The theme for Semiofest Warsaw 2026 is Viscosity.
Viscosity belongs to the language of physics, but it also offers a way to think about contemporary culture. Neither solid nor liquid, neither fluid nor fixed. It slows things down, makes signs stick but also prevents them from letting go.
We are interested in exploring viscosity as an open theme, not as a fixed framework or idea.
But when we think about viscous phenomena, two qualities stand out: thickness and stickiness.
Thickness
signals density and resistance – slowing down, intensifying, concentrating. It can show up in your new everyday ritual aimed at reclaiming meaning, in curated cultural choices in a world of excess or the self-focus of neural networks in human or machine learning processes. Yet it can also create obstacles – clogged systems, garbage islands pressing against the flow of life.
Stickiness
on the other hand highlights how things and ideas cling. You may see it in creative recombinations of signs, in hybrid cultural mosaics that open new possibilities and hold together against all odds, in bots testing the pull of conspiracy theories, or in stereotypes that refuse to fade. Stickiness can enable hopeful connections, but also reinforce exclusion.
Warsaw itself is a great setting for this theme, we see the city carries viscous qualities. It is marked by layers of history that remain present, but change is constant.
While new developments emerge at a rapid pace. Old and new sit next to each other, density and friction are part of its everyday life..
Want to contribute to Semiofest?
Here are some ideas to get you started.
Marketing & Branding
design | communication strategy |
media and technology
For example, you might ask:
Why do some messages stick while others fail to connect?
How can brands cut through
the density of information, images, and media channels?
And how might they create
experiences thick with meaning in the midst of a constant influx of cultural signs?
Culture & Creativity
social communication | cultural change
| uncanny and AI | education | art
For example, you might ask:
How does the tension between slow and fast culture play out today?
Is creativity and education nurtured by dense reflection, or by the swift flow of sticky-note ideas?
Will AI-generated content form a new, condensed cultural scaffolding, or will it peel away, washed out by the human production of more persistent signs?
Natural Life
organic | embodiment | ecosemiotics |
ecology
For example, you might ask:
How are life and culture glued together
through the work of semiotics?
How does meaning flow across organisms, revealing the complexity of interspecies
communication?
And what about ecological awareness, where thick, discomforting entanglements replace the clarity and flow of decisive action?