Talk at Gatherings in Biosemiotics, Prague

The Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ninth Annual International Gatherings in Biosemiotics has accepted my paper "On contrapuntuality. Semiotic niche vs. ontological niche: the case of the Scandinavian wolf population" for a 30 min. presentation. My talk is scheduled for Friday 3rd of July, at 16:00-16:30.

Other presenters include Marcello Barbieri, Stephen Pain, Paul Cobley, Myrdene Anderson and many others.

Global Voices: Estonia?

The news blog Global Voices, which is written by more than 100 bloggers (see also Wikipedia), is looking for a volunteer author/blogger to report from the blogosphere in Estonia.

Global Voices is a leading participatory media news room for voices from the developing world. Begun in 2005 as a simple blog hosted at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, Global Voices has grown into a vibrant global community of more than 150 active volunteer authors and translators and more than 20 freelance part- time regional and language editors.

Homepage for zoosemiotics project

The Estonian Science Foundation research grant "Dynamical zoosemiotics and animal representations", where I am one of the main investigators, now has a homepage.

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 first major activity of the project was to arrange the Animal Minds workshop, Feb. 9.-10.

The nature view held by environmentalists

My poster presentation at the IARU World Congress on Climate Change: Global Risk, Challenges and Decision (Copenhagen, March 10-12, 2009), "The nature view held by environmentalists. Attitudes in the Norwegian environmental establishment" (poster board no. P57.19) has been scheduled.

SESSION: 57 - Cultures, Values and World Perspectives as Factors in Responding to Climate Change.

TIME of my poster presentation: Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 10:45-16:45

A brief ORAL PRESENTATION will take place by the poster at 13:45-13:55.

Academic journals - open access publishing

I have been considering to apply/volunteer as a reviewer og editorial member of the coming journal The International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation, to be published by Africa-based Academic Journals. They are founded on an open access policy which in the case of this publishing house entails that authors have to pay a handling fee for publishing, whereas all published articles are openly and freely available online.

Another publishing house with an identical name (which published online as well as in print), Academic Journals Inc., is apparently one of the biggest scientific publishers in Asia.

Web stats Utopian Realism

Data from the last couple of months, where there has been an average of 3 page loads from a total of 2 unique visitors each day (all in all 284 page loads, 172 unique visitors, 151 of which were first time visitors).

LOCATION OF VISITORS
1. Estonia (35 %)
2. USA (17 %)
3. Norway (13 %)
4. Brazil (9 %)
5. Canada (4 %)
6. UK (3 %)
6. Italy (3 %)
8. Netherlands (2 %)
8. Finland (2 %)
10. Denmark (2 %)

The 23 origin countries includes Nepal, India, Iran and Taiwan. Non-western countries (including Brazil and Taiwan) accounts for 11-12 % of visits, North-America for 21-22 %.

9 out of 10 visits are first time visits, hardly 1 out of 10 have returned.

59 different search terms have taken people to the site.

SemioPhenomenon web stats

The SemioPhenomenon website has had visitors from at least 23 countries, 17-18 of which are European. Most visiters have been from
1. Estonia (68 %)
2. Finland (7 %)
3. USA (5 %)
4. Italy (5 %)
5. Sweden (4 %)

Visits from non-European countries, US excluded, account for only 3 % (even when Russia is included).

Close to 80 % of visits were first-time visits.

Recent visitors have found the site by way of 53 different keyword searches.

While three fourths of visits lasted shorter than 5 minutes, almost one out of five lasted longer than an hour.

AWE has been the most popular exit link.

David Abram's public lecture online

David Abram's public lecture at The University of Tartu Feb. 10th, 'Language and the Ecology of Sensory Experience', which was part of the events SemioPhenomenon, is now online at the university webpage.

Contrapuntuality - Gatherings in biosemiotics 2009, Prague

I have just submitted an abstract for the 9th gathering in biosemiotics, to be arranged in Prague, entitled "On contrapuntuality: Semiotic niche vs. ontological niche - the case of the Scandinavian wolf population".

Estonian media

An announcement of the workshops in Tartu Postimees February 4th reads "Semiootikakonverentsile tuleb mustkunstnik" (Magician comes to conference in semiotics).

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On February 6th, ERR - Estonian Public broadcasting - published the following news story online: (based on a 3 minute interview that aired on Vikerraadio at noon the same day):

Tartus kohtuvad semiootika koolkonnad

Tartus algas 6. veebruaril semiootikakonverents ,,Fenomenoloogia kohtub semiootikaga''. Kahes töötoas osalevad kokku teadlased 10 riigist, et kahte lähenemist üksteisele ligemale tuua.

Esimeses töötoas keskendutakse maastiku tajumisele ja teises töötoas animaaluse tajumisele ning selle osale inimloomuses.

Konverentsi peakorraldaja Morten Tönnesseni sõnul on taju semiootikute jaoks põnev valdkond. "Taju hõlmab nii keskkonna, teiste inimeste kui ka kõige muu kogemist. Maailma kogemine oleneb suuresti inimese enda hoiakutest või tunnetest,'' rääkis Tönnessen.

Peakorraldaja Tönnessen on ise norralane, kes õpib 2007. aastast Tartu Ülikoolis. Idee konverents just Tartus pidada tuli talle Tartu Ülikooli semiootikaosakonna ajaloolise tausta tõttu. Just seetõttu on Tartusse kohale tulnud ka oma ala eksperdid. Peaesineja on Ameerika kultuuriökoloog David Abram, kes on tuntud oma käsitluste poolest ühendada traditsioonilist fenomenoloogiat ökoloogiliste teemadega.

Tönnessen loodab Tartus kahte koolkonda üksteisele lähemale tuua. "Kokku saavad kaks loodusele keskenduvat mõtteviisi: ameeriklaste ökoloogiline fenomenoloogia ja eestlaste biosemiootika," ütles Tönnessen.

10. veebruarini toimuva ürituse sõnavõtte on lubanud kajastada mainekas semiootika teadusajakiri "Biosemiotics".

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Today, Feb. 13th, the first translation of David Abram into Estonian (excerpts from "The Spell of the Sensuous. Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World") appears in Roheline Värav (Green gate) under the headline "Lapsed nägid esimest korda Linnuteed". The publication includes a brief introduction by me. The translation was conducted by Signe Saumaawith help from Ehte Putang, Riin Magnus and Silver Ratassepp.

My introduction reads as follows:

David Abram
Ameerika fenomenoloog ja süvaökoloog, kes on inspireerinud rohelist filosoofiat ja eluviisi kogu maailmas. Innustust saanud Maurice Merleau-Ponty’lt, on ta püüdnud välja töötada radikaalset loodusfilosoofiat, mis jääks truuks kogetava paljususele.

David Abram on kirjutanud nüüdisklassikaks saanud raamatu «The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World» (1996), kust pärineb ka siinne tekst.

David Abram osales Tartu biosemiootikute korraldatud töötubades taju semiootikast ja fenomenoloogiast 6.–10. veebruaril 2009.
Tekst ilmub siin autori heakskiidul, ühtlasi palus David Abram selle pühendada oma sõbrale ja kolleegile Arne Naessile, kes suri 96 aasta vanusena 12. jaanuaril 2009.
Morten Tønnessen

Most viewed at Scribd ... and web stats

Most viewed as of February 11th, 2009 (Sep 2, 2008 in paranthesis)
1 (1) The Statistician's Guide to Utopia: The Future of growth 255 (79)
2 (2) Umwelt ethics 166 (78)
3 (4) Historieløst om klima 110 (22)
4 (>5) Hvem har ansvaret for volden? 102 (<10)
4 (-) SemioPhenomenon poster 102 (-)

Latest addition: Steps to a Semiotics of Being (my PPT presentation from the Animal Minds workshop). For a full list of my uploaded documents, see here.

Displays of my web pages, since Dec. 2008:
1. SemioPhenomenon 2,137
2. Utopisk Realisme 241
3. Utopian Realisme 237

My article "Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change"

My article "Umwelt transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change" has been published online in the Springer journal Biosemiotics. Full text available for subscribers only (first page, including abstract, freely available).

The article will appear in the paper edition to be published in April.