"Umwelt trajectories" to be published this autumn

A few days ago I was notified that the special issue of Semiotica on zoosemiotics has been scheduled for publication in the autumn of 2013. It will include my article "Umwelt Trajectories", which is loosely based on my conference presentation "The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people" (2011, abstract written 2010). The special issue is guest-edited by Timo Maran.

Brief report from the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations

The international conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations took place here in Tartu last week (April 4-8). There were around 60 presentations, and up to 120 people attending each day. Counted by institutional affiliation, the presenters alone represented 5 continents and 19 countries.

As a member of the organizing team, I, as my colleagues, was impressed both by the good attendance and the overall quality of presentations and discussions. The whole event is proof of growing interest in a semiotic approach to animals, especially in the humanities. If there was one group we were missing, it was a larger presence of the biosemiotic community (and natural scientists). Just a handful of biosemioticians were present. Nevertheless the conference attracted more presenters and attendants than any Gathering in Biosemiotics has ever done to this date.

My roles at the conference included
* being a member of the organizing team (lead by Timo Maran)
* presenting "The Umwelt Trajectories of Wolves, Sheep and People" (April 6th, 14.30-15.00)
* chairing the roundtable "Futures of Zoosemiotics" (April 6th, 16.30-18.00)
* giving closing remarks (April 8th)

In the roundtable, Stephen Pain was not present (cf. earlier list of roundtable participants), whereas Aleksei Turovski was added. During the session Colin Allen raised a very pertinent question: Whether zoosemiotics can show to scientific results which could not have been achieved without a zoosemiotic approach. "Semiotics", he said, "has to stop talking about what it is and start talking about what it does."

Here's the topical presentation of the roundtable, as included in the abstract book:

Thomas Sebeok’s role as a founding father of zoosemiotics is unquestioned. On what points should his views be challenged? What is the proper relation of zoosemiotics to biosemiotics, and to ecosemiotics – and how does it compare with cognitive ethology and anthrozoology? Should zoosemiotics be understood as a meta-scientific discipline, as a program for ethology or the animal life sciences, or as a scientific enterprise in its own right? A general aim of semiotics of nature (biosemiotics, zoosemiotics, ecosemiotics etc.) is to help bridging the nature/culture divide and counteract the related compartmentalisation of science and scholarly studies. To what extent should human behavior be included as a study object of zoosemiotics? In particular, how are human-animal relations to be treated? What is the role of the individual subject in biology today – and tomorrow? How well is today’s zoosemiotics fitted to account for the changing global ecological reality?

See also:
Creed (from the introduction to the roundtable)
Semiotics of Animal Representations - update
Zoosemiotics email list - how to register
Zoosemiotic grant meeting

Zoosemiotic grant meeting

Yesterday the researchers involved in the grant Dynamical Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations had an informal meeting, where we evaluated last weeks conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations, which we were generally really pleased with. One thing we will soon communicate through the newly established zoosemiotics email list is a bibliography in zoosemiotics. We will further write a few conference reviews, to submit to selected journals.

We also briefly discussed the prospects of a new grant, after the current one finishes next year. I signalled interest in taking part in such a grant, regardless of my job situation when that time comes.

See also:
Brief report from the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations
The Semiotics of Animal Representations - update
Zoosemiotics email list - how to register
Creed

Zoosemiotics email list - how to register

Towards the end of the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations, we decided to start an email list to facilitate contact among participants. The email list will also be open to others.

Email address: zoosemiotics [at] lists.ut.ee

To register, send an email to sympa@lists.ut.ee with "SUBscribe zoosemiotics [your name]" written in the subject field and nothing in the body of the message.

The email list will be moderated by Timo Maran.

Roundtable participants: Futures of zoosemiotics

The roundtable "Futures of Zoosemiotics" - which I am chairing - to take place April 6th as part of the Tartu conference "Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations" (April 4-8), will have the following participants:

* Matthew Chrulew (Macquarie University, Australia)
* Paul Cobley (London Metropolitan University, UK)
* Kalevi Kull (University of Tartu, Estonia)
* Katya Mandoki (Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico)
* Timo Maran (University of Tartu, Estonia)
* Stephen Pain (Denmark)

Book proposal submitted

We (Kadri Tüür and I) have just submitted the book proposal for The Semiotics of Animal Representations. After formatting we're talking about 8 (proposal) + 6 (Authors' and editors' info sheet) + 23 (Abstract book) pp; all in all 37 pp.

Tartu dates

My next visits to Tartu will take place April 3-17 and May 15-24.

During the first of these I will take part in the international conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations and teach the first half of my intensive course on semiotics and phenomenology.

During the second I will teach the second half of that intensive course and apply for my doctoral degree (prospective date: Monday, May 23rd).

Intensive graduate seminar: Animals, Culture, Environment

The intensive graduate seminar "Animals, Culture, Environment", scheduled for April 6-8, has been launched. More specifically, there is a CFP due February 28th. The seminar is part of the Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, a joint venture of four Estonian universities; Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, University of Tartu, Tallinn University, and Estonian Academy of Arts.

Animals, Culture, Environment will be organized in the framework of the international conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations. Included in the graduate course are the plenary speeches of Jesper Hoffmeyer, Graham Huggan and David Rothenberg, and the three roundtables of the conference (including Futures of Zoosemiotics, chaired by me). In addition there will be teaching by Elena Grigorjeva and Aleksei Turovski.

There's room for 20 doctoral students.

Finishing book proposal on animal representations

The last few days I have, with some effort, revised

* the book proposal (6pp)
* the abstract book (17pp)
* Editors' and authors' information sheet (4pp)

... for the edited collection The Semiotics of Animal Representations, for which Kadri Tüür and I are the prospective editors. There's 15 chapters ... and 27pp to present the idea of the book, 14 abstracts included, from contributors that have all confirmed their participation in the book project.

I hope and expect we can submit it in a matter of days.

Zoosemiotics and MAO planning

1. Yesterday the organizing team of the forthcoming Oslo Minding Animals Pre-Conference Lecture event (October 14-15) had its second Skype meeting. In focus was our event webpage, which is about to be launched. We also established an email account, shared.worlds.oslo [] gmail.com. Meanwhile, Martin Lee Mueller has withdrawn from the organizing team.

2. Today I have worked with plans for the Futures of Zoosemiotics roundtable, which will be arranged in Tartu, April 6th, as part of the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (program here). I have taken part in discussing the time schedule/format, made a preliminary list of roundtable participants to invite (after February 15th), and written a 10-line presentation of key questions of the roundtable.

Program of Tartu zoosemiotics conference

The program of the 4-8 April 2011 conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations, to be arranged in Tartu, Estonia, has now been released. You'll find an overview on the conference website - full program in PDF here.

My own roles, apart from being part of the organizing team:
* Giving the presentation "The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people", Wednesday April 6th.

14.30 – 16.30

Session: Perspectives in zoosemiotics II
Felice Cimatti, Marco Mazzeo. Uexküll’s heritage: do human animals live in an Umwelt?
Morten Tønnessen. The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people.
Katya Mandoki. Performative acts among animals? Considering zoo-pragmatics
Mara Woods. An affective model of perception-action.

* Chair of the roundtable "Futures of Zoosemiotics", Wednesday April 6th at 17.00-18.30.

Further roundtables:
- Thursday April 7th: "Zoo as a semiotic environment", chair: Nils Lindahl Elliot
- Friday April 8th: "Animals and ecocriticism", chair: Wendy Wheeler

Zoosemiotic grant meeting - roundtable plans

Today after the research seminar in Dynamical Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations, we had a grant meeting, the six of us. Next spring's conference naturally topped the agenda. We agreed on what responsibility each one of us will have, and I was asked to lead a roundtable scheduled for April 6th, 2011 (preliminary at 16.30-18.00), with the topic 'Futures of Zoosemiotics'. I will have to come up with names for the roundtable, and prepare a set of questions for discussion.

Umwelt trajectories paper accepted and publication thereof invited

My paper "The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people" (cf. previous posts) has been formally accepted for presentation at the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (Tartu, April 2011), and invited for inclusion in the related special issue of Semiotica on zoosemiotics, which is to appear in the autumn of 2012. As for the latter, a full-length text is due by May 20th 2011.

Rodopi volume: Timeline; contents revision

Today I've agreed, in communication with fellow editor Kadri Tüür, on a tiny revision of the list of contributors to be invited (one person added) to our planned volume The Semiotics of Animal Representations (cf. previous posts). Invitations will appear in the acceptance letter to the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations. The estimated length as for now is 240 pages, counting 15 chapters plus introduction.

We've also agreed on a timeline, or schedule, for our editorial work, with tasks and deadlines organized in 15 points. We expect to submit the formal book proposal at some point in December. Full-length papers should be submitted by May 31st, 2011, and revised, final papers by September 30th, 2011. Expected completion of the manuscript (after a round or two of proof-reading) is preliminary set to January 15th, 2012. We expect to submit the formal book proposal at some point in December. The whole process will last up to 2 years.

Rodopi volume: The Semiotics of Animal Representations

Together with co-editor Kadri Tüür (and editor of the planned Semiotica special issue Timo Maran) I've started working with the Rodopi volume (to appear in the their series Nature, Culture and Literature) of selected proceedings from the April 2011 conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations. We've made a preliminary selection of contributors to invite, based on the 80+ abstracts we received for the conference. Invitations will likely be sent in late October.

We've also come up with a work title for the book: The Semiotics of Animal Representations.

'The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people' to be published

My paper 'The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people', which will be presented at the April 2011 zoosemiotics conference in Tartu, will likely be published in the special issue of Semiotica on zoosemiotics which is to be published the autumn of 2012.

Zoosemiotics abstract: Umwelt trajectories

I have just finished my abstract for the forthcoming zoosemiotics conference.

Morten Tønnessen

The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people

Abstract for the conference ZOOSEMIOTICS AND ANIMAL REPRESENTATIONS

This paper contributes to developing Umwelt terminology, and simultaneously offers an analysis of past and current interrelations of wolves, sheep and people, thus providing an application of the notation suggested.

The starting point for the author’s terminology is the concept of an Umwelt transition, which is in effect an Uexküllian notion of environmental change. An Umwelt transition can be defined as a lasting, systematic change within the life cycle of a being, considered from an ontogenetic (individual), phylogenetic (population-, species-) or cultural perspective, from one typical appearance of its Umwelt (i.e., organism-specific phenomenal world) to another. An Umwelt trajectory, the author proposes, can be characterized as the course through evolutionary (and cultural) time taken by the Umwelt of a creature, as defined by its changing relations with the Umwelten of other creatures. Thus defined it represents an evolutionary and mass equivalent of Jakob von Uexküll’s notion of the Umwelt-tunnel of a single individual creature.

As we can see, the Umwelt trajectory of a creature is the historical path of its perceptual and behavioral dispositions considered from an ecological and phenomenological point of view. As such, it is intimately tied to this creature’s ontological niche, i.e. the set of contrapuntal relations that a being takes part in at a given point of natural history. Like the Umwelt tunnel and the ontological niche, the Umwelt trajectory of a creature can be regarded as a specification of the Umwelt concept which situates it in terms of temporal perspective.

Taken as a whole the Umwelten of wolves, sheep and people represent an Umwelt triad of sorts, given that they have been and remain intertwined and codependent. This triple Umwelt is telling of both ecological and cultural developments. In cultural terms, hardly any animals are as loaded with symbolic value as the wolf and the sheep. And the shared importance is no coincidence, as the symbolism of the two animals has developed in explicit opposition to each other. Altogether the wolf-sheep duet, the human-sheep duet and the human-wolf duet – to speak with Uexküll – constitute a highly coordinated triple duet in the great symphony of nature.

The most enlivening aspect of this narrative concerns the semiotic and phenomenological interplay that takes place amid wolves, sheep and people. While the most relevant long-term process of change varies from creature to creature – evolution for wolves, breeding for sheep and cultural development for people (all of which represent broad categories of Umwelt transitions) – there are several common factors at play as well. In this paper, the author will touch upon a) the geographical range and overlap, (b) the sensory range and overlap, and c) the functional range and overlap of wolves, sheep and people. The most crucial arena for semiotic interplay (and thus semiotic causation) is that of functional interrelations, particularly with regard to companionship and enmity. In our current ecological situation, where the human species has emerged as a global species in charge of an ecological empire wherein the sheep, among other species, has been given a privileged position, even the wolf has entered into a dependency relation with our kind. For better or worse, our Umwelt trajectories have (once again) aligned.

Abstract for zoosemiotics conference in progress

I have come up with a title for my abstract submission to the conference Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (Tartu, April 4-8, 2011): 'The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people'. This paper will sum up my work on the (in part interactive) life worlds of these creatures, and introduce some new concepts in the process ('Umwelt trajectory' being one).

Zoosemiotics conference: Updated CFP

The organizing team of the international conference 'Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations', to be arranged in Tartu April 4-8, 2011 - cf. initial announcement and launch of webpage - has issued an updated CFP. The deadline for abstract submission is September 15th. To submit a proposal, interested scholars should e-mail an abstract (300-600 words) and a bio-note (less than 100 words) to the address zoosemiotics@semiootika.ee. The abstract and bio-note should be sent together in one file (.doc or .rtf) attached to the e-mail.

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The news fall in two categories - plenary speakers and publication venues. We are glad to announce the plenary speakers of the conference [already mentioned in Utopian Realism]: Colin Allen (Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University, USA), Jesper Hoffmeyer (Professor emeritus, Biological Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Graham Huggan (Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures at University of Leeds, UK) and David Rothenberg (Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA).
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There are two publications planned for the articles based on conference presentations: a volume in Rodopi´s Nature, Culture and Literature series and a special issue on zoosemiotics in journal Semiotica. The Rodopi volume will be edited by me and Kadri Tüür, the Semiotica issue by Timo Maran.

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For up-to-date information, see the conference webpage.