Abstract for Henrik Steffens conference in Stavanger September 2023:

Today I have submitted the abstract below to the organizers of a conference on the work of Henrik Steffens that is to be held at Museum of Archaeology, organized by University of Stavanger on September 8-9th, in relation to the 250 year anniversary of his birth. I am an invited speaker.

***

Title: Reconstructing the nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene

By Morten Tønnessen

In earlier work, I have addressed “Steffens’ ideas about organic meteorology: From the Totalorganismus to Planetary Health?” (forthcoming chapter, 2023). Here, I noted that discussion of humans´ place in nature has received renewed attention in the two last decades following the rise of the Anthropocene discourse, where the “Anthropocene” designates the current geological era characterized by environmental changes induced by human agency, and observed that this new context for theorizing on humans´ place in nature potentially reactualizes Steffens´ work. In this presentation, I will treat relations between Steffens´ work and the contemporary Anthropocene discourse more in-depth. Particularly, I will ask in how far Steffens´ work can be informative with regard to understanding how humans understood their place in nature around the time when many claim the Anthropocene actually started, in the wake of the industrial revolution following the invention of the steam engine in 1786.

Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?

A symposium at the 27th International Summer School for Semiotic and Structural Studies (Imatra, Finland – June 8-12, 2012)

Within the days June 8-12, 2012, the symposium “Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?” will be arranged in Imatra, Finland, as part of the 27th International Summer School for Semiotic and Structural Studies. NASS’ president Luis Emilio Bruni will chair the anniversary symposium, which will take place at Hotel Valtionhotelli.

The Imatra ISI symposium marks the 25 year anniversary of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS). The venue of the anniversary symposium, Imatra, is appropriate given that it was at a meeting in this Finnish town that NASS was founded in the summer of 1987. The first Executive Committee of NASS counted representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The current board, elected at the Seventh Conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies in Lund in May 2011, involves Ordinary Representatives and Supplementary Representatives from these five countries and further Estonia.

The theme of the NASS anniversary symposium draws on the work of several notable Nordic scholars in the fields of cognitive semiotics, biosemiotics and existential semiotics. These are all promising, novel, dynamic subfields in contemporary semiotics. Neither of them are but regionalparadigms – rather, Nordic researchers have been instrumental in establishing and consolidating them at an international level, with a sphere of influence which by far exceeds the Nordic region. How has Nordic semiotics come to be so influential? And, as the title of the symposium asks: Where do these fields meet? A number of scholars are involved in both cognitive semiotics and biosemiotics, and there is clearly a thematic overlap in-between the two. And what of existential semiotics – on what points does it overlap with biosemiotics, and with cognitive semiotics? Furthermore, how can these various Nordic paradigms acquire informative inspiration from each other, and find common ground to cultivate further? Despite differing inclinations and academic taste, such a project should not be unattainable, given that cognitive semiotics, biosemiotics and existential semiotics are all concerned with the semiotics of life.

The symposium/research seminar will consist of papers presented by both invited lecturers and participants. The aim of the summer school is to offer the participants both up-to-date research and an opportunity to discuss their projects with leading specialists in various fields. The duration of presentations will be 30 minutes, and the working languages of the seminars are English, French and German. Active participants – i.e., participants presenting papers, must register by April 15th. Passive participants can register until April 30th. Active participants must send a short Curriculum Vitae and a one-page abstract of his/her paper to info@isisemiotics.fi and submit the registration form online. Passive participants must submit the registration form online by April 30, 2011. Participation fee for the whole summer school is 200 EUR (this covers lunch and two coffees a day June 9–12 and an elegant evening reception and buffet on June 9th). For payment instructions and information about accommodation, see the pages of The International Semiotics Institute (ISI).