Lotman Conference 2025

Lotman conference poster

 

 

The 14th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies along with the 15th Annual Lotman Days

“Creativity – Complexity – Intelligence“

Tallinn, Estonia, June 11–13, 2025

The intricate interplay of signs with the processes of creativity, complexity, and intelligence is immersed in all varieties, modalities, and ecologies of meaning-making. Meaning-making is always creative, complex, and intelligent, in both its agreements, alignments, and continuums, as well as its incompatibilities, controversies, and contradictions.

According to Juri Lotman, one of the defining characteristics of an intelligent semiotic system is its ability to be creative, i.e. the ability to produce new and unpredictable meanings. Lotman noted that this ability is not exclusive to the human mind but can occur in various other systems and at multiple scales, where a sufficient degree of complexity is present.

The role of creativity in learning and development, be it in humans or non-humans, is integrative within patterns of emergence, reproduction, and decay in complex systems, such as nature, culture, or the individual mind. Intelligence – be it organic or artificial, individual or collective – manifests in various signs and sign systems and is in time creatively transformed through meaning-making.

We kindly invite proposals for conference presentations (20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion) and sessions of presentations on the dynamic relationships between signs, creativity, complexity, and intelligence and their transformative impact within education, art or the arts, play, and scientific inquiry.

The updated program can be downloaded here.

The abstract book can be downloaded here.

We’re delighted to share a collection of photos from the event, available here.

Important dates:

  • January 31, 2025 – Extended deadline for submitting proposals
  • February 28, 2025 – Notification of acceptance of presentation
  • March 1 to April 15, 2025 – Early bird registration
  • April 16 to May 16, 2025 – Late bird registration
  • June 11 to June 13, 2025 – The conference

Call for papers can be downloaded here in English, and here in Russian.

Confirmed plenary speakers

  • Terrence Deacon, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  • Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi, University of Warsaw, Poland
  • Aaro Toomela, Tallinn University, Estonia

We welcome papers on the topics of interest, including but not limited to:

  • Semiotic theories of creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • The nature and culture of creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Semiotics, psychology, and cognitive science of creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Creativity, complexity, and intelligence in various modalities of meaning-making;
  • Creativity, complexity, and intelligence in humans and non-humans;
  • The relationships between various cognitive processes and creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Agency, the self, and subjectivity within creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Creativity, complexity, and intelligence in organic and artificial systems;
  • Emergence and decay of creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Creativity, complexity, and intelligence in art, play, and science;
  • Creativity, complexity, and intelligence in education, learning and development;
  • Language and other sign systems in relation to creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Digital technologies in relation to creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Ecologies of creativity, complexity, and intelligence;
  • Futures and prospects of creativity, complexity, and intelligence – expectations and anticipations.

NASS Graduate Student Award and Grants

5-10 graduate students presenting a paper at NASS XIV are supported financially by NASS (250 € each). Furthermore, a prize along with a diploma for the best graduate student presentation is awarded at NASS XIV (350 €). We are happy to announce that the grant winners are:

  1. Anwer Shazia, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  2. Qiao Du, Nanjing University, China
  3. Holm Mark Allen, University of Wyoming, United States
  4. Kõrver Kristina, Arvo Pärt Centre, Estonia
  5. Levasseur Hélène, Université Paris Cité, France
  6. Mouratidou Alexandra, Lund University, Sweden
  7. Pertusati Eléa Jessica, University of Tartu, Estonia & Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
  8. Salvucci Peter, Istanbul Technical University, State Conservatory of Turkish Music
  9. Yu Jun, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China & Lund University, Sweden
  10. Zlov Vladislav, Lund University, Sweden

Certificates of Excellence for Best Student Presentation were granted to two presentations:

Karl Joosep Pihel (University of Tartu, Estonia) for the presentation “Musical semiotics in a major key: Between Deleuze and topic theory”

Heidi Campana Piva (University of Turin, Italy) & Michele Cerutti (University of Turin,Italy, and University of Tartu, Estonia) for the presentation “Everything is connected: Signs of a conspiracy”

NASS and The Lotman Days

The conference was organized by the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies, Tallinn University School of Humanities, and the Juri Lotman Semiotics Repository. The official languages of the conference were English and Russian. All participants were expected to attend in person, as online participation was not available.

The purpose of NASS is to promote the advancement of semiotics as an academic discipline and research domain in the Nordic and Baltic countries and within the international semiotic community. The Lotman Days are an annual conference series that has been held at Tallinn University since 2009. The aim of the Lotman Days is to provide an interdisciplinary platform for scholars who wish to examine the dynamics of our semiotic world from different perspectives and to explore together questions that were central to Juri Lotman’s scholarship.

All rooms were equipped with a computer, a projector, and a screen. For your convenience, we kindly ask you to ensure your presentation is available on the computer in your designated room before your session begins. For technical reasons, we kindly ask you not to use your own computer for projecting. A USB drive may be used to transfer the presentation or the presentation may be uploaded in advance.

Practical Information for Conference Attendees

Registration: 125 € (March 1 to April 15, 2025), 150 € (April 16 to May 16, 2025). Registration fee includes lunches on all days, coffee breaks, a digital abstract book, and NASS membership fee.

Organizing team at Tallinn University

Conference chairs: Lauri Linask, Merit Maran

Organizing committee: Merja Bauters, Tatjana Kuzovkina, Daniele Monticelli, Marek Tamm, Mikhail Trunin.

Scientific committee: Merja Bauters, Øyvind Eide, Paulius Jevsejevas, Tatjana Kuzovkina, Sara Lenninger, Lauri Linask, Merit Maran, Tanya Menise, Daniele Monticelli, Juha Ojala, Alin Olteanu, Inesa Sahakyan, Aleksei Semenenko, Morten Tønnessen, Siiri Tarrikas, Daina Teters, Mikhail Trunin.

For more information, please visit nordicsemiotics.org/nass-tallinn-2025/ or write to nass14lotmandays2025@gmail.com

Participating in the conference implies expressing support for the freedom and territorial integrity of Ukraine.