SEMIOVOX 1Q2026

Broadcast by Josh Glenn, Posted March 31, 2026

I’m cofounder of the semiotics-fueled branding consultancy SEMIOVOX, editor of the consultancy’s eponymous website, and I’m coordinator (with Adelina Vaca) of the monthly SEMIOFEST SESSIONS. Here’s a round-up of what we’ve been doing during 1Q2026.

Also see: SEMIOVOX 2022 | SEMIOVOX 2023 | SEMIOVOX 2024 | SEMIOVOX 2025

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

SEMIOVOX’s methodology provides insight and inspiration — to brand and organization strategy, marketing, design, innovation, and consumer insights teams, as well as to their agency partners — regarding the unspoken local/global “codes” that help shape perceptions of and guide behavior within product categories and/or sociocultural territories.

During 1Q2026, our projects included (but were not limited to) the following.

CRAFTED BEVERAGE CODES. On behalf of a multinational beverage company, we wrapped up a project analyzing Crafted Beverage codes in seven markets worldwide. We’ve enjoyed collaborating on this project with Becks Collins (England), Sarah Johnson of Athena Brand Wisdom (Canada), Labbrand (China), Aya Kanda of Salt (Japan), Mariane Cara of Comunicara (Brazil), and Marion Polauck (Germany). Product innovation, brand positioning, marketing optimization, retail design.

COLA CODES. On behalf of a multinational beverage company, during 1Q2026 we kicked off a project analyzing codes of the Cola space in three markets. We’ve enjoyed collaborating on this project with Becks Collins (England) and Chirag Mediratta of Fresh Think (India). Brand positioning, marketing optimization.

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS

I’m the founder and co-convenor of SEMIOFEST SESSIONS, a monthly-ish series of online get-togethers — put on under the aegis of the biannual Semiofest conference — intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community.

In June, I’ll step back from the Sessions. To that end, since last summer I’ve collaborated on organizing this series with my semio friend and colleague Adelina Vaca; she will take over!

Here’s the 1Q2026 lineup:

JANUARY: GUILTY PLEASURES. Others may be embarrassed about their predilection for “bad” pop music, television, movies, literature, and so forth. But for commercial semioticians who know that insights and inspiration are to be found everywhere, particularly in “bad” cultural expressions, there’s (almost) no such thing as a guilty pleasure. Gabriela Pedranti invited Brian Khumalo and Sonia Skins to discuss the public/private nature of Instagram; Taiwanese fandom and playful rituals around the Chinese TV series Hòugōng Zhēn Huán Zhuàn; and more!

FEBRUARY: MYTHICAL SEMIOTICS. As a practicing commercial semiotician, do you:

Nostalgically marvel at the power myth holds over those cultures that have not been fully desacralized?
Critically denounce those that try to present present-day myths as natural and eternal?
Pragmatically weaponize myth expertise in the service of branding?
All of the above?
None of the above?

For this session, Alfredo Troncoso has invited three commercial semioticians to discuss their encounters with the perplexing allure of the mythical in their respective fields of interest — namely, luxury, psychoanalysis, and advertising.

MARCH: SEMIOTICS IN LATIN AMERICA. The dense ecosystems of meaning in the most unequal region of the world can be challenging to navigate, let alone analyze. But Mariane Cara has invited semioticians from all over Latin America to try to do exactly that. Join us on the 20^th of March to discuss the unique uses of emotion, color and dissonance in Latin America for the 45^th Semiofest Session:Semiotics in Latin America.

Coming in 2Q2026:

Josh Glenn will host the session SEMIOTIC TATTOOS (April 24) | Chris Arning will host the session FESTSCHRIFT FOR MALCOLM (5/29) | The organizers of Semiofest Warsaw will host the session VISCOSITY (6/26).

All SEMIOFEST SESSIONS here.

SEMIOFEST WARSAW 2026

During 1Q2026, my semio colleage and friend Ramona Lyons and I worked on developing a semiotics training tool in the form of a story telling puzzle-game. We will début and play-test the game via a “ludic workshop” (titled VISCOSITY TEST in the conference program) at Semiofest Warsaw on May 22.

SEMIOVOX.COM

I’m the editor here at SEMIOVOX, our consultancy’s eponymous website. Here’s what we published during 1Q2026.

I like naming and describing what’s usually left unsaid, diving into the darker side of things, and uncovering how they show up (or do not) in communications.
Madoka Suganuma

MAKING SENSE is an ongoing series of Q&As dedicated to understanding what makes semioticians tick. I’ve asked my commercial-semiotics colleagues from around the world to answer a set of leading questions. Here’s the 1Q2026 lineup:

Coming in 2Q2026:

All MAKING SENSE installments here.

Photo Credit: Guido Becchetti, tattoo artist in LAG TATTOO

The coral, now permanently etched on my arm, is a constant reminder that the body hosting it is itself such a hybrid. It is a living testament to the fusion of life and death, of organic cells and inorganic ink, of soft skin and the cold, precise machine that put the art there. It reminds me that we are all complex structures, growing on the foundations of what came before, with no single part more important than the whole.
Nicola Zengiaro

TATTOO YOU is a new series. We’ve asked 25 of our semio colleagues from around the world to explicate the symbolism of… one of their own tattoos. Here’s the 1Q2026 lineup:

Coming in 2Q2026:

“Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine”
William Burroughs

SEMIOPUNK is a series by Josh Glenn, cross-posted from our sister site HILOBROW, dedicated to surfacing examples of the sf subgenre that one might call “semiopunk.” Here’s the 1Q2026 lineup:

A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ | THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION | THE SOFT MACHINE.

Here’s what’s coming in 2Q2026:

CAT’S CRADLE | BABEL-17 | ENGINE SUMMER.

The first time I visited Toronto as an adult, I nearly swooned on a subway ride — I’d never had such a visceral response to typography before.
Sherri Wasserman

KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM is another series cross-posted from our sister site HILOBROW. Twenty-five creative types were asked to discuss one of their favorite typefaces. Here’s the 1Q2026 lineup:

Here’s what’s coming in 2Q2026:

Also see: SEMIOVOX updates from 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025.

MIT PRESS: RADIUM AGE

I’m the founding editor of the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE proto-sf reissue series. During 1Q2026 we published the following two titles:

E. and H. Heron’s Flaxman Low: Occult Detective (March 10), edited and introduced by Alexander B. Joy. “Flaxman Low is the Sherlock Holmes of the ghost world.” — The London Quarterly Review (1900). | “At once dashing and cerebral, Flaxman Low is a supernatural Sherlock Holmes investigating the surreal and impossible, created by a mother and son duo who themselves seem to have come from a pulp story. Great to see these stories in a new edition!” — Daniel Polansky, author of the Low Town book series
Irene Clyde’s Beatrice the Sixteenth (March 31), introduced by Lucy Sante. “A gynarchic state, Armeria, where women marry each other and buy the babies on whom the future of Armeria depends… Readable and suggestive.” — The Occult Review (1909) | “Recently rediscovered early 20th-century transfeminine author Irene Clyde’s Beatrice the Sixteenth is an interdimensional Amazonian romance and imperialist ethnographic fantasy rolled into one. Readers of this new edition are in for an unexpected and thought-provoking journey.” — Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History: A Resource for Today’s Struggle — And Tomorrow’s.

More RADIUM AGE series updates: 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 1Q2026.

HILOBROW

HILOBROW is SEMIOVOX’s sister website. Here are a few semio- and cultural analysis-related series and posts from 1Q2026.

I begin the day with my tarot practice. I use the Thoth Tarot, painted by Lady Frieda Harris under the guidance of Aleister Crowley. The deck is dense with symbols drawn from astrology, science, mythology, and esoteric traditions. I draw three cards and ask three questions: What does the universe want me to learn today? What does it want me to release? What message does it want to give me?
Adrienne Crew

Inspired by the success of the MEDIA DIET series here at SEMIOVOX in 2025, 1Q2026 saw the kickoff of a series exploring the media “input” of a group of people — HILOBROW’s friends and contributors — whose “output” we admire. Here’s a sampling of the MEDIA DIET lineup for 1Q2026:

The limited series LOU REED’S NEPHEW featured HILOBROW friend Jim Hanas’ collage art for his 2023–24 email serial — about work, art, tech, and scrimshaw — of that title. (The titular character can be “read” as a kind of satirical portrait of a freelance semiotician.) Lou Reed’s Nephew, Jim’s debut novel, will be published by Coffee House Press in 2027.

More HILOBROW updates: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 1Q2026.

On to 2Q2026…

Tags: Josh Glenn, Semiovox

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