Sign (semiotics)

About: Sign (semiotics) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4080 publications have been published within this topic receiving 70333 citations. The topic is also known as: semiotic sign.

Geoethics, a Branding for Sustainable Practices

Abstract: In struggles for cultural leadership, advocating a paradigm helps to disseminate, for example, a style of life, thinking, or common practices. Promoting a practice, that is, branding it, includes the use of a simple name or symbol (semiotic sign). Within geosciences, the label “geoethics” refers to a school of thought that uses established philosophical concepts to promote responsible professional practices. The outcomes that are available aggregate to a more general paradigm that calls for geocentric human practices. The label geoethics also sounds like a brand for those practices. As analysis shows, the notion of geoethics is not univocal. At first sight, that feature hinders using it as a brand for geocentric practices. However, the successful branding of the concept of sustainability, as a scientific and public paradigm, indicates the opposite. Although the notion of sustainability aggregates various concepts and is not univocal, it illustrates what cultural leadership can be achieved when a concept, paradigm, and brand use the same semiotic sign (name). Therefore, it is suggested that the school of thought, Geoethics, with its dedicated reference to the specific societal use of geosciences, should also be used as a brand: geoethics, the general application of geoethical thinking to promote geocentric human practices.

Towards an Integrative Information Society: Studies on Individuality in Speech and Sign

Abstract: The flow of information within modern information society has increased rapidly over the last decade. The major part of this information flow relies on the individual’s abilities to handle text or speech input. For the majority of us it presents no problems, but there are some individuals who would benefit from other means of conveying information, e.g. signed information flow. During the last decades the new results from various disciplines have all suggested towards the common background and processing for sign and speech and this was one of the key issues that I wanted to investigate further in this thesis. The basis of this thesis is firmly within speech research and that is why I wanted to design analogous test batteries for widely used speech perception tests for signers – to find out whether the results for signers would be the same as in speakers’ perception tests. One of the key findings within biology – and more precisely its effects on speech and communication research – is the mirror neuron system. That finding has enabled us to form new theories about evolution of communication, and it all seems to converge on the hypothesis that all communication has a common core within humans. In this thesis speech and sign are discussed as equal and analogical counterparts of communication and all research methods used in speech are modified for sign. Both speech and sign are thus investigated using similar test batteries. Furthermore, both production and perception of speech and sign are studied separately. An additional framework for studying production is given by gesture research using cry sounds. Results of cry sound research are then compared to results from children acquiring sign language. These results show that individuality manifests itself from very early on in human development. Articulation in adults, both in speech and sign, is studied from two perspectives: normal production and re-learning production when the apparatus has been changed. Normal production is studied both in speech and sign and the effects of changed articulation are studied with regards to speech. Both these studies are done by using carrier sentences. Furthermore, sign production is studied giving the informants possibility for spontaneous speech. The production data from the signing informants is also used as the basis for input in the sign synthesis stimuli used in sign perception test battery. Speech and sign perception were studied using the informants’ answers to questions using forced choice in identification and discrimination tasks. These answers were then compared across language modalities. Three different

The South African sign language machine translation project: issues on non-manual sign generation

Abstract: We report on the South African Sign Language Machine Translation project, and more specifically on our experience in extending a synchronous tree-adjoining grammar parser approach in order to generate non-manual signs and construct a suitable signing space. We show that post-processing of the target language tree, after transfer rules have been applied, results in a simple and efficient mechanism to generate information on non-manual signs for use in a signing avatar.

The Audience experience: a critical analysis of audiences in the performing arts

Abstract: JENNIFER RADBOURNE, HILARY GLOW AND KATYA JOHANSON (EDS), THE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AUDIENCES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS (BRISTOL AND CHICAGO: INTELLECT, 2013)At a time when funding is increasingly competitive and people have more choice than ever about how and where to invest their energy, how do the arts communicate their appeal? It's no longer enough to create exceptional work and know that people will line up to witness it. We've entered an emotionand experience-based economy where consumers have more options than ever before, and are more critical about what they get from participation in return. So how do we harness the energy of these audiences and keep the arts running high on the list of things that people choose to attend? The Audience Experience addresses this by examining multiple factors that lead to audience enjoyment, growth and participation. While each chapter offers key insights into this area of scholarship, the strength of the book is in bringing these elements together. In doing so, the authors offer an account of audience participation as active, localised, varied and complex.The editors argue that the collection addresses a need for new research on what audiences are 'thinking, feeling and doing as a product of their engagement with arts practices' (xiv). Many of the chapters remind us of each contributor's sustained labour in this area, with a large number presenting results from previous research with a new angle or case study. What's 'new' is the fact that this book is a timely amalgamation of research in this growing field, carefully curated for its relevance to, and accessibility for, arts administrators and practitioners. The editors point out, for example, that most practitioners can't articulate what they hope that their audiences get out of their work (xiii). And while most artistic directors can speak about their target audiences in terms of demographics, they struggle to pin down what their company's work offers at a more personal level (xiv).Rather than look at the gamut of experience, the book is tightly focused on identifying 'qualities that build creative engagement, self-expression, self-actualisation, and loyalty amongst attenders' (xiv), targeting these areas for their capacity to increase attendance across the performing arts. 'There is a clear need to adopt the means to measure the audience experience because measurement is followed by action, purpose, innovation, change and growth', they write (12), which links to programming, business models and a more informed understanding of the ties between attendance and cultural life. The Introduction describes the flow of the book as moving from the impacts of place to issues of depth and intensity, to discussions on method. This logic is less clear when looking at the contents table alone, which offers no signposting beyond chapter headings and author names. Chapter titles reveal a broad range of case studies from different performance disciplines, encouraging more of a 'choose your own adventure' approach for navigating the text. One of the greatest pleasures of reading this book is discovering the case studies themselves: a number of innovative and successful productions, some of which worked side-by-side with local communities, adding fresh breath to their local arts scene in the process.A few key themes emerge throughout the book, which provide clarification and creative inspiration regarding audience engagement. The power of post-performance reflection in enhancing the positive experiences of live art is one such recurring observation, particularly apparent in project designs that facilitated reflection for the collection of data. Another driver of satisfaction links to a desire for self-realisation and self-identification among contemporary theatregoers: a sign of a time where 'selfies' and carefully curated social media profiles suggest an increasingly introspective mode of experiencing identity. …