In this exciting talk, our visiting PhD student Jun Yu aims to integrate ideas from cognitive semiotics (e.g. Sonesson) and social semiotics (e.g. van Leeuween) - two disciplines that have been previously held to be at heads with one another! But Jun will show that they are in fact compatible, and that when combined, can in fact help us make sense of LEGO better than on their own. So, all are warmly welcome to this meeting of differences, best in the room for IRL communication, but if not possible also to the zoom link (with cameras on), from 3pm for introductions. P.S. If you wish to join us at Valvet for the "post-seminar" (at your own expenses), please let me know by May 5.

LEGO is a fascinating phenomenon to investigate semiotically. On the one hand, the building bricks, the core product of LEGO, provide a hands-on opportunity for people to engage with its embedded meanings through building and playing. A physical act of snapping a LEGO element into position can possibly be seen as "a moment of textual production that necessarily blends corporate and fan authorship" (Lee, 2020: 8). But the properties of LEGO as a semiotic system, compared to those of language, gestures and pictures (Zlatev et al., 2023), need to be more carefully established, which is the first goal of this study.  

Further, the building bricks are accompanied by tangible packages and building manuals, and also digital products like webpages, videos, and soundtracks for enhancing the building experience. Language, pictures, diagrams, together with building blocks are included in LEGO as communicative practice. Combining concepts and insights from cognitive semiotics and social semiotics (Van Leeuwen, 2005), I will discuss how this communicative practice involves a hybrid of different semiotic systems (Zlatev et al., 2023) and show how the practice is used by both designers and players with examples from online resources to investigate how rules are followed and challenged (Van Leeuwen, 2005), and how different kinds of agency are involved (Mendoza-Collazos, 2022). 

Lee JR (2020) Deconstructing LEGO: The Medium and Messages of LEGO Play. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mendoza-Collazos J (2022) Agency and artefacts: A cognitive semiotic exploration of design. Lund: Lund University.

Van Leeuwen T (2005) Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.

Zlatev J, Devylder S, Defina R, Moskaluk K and Andersen LB (2023) Analyzing polysemiosis: Language, gesture, and depiction in two cultural practices with sand drawing. Semiotica 2023(253): 81–116.