Towards a Cognitive Semiotic aprroach to cinema: Semiotics vs. 'Semiology'

[Abstract] The point of departure for an eventual presentation is the question if a cognition (in semiotics) always has to be formulated in the terms of a triadic sign, as is it is done sometimes when applying a Peircian perspective on film (Ehrat 2005: 72). The problem of the importance of a “Third” is at stake when discussing how film produces meaning. To understand film is also to understand the concept of cinema, to paraphrase the famous example postulated by Peirce about giving and gift. But is it correct in this conjunction to criticise ‘semiology’ represented, for instance, by Greimas’ ‘transfer d’objet’ (Ehrat 2005: 121-22) of a degeneration into a dyadic approach not only to gifts but also more generally to narration (i.e., time) in film? Now, to refer to the opening line: if, according to Peirce, a cognition always is ‘a cognition of the Real’ (Ehrat 2005: 140) couldn’t a concept of the Real also be said to be comprised in Metz’s (another example of an early ‘semiolog’) postulation that ‘movement’ (here interpreted in terms of Peirce’s Pragmaticist concept of action) in film images convey life, i.e., the Real (Metz 2003 [1968]: 17)? This being so, one could add, because film is intrinsically iconic. Thus, may we dispense with linguistics when analysing narration in film? Well, linguistics is ‘not necessary to the analysis of filmic narration’ (Buckland 2000:5). As Sonesson (2009: 63) writes (about pictures) in ‘this respect […] pictures are actually better than verbal language at suggesting a story line’. The sequentiality of film — of course — enforces this inherent potential o

Russia in a Western Mirror. A Presentation of Denis Diderot, Mme de Stael and Andre Gide

Abstract is not availabl

How Will the Emerging Plurality of Lives Change How We Conceive of and Relate to Life?

The project “A Plurality of Lives” was funded and hosted by the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University, Sweden. The aim of the project was to better understand how a second origin of life, either in the form of a discovery of extraterrestrial life, life developed in a laboratory, or machines equipped with abilities previously only ascribed to living beings, will change how we understand and relate to life. Because of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the project aim, the project took an interdisciplinary approach with a research group made up of 12 senior researchers representing 12 different disciplines. The project resulted in a joint volume, an international symposium, several new projects, and a network of researchers in the field, all continuing to communicate about and advance the aim of the project

The Keck Cosmic Web Imager: a capable new integral field spectrograph for the W. M. Keck Observatory

The Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) is a new facility instrument being developed for the W. M. Keck Observatory and funded for construction by the Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). KCWI is a bench-mounted spectrograph for the Keck II right Nasmyth focal station, providing integral field spectroscopy over a seeing-limited field up to 20"x33" in extent. Selectable Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) gratings provide high efficiency and spectral resolution in the range of 1000 to 20000. The dual-beam design of KCWI passed a Preliminary Design Review in summer 2011. The detailed design of the KCWI blue channel (350 to 700 nm) is now nearly complete, with the red channel (530 to 1050 nm) planned for a phased implementation contingent upon additional funding. KCWI builds on the experience of the Caltech team in implementing the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), in operation since 2009 at Palomar Observatory. KCWI adds considerable flexibility to the CWI design, and will take full advantage of the excellent seeing and dark sky above Mauna Kea with a selectable nod-and-shuffle observing mode. In this paper, models of the expected KCWI sensitivity and background subtraction capability are presented, along with a detailed description of the instrument design. The KCWI team is lead by Caltech (project management, design and implementation) in partnership with the University of California at Santa Cruz (camera optical and mechanical design) and the W. M. Keck Observatory (program oversight and observatory interfaces)

Mundos mesclados, espaços segregados: cultura material, mestiçagem e segmentação no sítio Aldeia em Santarém (PA)

This article discusses the processes of cultural exchange between Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazilian, Amerindians, and mestizos based on the analysis of the material culture from households of Santarém (PA), occupied during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,. Although these social groups manipulated material culture aiming to express different values, related to hierarchy, social segmentation, and affirmation of identities, ambiguity also characterizes these assemblages. This material ambiguity informs about the mixtures of both practices and cultural references that brought about the building of a mestizo society.Com base na análise da cultura material proveniente de unidades domésticas do núcleo urbano de Santarém (PA), ocupadas nos séculos XVIII e XIX, o presente artigo discute os processos de trocas culturais entre portugueses, luso-brasileiros, indígenas e mestiços. Embora esses grupos sociais tenham manipulado a cultura material visando expressar diferentes valores, relacionados à hierarquia, segmentação social e afirmação de identidades, a ambigüidade é uma característica das amostras analisadas, informando sobre as misturas de práticas e de referenciais culturais que levaram à construção de uma sociedade mestiça

Many Labs 2: Investigating Variation in Replicability Across Samples and Settings

We conducted preregistered replications of 28 classic and contemporary published findings, with protocols that were peer reviewed in advance, to examine variation in effect magnitudes across samples and settings. Each protocol was administered to approximately half of 125 samples that comprised 15,305 participants from 36 countries and territories. Using the conventional criterion of statistical significance (p < .05), we found that 15 (54%) of the replications provided evidence of a statistically significant effect in the same direction as the original finding. With a strict significance criterion (p < .0001), 14 (50%) of the replications still provided such evidence, a reflection of the extremely highpowered design. Seven (25%) of the replications yielded effect sizes larger than the original ones, and 21 (75%) yielded effect sizes smaller than the original ones. The median comparable Cohen’s ds were 0.60 for the original findings and 0.15 for the replications. The effect sizes were small (< 0.20) in 16 of the replications (57%), and 9 effects (32%) were in the direction opposite the direction of the original effect. Across settings, the Q statistic indicated significant heterogeneity in 11 (39%) of the replication effects, and most of those were among the findings with the largest overall effect sizes; only 1 effect that was near zero in the aggregate showed significant heterogeneity according to this measure. Only 1 effect had a tau value greater than .20, an indication of moderate heterogeneity. Eight others had tau values near or slightly above .10, an indication of slight heterogeneity. Moderation tests indicated that very little heterogeneity was attributable to the order in which the tasks were performed or whether the tasks were administered in lab versus online. Exploratory comparisons revealed little heterogeneity between Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) cultures and less WEIRD cultures (i.e., cultures with relatively high and low WEIRDness scores, respectively). Cumulatively, variability in the observed effect sizes was attributable more to the effect being studied than to the sample or setting in which it was studied.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Sociales::Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIP

Signs, Senses and Cognition: Lady Welby and Contemporary Semiotics

Susan Petrilli discusses Victoria Welby (1837–1912) and the Signific movement in her book Signifying and Understanding. The disposition of the book is chronological and thematic, and Petrilli’s discussion connects Welby’s work with contemporary semiotics, as well as with the intellectual and scientific landscape of Welby’s own time. For instance, a selection of Welby’s vast correspondence with intellectuals, researchers and philosophers important to linguistics, semiotics, psychology and anthropology, to mention a few of her interests mirrored in the exchange of letters, is included in the book. The review aims at further connecting Welby’s work to semiotic research of the day, where phenomenological and modern cognitive influences are important