sense, false. It appears to be based on rational, scientific conclusions, but the way these pieces are connected relies on free, goal-driven assembly. So even a seemingly similar position can ultimately create an alternative reality.
Example: “We should not get vaccinated with Pfizer vaccines.”
- Social argument: The cost of vaccines is so high that countries suffering most from the pandemic cannot afford them.
- Conspiracy argument: They are contaminated and cause mutations.
This strengthens the anti-vaccine discourse without examining the underlying reasoning or the types of arguments used. Actions taken in each case lead to different political outcomes. The same happens in areas like ecology, state regulations on equality, and other sensitive topics.
MACIEJ BIEDZIŃSKI
I like to think of viscosity in terms of thickness, as a state that resolves the opposition between solid structures of modernity and elusive ever-shifting flow of postmodernity. Those fixed meaning systems of the past are increasingly hard to find, while the constant influx of signs we need to navigate today can feel overwhelming, offering little stability to hold onto.
This tension creates space for thickening, slowing down time and cultural practices, creating new rituals that let us pause a little longer. I can see this, for example, in the renewed popularity of classic, simple board games or knitting workshops — revivals of more traditional and slow bonding practices.
ANIA ŚCIECHOWSKA
One example could be the market for AI-generated short films which is growing at an astonishing pace, especially in Asia. In China, the value of short films reached $6.8 billion in 2024, and forecasts predict $135 billion by 2027. Traditional entry barriers are disappearing: no film education or technical skills are needed, production time has dropped from 45 days to 10, and costs are down to 20% of a traditional budget. One of the speakers at a recent conference I attended gave the example of a “stay-at-home mum” who made documentary films without ever leaving her home. All this is fueling a tsunami of content on platforms like Baidu, Douyin, and Kuaishou. But this wave is like a great river during a flood: the water flows with immense force, covering everything, yet nothing settles. Instead of creating new layers of meaning, it washes away old cultural sediments. This is density without stickiness — a standardized, smooth aesthetic, stripped of friction even in its narrative layer. It leaves no cultural traces, but it clogs and overwhelms communication channels.
MARCIN KLAUS
My example is very tangible and moves from culture to physical ecosystems: Huge, drifting clusters of plastic waste are naturally formed by ocean currents. The most famous is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between California and Japan. It’s not an “island” in the sense of a solid mass, but rather a zone with increased density of plastic particles that creates a kind of viscosity in the water:
- movement slows down,
- currents pull everything toward the center,
- it’s a constantly rotating mass where plastic, microplastic, and biological fragments coexist.
This is a phenomenon of autonomous density, when the environment itself generates a cluster that isn’t stable, yet persists. And what’s fascinating is that life begins to emerge on these patches: bacteria, algae, crustaceans adapting to plastic as a new ecosystem. This is called the plastisphere.
ANNA RABCZUK
I most often encounter viscosity in my relationship with my smartphone. We even talk about being “stuck” to the screen. But it’s not just a matter of physical interaction. The smartphone, along with its feed, is a source of content that, whether we like it or not, clings to us like chewing gum on the sole of a shoe, driven by personalization algorithms. We become coated, our movements constrained — it’s impossible to escape this digital quicksand.
JOSH & ADE
Thank you — very enlightening. We’re also curious to know whether you feel that the VISCOSITY metaphor is of particular relevance for Warsaw?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
Yes! Warsaw is a great setting for our VISCOSITY theme as the city itself carries “viscous” qualities. It is marked by layers of history that remain present… yet change is constant. While new developments emerge at a rapid pace, old and new sit next to each other, density and friction are part of this city’s everyday life. During the event itself, our amazing venue (Teatr Komuna Warszawa) will bring this “viscuous” vibe even more to life.
JOSH & ADE
Will the Warsaw event introduce formats new to previous Semiofest attendees?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
Alongside the classic 15-minute presentations, for the Warsaw Semiofest we are adding two new interactive formats: ludic workshops and “to the point” short sessions. So our contributors can choose to submit a standard presentation, or an idea for a playful workshop, or a quick-fire captivating “storytelling.” Information about these three formats can be found at the event’s website.
JOSH & ADE
For those of us interested in submitting proposals for the Warsaw Semiofest — what are some tips that will help us succeed? What sorts of things you will be looking for in a proposal?
SEMIOFEST WARSAW TEAM
We hope this Q&A encourages people to submit an idea to the Warsaw Semiofest!
Your proposal will be anonymised and reviewed by independent experts using the following criteria:
- Relevance to theme of VISCOSITY: Does the proposal make a clear and compelling connection to the 2026 conference theme?
- Contribution to semiotic thinking: Does the work demonstrate or advance the use of semiotics in research or practice?
- Originality and insight: Does the proposal offer something new — whether in perspective, evidence, or method?
- Engagement and format fit: Will the session meaningfully engage participants, and does the format suit the content?
- Clarity and structure: Is the proposal clearly written, coherent, and well organised?
- Feasibility and Semiofest values: Can the proposed session be delivered as described, and does it align with Semiofest values?
Each proposal will be rated from 1 (weak) to 5 (excellent). We will also consider programme balance and diversity. The programme committee makes final decisions based on scores and overall balance. (For full transparency we need to make clear that space is limited, so even strong proposals may not make it into the programme.)
More details on tickets, accommodations and practicalities are coming soon. So follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook for updates!