Semiofest

Applied semiotics has long helped us uncover meaning beyond what people say - connecting patterns, contexts, and cultural codes. It turns cultural data into something more intuitive, more alive 🙏

At Semiofest Warsaw 2026, we want to broaden your toolbox through hands-on learning about how biosemiotics expands the field beyond culture, into the body, the senses, and the biological systems that shape how we perceive and make sense of the world. Biosemiotics explores how meaning is formed before language, through instinct, sensation, and interaction with the environment.

You will benefit from this workshop if:
🕸️ you want to design products and services that address human needs more holistically, going beyond declared needs and engaging instinctive human response
🕸️ you’re looking to bridge the gap between sustainability goals and real human engagement
🕸️ you’ve ever had the sense that meaning starts before words

What you’ll learn:
🕸️ how to use your own body as an interpretive tool
🕸️ the practical difference between semiotic and biosemiotic approaches to meaning
🕸️ how to recognize multi-layered sign systems (from molecular to symbolic)

The workshop is led by Noël Theodosiou, Emanuela Bove, and Yogi Hendlin - practitioners working at the intersection of semiotics, biosemiotics, and innovation.

Don’t worry, no prior experience is needed! Emanuela, Yogi, and Noël will guide you through everything. 🦸 🦸‍♂️ 🦸‍♀️

🎉 Good news you can join both workshops (Applied Brand Semiotics 101 by Chris Arning and the above) on the first day if you want, as they don’t overlap 🚋 🚋 🎉

Look below for more details and be sure to secure your spot.

👋 Hello Semiofest friends, we’re starting a series of posts in which we’ll introduce thematic blocks and all the wonderful speakers of Semiofest Warsaw 2026 and the ideas they’ll be bringing to the event.

Let’s begin with Sticky Ideas 🏃‍♂️‍➡️ . This is a new format at Semiofest, created for short, memorable 5-minute presentations. Sticky Ideas create an opportunity to make an immediate impression on the audience and stay with them long after the talk has ended. It is a space for personal fascinations, compelling observations, and semiotic phenomena that draw people in and leave a lasting trace 🤔

At this year’s Semiofest, shaped by the theme of viscosity, this format feels especially relevant.

In this Sticky Ideas block, taking place on Thursday, 21 May:

⚡ Ashley Mauritzen will show why old ideals of femininity keep making a comeback.
⚡ Siddhant Lahiri will look at what the remake of Running Man reveals about masculinity in transition.
⚡ Ania Chyl & Ela Konopińska-Dudek will explore whether people on TikTok are interpreting culture just as vividly as the expert semioticians do.
⚡ Liwa Sun will explain why digital humour today feels more sticky than new.

These presentations will draw you in, hold your attention and leave a lasting trace long after you’ve left Warsaw.

In the coming days, we’ll also be sharing speakers from other Semiofest blocks, including Viscous Materiality, Substance of Care, Digital Gooey, Ethics Between Solid and Fluid, Thick Culture, and Viscosity Applied. And let’s not forget the many amazing workshops happening throughout the festival as well!

Stay tuned, and look in the comments below for more program details and Semiofest passes 🎟️ 👇

Semiofest Warsaw 2026 isn’t just talks and presentations, it’s also a chance to roll up your sleeves and learn semiotics by doing. 🔨

Workshops are where theory clicks, confidence builds, and you walk out with tools you can use immediately. So here’s part two of our “what’s in it for me?” series: Day 0 workshops (20 May).

🥟 WORKSHOP 1: Applied Semiotics 101 with Chris Arning
For anyone who’s semiotics curious, confused, or simply semiotics intimidated.
If you’ve ever thought: “It sounds fascinating… but will I actually understand the presentations — or even what semiotics is?”, this is your entry point.

Chris Arning is a Semiofest co-founder and one of the most experienced applied semioticians out there. Expect a session that makes semiotics clear, practical, and genuinely enjoyable - the kind that turns “semiotic fog” into “ohhh… now I get it.”

🥟 WORKSHOP 2: From Molecules to Meaning: How Biosemiotics insight can help us innovate for our changing world
For anyone curious about new frameworks, deeper meaning-making, and radically new ways to innovate.

Led by Noël Theodosiou, Yogi H. and Emanuela Bove Firla Bove, bringing together expertise in biosemiotics, public health & environmental thought, and life-sciences innovation strategy.

Current practices of applied semiotics don’t fully integrate all levels of the human experience. Biosemiotics expands semiotic analysis to include the biological sign systems that underpin, and sometimes unconsciously influence, the others. It considers how humans interpret meaning through bodily, sensory, and ecological cues, as well as cultural ones.

This workshop is designed to help participants enrich their current practice — thickening the levels of meaning-making in semiotic analysis and grounding it closer to how our species experiences and interprets the world.

✨ Day 0 is about getting hands-on: learning with others, trying things out, and bringing new perspectives into your practice. To get your tickets for Day 0 workshop visit our webesite (link in comments) ✨

Cheers!