A discussion between Prof. Wendy Wheeler and Nick Hackworth on the signscape of art and biosemiotics.
Far from being made of meaningless bio-machines, the natural and cultural worlds are brimming full with meanings and purposes. From the Greek bios, for life, and semeion, for sign, biosemiotics has grown from within the natural sciences and the humanities. It offers new ways of thinking about natural and cultural life. In this talk, Wendy Wheeler will be discussing the ancient evolutionary nature of aesthetic form, and its development via natural then cultural metaphor.
Wheeler in an expert in biosemiotics, a new interdiscipline that studies the semiotic and relational nature of life. Drawn from the semiotic logic of Charles Sanders Peirce and the Umwelt and early bio-cybernetic ideas of Jakob von Uexküll, biosemiotics erases the sharp distinction between nature and culture which both utilize sign relations in exactly the same way. Wheeler’s latest book is Expecting the Earth: Life/Culture/Biosemiotics (2016)
Wendy Wheeler is Emeritus Professor of English Literature and Cultural Inquiry at London Metropolitan University. Nick Hackworth is the Creative Director of Modern Forms.
Join us Wednesday 11 October, 7pm
ArtReview Bar
1 Honduras Street, London EC1Y 0TH
rsvp essential at rsvp@artreview.com
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