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Current research projects Semiotic modelling of self-description mechanisms Project focuses on the analysis and modelling of autocommunication and self-description phenomena in semiotic systems. These include (1) the role of self-models in assuring the system's integrity; (2) the role of self-description in generation of conflicts. An innovative aspect of the project lies in the extension of cultural semiotic models via inclusion of bio- and ecosemiotic aspects, enabling to further the understanding and explanation of cultural conflicts and mechanisms of cultural equilibrium. This general task will be approached via case studies: (a) typology of autocommunication in the models of translation process; (b) synthesis of Lotman's and Uexküll's autocommunication models; (c) analysis of autometadescription in poetic texts; (d) typology of self-description as related to naming; (e) an integration of biosemiotic and cultural semiotic models in a study of hybrid objects: the case of nature writing; (e) power relations and political communication in case of biopolitics. Methods of biosemiotics Team leader: Kalevi Kull This project aims a description, framework and analysis of biosemiotic methodology, particularly as compared to the natural scientific approaches to living systems, and to anthroposemiotics. This will include on the one hand the characterization of disciplinary independence of biosemiotics, and on the other hand the interaction and co-existence of the variety of methods in biosemiotics as an interdisciplinary field. The series of papers as the result of the project will provide a review of the methods of biosemiotics, and a formulation of the role of its methods in the biosemiotic research programs. The Power of the Nomination in the Society and in the Culture Team leader: Ülle Pärli The applied project has evolved from previous researches concentrating on the semiotics of naming. Therefore the new project is based on the already done research being a further development of them. The research team's constant main group has due to the analysis of separate subjects and the enrichment of the theoretical basis come to the questions answering which demands the diversifying and expanding of research area and methodology. Naming is a field of study that combines socio semiotics and cultural semiotics and unites the semiotics methods of study with other disciplines devoted to culture and society. The planned project aims at contributing to political theory and methodology of cultural studies. Besides to develop theoretically the semiotics of naming as a methodology of studying sociocultural practice and creation of semiotic reality. At the same time the project is not devoted solely to theories but an all-in disquisition of nomination through studies of various subtopics: *segmentation of sociocultural reality through naming *schemes and chains of institutional power which demonstrate the inner structure and order of culture and society *comparative analysis of culture through strategies of naming (mainly Russian-Estonian) *naming and collective memory, preserving and forgetting cultural structures *subcultures and social groups, naming as self description and meta description *naming as political act, question of "empty signifier" in ideological discourse *naming as the signifier of choice and marking, the wider study of "self" and "other" *dependence of culture and space, sacralized space, creating "cultural spaces" through naming *naming to ad historical dimension to space *strategies of naming in art texts, proper names and nature of art One part of the output are scientific articles, in which the processes in Estonian culture and society will be explained through naming. Studies will concentrate mostly on recent years. One of the important parts is analysis of soviet ideology, in order to understand power of name in a totalitarian society more generally. One of the definite goals is publishing popular articles explaining to a wider audience the essence of nomination as a powerful semiotic operation. Main theoretical result will be a compendium of theoretical articles which must ponder semiotics of naming as a method which brings forth the hidden processes in the society and varying attitudes toward a sign. Dynamical zoosemiotics and animal representations Team leader: Timo Maran The research project departs from the legacy of Th. A. Sebeok who formulated the paradigm of zoosemiotics in the 1960s by synthesizing language semiotics, communication theory, ethology and J. von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory. The project develops an interdisciplinary, dynamic and analysis-based approach to zoosemiotics. The focus is on the history, dynamics and different forms of representations of biological and semiotic relations and resemblances between humans and animals. The project puts to use the scientific potential of Th. A. Sebeok’s zoosemiotic library, housed by Department of Semiotics. The project integrates approaches of humanities and natural sciences by connecting the study of cultural representations with studies of animal communication. The starting point for the research is the recognition of the traits common to humans and other animals: biological embodiment and semiotic activity in their relations with each other and with the environment. In studying communication, attention will be paid to contextual aspects, resemblances, changing communicative relations and needs for self-representation and emotions in animals. In studying cultural representations our approach acknowledges: a) the biological nature of humans (embodiment, spatial relations, biological senses); b) the semiotic and communicative nature of other animals as meaning generating subjects. The main objectives of the research project are: 1. reinterpreting and elaborating classical zoosemiotic theory, working with and analyzing T. A. Sebeok’s zoosemiotic library; 2. developing semiotic tools for analyzing sign relationships that extend beyond the limits of culture; practical analysis of sample cases; 3. studying semiotic strategies and evolution of representative forms used for depicting animals in myths, literature and visual culture; 4. including environment in the analysis of communication between humans and animals; regarding changing communicative relationships as an object for zoosemiotic research. The practical results of the project will include using Umwelt theory in practical analyses; publications on zoosemiotic theory and representations of animals in literature and visual culture; publication of a monograph on semiotics of mimicry in English; compilation of a reader on zoosemiotics; organizing an international zoosemiotic conference. A prospective outcome of the grant project is the application of zoosemiotics in visitor studies in cooperation with Tallinn Zoo. Sociosemiotics: Theory and Applications Principal investigator: Anti Randviir Sociosemiotics (Ssem) can be seen fragmented on the international scale. To secure the purposefulness and continuity of this large field, it is vital to study and determine the actual paradigmatic essence of Ssem. Semiotics is associated with interdisciplinarity – usually from the perspective of the humanities. Ssem allows to connect this interdisciplinarity with a wider understanding connecting the social sciences and the humanities both in the amount and range of research objects, while integrating also social science methodologies with traditional methods of humanities (even e.g. fieldwork). There will emerge a methodological whole being capable of applied research of the complex ‘man-culture-society-environment’, using the notion ‘sociocultural system’. The project has 2 main directions: a) concentration at determining the foundation of Ssem as a relatively new scientific trend and outlining its paradigmatic distinctive features, b) establishing applied methods of Ssem. These aspects are interrelated and connect semiotics interdisciplinarily with various social sciences and humanities. a) Establishing Ssem in the context of social sciences and humanities. The Ssem angle to unite the so-called classical semiotics and contemporary disciplines in the social sciences would enable to view phenomena beginning from the sociocultural development and behaviour of the individual in his daily life, and ending with the dynamism of identities in intercultural communication. At the demarcation of the grounds of Ssem we will pay specific attention to the classics who are considered as representatives of separate disciplines, focusing at the beginning and following decades of the 20th century. b) Two main aspects of the applied side of Ssem: issues of principal modelling of concrete sociocultural associations, and retrospective modelling of sociocultural communicative processes. The topic is not about the description of history in terms of events on the scale of cause and effect, but about the description of informational processes in culture as results of interaction between technological, ideological, economic, political and other processes. In long-term, the project foresees application of the Ssem toolkit to the description of paradigmatic changes that have taken place in Estonia in the 20th and the 21st century. Semiotic Perspectives on te Analysis of Power Relations and Political Communication Principal investigator: Andreas Ventsel The project strives to contribute to both political theory and to the methodology of cultural studies and also to develop a dialogue between the social sciences and the humanities through integrating approaches of discourse analysis and semiotics into larger social-science paradigm. Being aware of the critiques leveled against the poststructuralist social theory from the empirical-quantitative sociology, we set the task of engaging in a dialogue that could include the positive aspects of both trends. The Essex school of discourse theory has tried to formulate the meaning of democracy and its distinction from authoritarian or populist political logics. Assuming (in the spirit of the Tartu-Moscow School) that any meaning is of communicative character, it could be possible to combine the theory of hegemony with the ideas of semiotics of culture into a theoretical framework for analyzing the communicative conditions of democracy. Thus, the planned project would not limit itself to merely updating the theoretical basis, but would strive to pose concrete guidelines for studying the process of identity-making more generally. Empirical material of the planned research project is based on the interverbal media texts found in Estonian press and other media. The object of study is to set the question concerning how the texts in the Estonian media are constructed. The point of departure is the observation that there is an extreme lack of analytical and argumentative language use in the Estonian media. This in turn entails the decrease of transparency of the communication in the public sphere, the receding of the citizenry from the common decision-making process. Estonian history provides excellent comparative material and expectations for developing a typology of political communication. The goals of the project are: 1) critical revision of the concepts of discourse theory and their complementation with the categories of social and political sciences. A bridge between the humanities and the social sciences could be built through integrating semiotic research methodologies with theories of discourse. 2) Applying the methods of analysis to interdisciplinary studies of culture. Special emphasis should be laid on the new forms of communication. The methodology of study is interdisciplinary: socio- and cultural semiotics; linguistics and discourse criticism; cognitive psychology visual studies; studies of ideology, political rhetoric and mass communication. Previous projects |
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