A semiotic technology is a technology that provides people with media and modes for communication and interaction. The study of these technologies emerged within social semiotics and was developed by Emilia Djonov, Kay O’Halloran, and Theo van Leeuwen in the late 00’s.
As its object of analysis, semiotic technology studies include both ‘old’ technologies (e.g. typewriters, pencils, and paper) and ‘new’ technologies (e.g. websites, social media, deepfake software). Methodologically, this area of study maps semiotic resources and regimes (i.e. social rules for using resources) that specific technologies provide, ii) investigates how these technologies are used in social practices (professional, private, artistic), iii) explores the histories, narratives, and discourses of the technologies, and iv) connect the technologies to broader cultural and social processes, practices, structures, and ideologies.
In 2015-17, CMC hosted reading sessions, seminars, and symposia on social media as semiotic technology. Selected papers from this work were published in an issue of Social Semiotics (vol. 28, issue 5). Also, core members of the centre studied semiotic technologies for shopping as part of the RESEMINA project (2018-22).
Currently, Søren Vigild Poulsen is involved in a collaboration with researchers from the Technical Faculty at the University of Southern Denmark, researching the semiotic technologies and practices of software engineering.
For further information
Please contact Søren Vigild Poulsen.