technosemiotics – Kick-off discussion

Public media discourse often tends to portray AI tools as anthropomorphic, personified entities creating content or acting upon the world. Less attention is given to people who still maintain a significant role and agency in these complex sociotechnical assemblages. At the same time, all computer systems, including AI tools, are essentially and inherently semiotic technologies, insofar as they mediate sign and signification processes between a network of various human actors (Irvine 2022). Semiotics is uniquely positioned to provide a historical and cultural contextualization of cognitive workflow automation, as well as tools to address the impending epistemic and ontological challenges brought up in various discourses.

The aim of this seminar series is to critically engage with the discourse on technology, with specific interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. The events will take various forms from presentations and panels to focused discussions and talkshows.

In the first session, semiotics PhD students Auli Viidalepp, Alec Kozicki and Josh Bacigalupi take up the main semiotic concepts pertaining to technology, culture and life, to lay metalinguistic foundations for future discussions.

Read the rationale for this series »

The first introductory discussion takes place as a hybrid event – on-site at the Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, and online via Zoom.