Archive for calls, October 2016

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[ecrea] CfP: Semiotic Theories of Media? Prospects and challenges of combining media theory and semiotics

Thu Oct 20 18:58:41 GMT 2016



*15th International Conference of the German Association of Semiotic Studies: “Borders”, September 12—16, 2017, University of Passau, Germany* *Panel: Semiotic Theories of Media? Prospects and challenges of combining media theory and semiotics*

The panel aims to discuss prospects and challenges of a closer co-operation between media theory and semiotics. We intend to focus on the possibilities of a theoretically and empirically justified delineation between signs, on one hand, and media, on the other hand. By facilitating a discussion between epistemologically informed theories of signs and empirically oriented approaches to the analysis of media, we expect to advance our understanding of the functioning of signs, media, and multimodal communication, to gain new impulses to reflect on signs and media, and to develop new methodologies and methods of their analyses.

Contributions can focus, for example, on the relations between semiotic theories and media theories, or on empirically oriented approaches to linguistic and non-linguistic sign uses and media practices. As we intend to encourage a transdisciplinary discussion on signs, media, and multimodality, we are highly interested in contributions focusing on the interdependences between sign practices on different levels (word, sentence, text, discourse, image, sound, film) and the “media infrastructure” they are part of.

We envisage discussing, for example, the following questions:

•Is there a possibility, or necessity, to differentiate between semiotic and technical media? If yes, how should we conceptualize this differentiation? If no, how should intertwining of signs and media be conceptualized? •What are possibilities and challenges of applying a technical understanding of media in semiotics? What can a semiotic epistemology offer to media studies? And what are the questions which arise out of these interdisciplinary approaches? •How can multimodal texts (in social networks or online magazines, for example) be described if the differentiation between a technological understanding and a semiotic understanding of media is suspended? •What are the prospects of applying a semiotic understanding of media in the analysis of esthetic phenomena (in the analysis of design, architecture, fashion, street art, for example)? •How can we theorize shifts in the history of media from a semiotic and/or empirical perspective, and how do shifts in the history of media influence conceptions of the sign? •How can we define concepts as “medium”, “materiality”, “sign use” from the point of view of a epistemologically informed semiotic media theory? •What do traditional empirical approaches to media studies offer to the analysis of semiotic practices, and where and how could they be broadened to include semiotic knowledge?


Please send your abstract as a word document to Jan Georg Schneider ((schneiderj /at/ uni-landau.de) <mailto:(schneiderj /at/ uni-landau.de)>) and Stefan Meier ((stefan.meier /at/ uni-tuebingen.de) <mailto:(stefan.meier /at/ uni-tuebingen.de)>) by November 15, 2016. Your abstract should contain: Title of the presentation, name(s) of the contributors, abstract (max 300 words), institution, e-mail address and a short bio. Presentations will be 20 min; we plan to publish selected panel contributions after the conference.

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