Sign Systems Studies

Front Matter

2025-02-16T17:20:55+00:00

Contemporary applications of umwelt theory. Introduction

2025-02-16T17:27:59+00:00

Contemporary applications of umwelt theory. Introduction

Applied umwelt theory in the context of phenomenological triangulation and descriptive phenomenology

2025-02-16T18:36:48+00:00

Even though Jakob von Uexküll’s umwelt theory has inspired biosemioticians and phenomenologists alike, most contemporary phenomenological methods are applicable only to studies of human phenomena. In this article I discuss how umwelt theory can be made use of in the contexts of phenomenological triangulation and descriptive phenomenology. This results in a methodological framework for applied umwelt theory in a phenomenological setting. Drawing on methodological advances in cognitive semiotics developed by Jordan Zlatev and his colleagues, I discuss how first-person, second-person and third-person perspectives can be combined in studies of human and animal phenomena. I further outline a more-than-human descriptive phenomenology that is applicable in be- havioural sciences, in health and social studies, in the humanities and the arts, and in speculative studies, with field-specific considerations made. Overall, the aim of the article is to contribute to integrating biosemiotics and phenomenology and demonstrating the relevance of umwelt theory for phenomenology, and vice versa.

Umwelt and time: Extending the humanistic view on temporality through umwelt theory

2025-02-16T18:40:35+00:00

The article offers a discussion on the way in which the concept of umwelt can be related to the conceptualization of time and temporality in the humanities – in dialogue with other theoretical frameworks as well as with artistic discourse. The paper examines how Jakob von Uexküll himself wrote about time in the context of his umwelt theory, and goes on to consider how his thought has been creatively developed in the field of biosemiotics. This part of the discussion refers to Kalevi Kull’s recent ideas on ‘momentary umwelt’ and ‘umweb’ and proposes enhancing these concepts by employing classic Saussurean categories of signs relations, namely, syntagmatic and paradigmatic orders. The next section offers further extending of the proposed considerations to another level, i.e. juxtaposing them with the thought of Bruno Latour and his concept of ‘situated time’. This idea is compared to the conceptualization of time within both the momentary umwelt as well as the umweb. Finally, the last part of the paper is dedicated to analysing the previously presented theoretical discussion in the light of a mathematical model of the Möbius strip and artistic discourse: Mieke Bal’s thoughts on time and Osmo Valtonen’s kinetic sculpture Circulograph.

Information is primary and central to meaning-making

2025-02-16T18:46:10+00:00

There is the misconception that the concept of information is not applicable to meaning-making in living beings. What is more generally believed is that Peircean semiosis provides a more robust framework to explain meaning-making. This involves the production, exchange, and interpretation of signs as the basis for meaning to an organism. Semiosis establishes a continuous and developing occurrence of triadic relations between a representamen (sign), an object (the other), and an interpretant as the organism engages with its umwelt, resulting in the appearance of meaning as a factor in its life. However, it is not clear that Peircean semiosis is the most fundamental process by which meaning-making may be instantiated in nature. Here we show that information defined by Gregory Bateson as ‘a difference which makes a difference’ can more fundamentally serve as a basis for meaning-making. Both its etymological origins and Bateson’s dictum naturalize the concept of information to identify its cybernetic dynamic motivated by constitutive absence, or the ability of an organism to find in its environment what it teleologically deems missing. This implies an ability to interpret its environmental surroundings. Furthermore, detecting a difference is the most fundamental of acts, revealing that information is the basis for meaning-making for an organism, allowing any level of intricacy in its interpretative capabilities. Indeed, Peircean semiosis is shown to be a special case of informatic meaning-making. In short, information provides a firm foundation for meaning-making for living beings.

Applied modelling of semiosphere in interspecific cohabitation contexts

2025-02-16T18:50:53+00:00

The semiosphere, as theorized by Jesper Hoffmeyer, is an interesting concept for those who want to create tools and models that need to consider a large variety of umwelten interacting and coexisting in the same space. As our contemporary times are witnessing a significant drop in biodiversity, and facing several issues that threaten both our ecosystems as well as human ways of living, the question arises what applications we can really obtain from these tools and models and how they can serve the purposes of sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environmental protection or cohabitation improvement. In this paper, I mainly explore the applications regarding the last-mentioned aspect, and also explain how it impacts the previous ones. I discuss the concept of interspecific cohabitation, listing the different categories of situations that can be included under this common denominator, and detail why this concept is central to understanding and apprehending the contemporary challenges we are facing. The article also observes the kinds of solutions that semiotics, via umwelt perspectives, can offer to improve this cohabitation or solve the issues interspecific contexts can generate.

Plasticumwelt and umwelt diffraction: A new materialist ecosemiotics

2025-02-16T18:54:58+00:00

The article explores the intricate relationship between plastic materials, semiotics and ecology, offering a novel perspective on the concept of umwelt in the context of pervasive plastic pollution. Drawing on semiotic, ecosemiotic and neo-materialist theories, it examines how plastic has become a ubiquitous presence in ecosystems, profoundly shaping the subjective worlds of organisms. The paper presents a theoretical analogy between the world of the spider and the production of its web on the one hand, and the human world and the production of plastic on the other hand, to show how the minds of animals extend along the production of their materials. Through the lens of material semiotics, the study elaborates the notion of ‘umwelt diffraction’, highlighting how synthetic materials disrupt the ecological dynamics and perception of organisms, forming the structure of a ‘plasticumwelt’. This reconceptualization underlines the urgent need for interdisciplinary approaches to address the challenges posed by plastic pollution. Ultimately, the article argues that plastic proliferation creates a toxic heritage, underlining the importance of sustainable practices to mitigate the harmful effects of plastic on biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.

Of bubbles and foams: Umwelt counterpoints in symbiosis

2025-02-16T18:58:49+00:00

In recent years, our aim has been to expand the concept of ‘umwelt’ towards its evolutionary aspects. In this contribution, we argue that since the different lineages of life share their origins, they also share, at least to some extent, the (informational) norms and interpretative practices (deeply established rules in addition to memory and experience) that apply in their particular umwelten. If so, some “dialects” of such norms may be understandable to umwelten across different forms of life that inhabit the same space and time. Such “umwelt overlaps” then facilitate a mutual understanding of different life forms, leading to coordinated (negotiated) cohabitation. We highlight some of the ways in which such “vertical” and “horizontal” processes can lead to an evolutionary and/or ecological networking of umwelt “bubbles”. We believe that the original concept of ‘umwelt’ should be expanded so as to encompass all living beings and their evolutionary memory, experience, and present ecological settings. Our interpretation also leads to abandoning of the concept of an external “composer of symphony” and allows life forms to compose their being in the world according to their “inner contexts”, “players available”, and evaluation of external factors, mainly biospheric but also physical.

Umwelt theory seen from the perspective of fūdo theory: Uexküll, Watsuji, and Imanishi on nature, harmony, and totality

2025-02-16T19:07:20+00:00

This paper investigates the contemporary meaning of umwelt theory by comparing it with fūdo theory. The Japanese term ‘fūdo’ is similar to ‘umwelt’ as it carefully revises how subject and object relate to each other. Fūdo theory was developed by Tetsuro Watsuji (1889–1960), a Japanese philosopher; Kinji Imanishi (1902–1992), a Japanese biologist; and Augustin Berque (b. 1942), a French geographer and philosopher. First, this paper investigates Watsuji’s view of the place of ‘self ’ in the environment and Imanishi’s view of the place of species in the environment. Second, it compares how umwelt and fūdo theories address problems related to the subject and environment, harmony, the concept of nature, and disciplinarity, pointing out the parallelism between the two theories. Third, this paper examines the relevance and interpretation of umwelt and fūdo theories in contemporary academic discourse, with a focus on the concepts of harmony and totality.

Semiotics now

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We present the results of a survey conducted among professional semioticians from around the world, who were asked to answer two questions: (A) what problems should semiotics solve in the near future? and (B) what are the most important publications on semiotics since 2000? The collection of 63 responses received provides a self-description of contemporary semiotics, as well as some material for scholars to learn from one another. In addition, we add responses from the latest versions of a large language simulator (GPT) as a characteristic feature of the current decade.

Semiotics continuing to astonish... again and again: A brief survey of the journals Sign Systems Studies and Semiotica in 2023

2025-02-16T19:26:03+00:00

Semiotics continuing to astonish... again and again: A brief survey of the journals Sign Systems Studies and Semiotica in 2023

Review of Copenhagen Gathering: Reading and foundations

2025-02-16T19:30:37+00:00

Review of Copenhagen Gathering: Reading and foundations

Gatherings in Biosemiotics 24: Bloemfontein, South Africa 2024

2025-02-16T19:40:24+00:00

Gatherings in Biosemiotics 24: Bloemfontein, South Africa 2024

From the meaning to the world: the catasemiosis

2025-02-16T19:11:54+00:00

We now know that meaning arises from an initial interaction between the bodies of living beings and stimuli from the outside world. This process, which leads to the development of semiotic structures, is known as anasemiosis. However, the description of semiosis would be incomplete if we did not take into account a second movement in which the body is involved in a second interaction with the world: that of the action exerted on this world by meaning. This movement can be called ‘catasemiosis’ (if the Greek prefix ‘ana-’ refers to a movement from the bottom up, ‘cata-’ refers to a movement from the top down), and the complete semiosis is made up of the interactive cycle of anasemiosis–catasemiosis.

After outlining the reasons why the consideration of catasemiosis has been largely neglected by the sciences of language and meaning, this paper situates catasemiosis within the general process of semiosis, establishes the complementary nature of the processes of anasemiosis and catasemiosis, and demonstrates that their structures are comparable since they are based on the same principle of opposition – or dipole. The discussion emphasizes the existence of an actional drive in living organisms, complementary to the interpretative drive, and shows that routinization is the catasemiotic equivalent of categorization at the anasemiotic level. Considering the sign as a tool and stressing the importance of the concept of energy in semiotics, it pays particular attention to tools, conceived as extensions of bodies, and to their mediating function.

Unveiling the potential: Novel metaphors as cognitive processes for discovery through imagination

2025-02-16T19:17:09+00:00

This paper proposes a new direction within studies of metaphor. It argues that metaphor, rather than functioning as a model for knowledge transfer between concepts, serves as a process of discovery to unveil the potential for novel connections through possibilities and imagination. The discussion acknowledges the significance of two essential features of metaphors, namely ambiguity and hypotheses, in the inferential processes of theorizing metaphor and proposes the application of C. S. Peirce’s notion of abductive reasoning, the method of obtaining new ideas, as well as the application of Bergson’s sensory-motor schema, which Deleuze calls ‘cliché’, to explain how metaphors can become habitual, potentially solidifying thought patterns. Ultimately, this paper aims to transcend the contemporary view of metaphors as mapping processes that promote clarity, uniformity and one-way systematicity to standardized meaning. Instead, it presents metaphors in terms of their multiplicity and the crucial role connotations can play in their effectiveness.