Nils Lindahl Ellioti külalisloeng “Observing Wildlife in Tropical Forests. A Geosemeiotic Approach”, 7. novembril kell 14.15

7. novembril kell 14.15 peab semiootika osakonnas külalisloengu teemal “Observing Wildlife in Tropical Forests. A Geosemeiotic Approach” loodushariduse uurija Nils Lindahl Elliot (Ühendkuningriik). Loeng kuulub Tartu Ülikooli semiootika osakonna ja Jakob von Uexkülli keskuse algatatud Jakob von Uexkülli loengute sarja.

Nils Lindahl Ellioti teadustöö keskendub looduse vahendatuse küsimusele. Külalisloengu käigus tutvustab ta teadusprojekti, mille  raames uuris ta turistide vaatluspraktikaid troopilise vihmametsa külastamisel. Vaatluspraktikate analüüsil kasutab Elliot lähenemist, mis hõlmab Charles S. Peirce’i semiootikat – lisaks ökoloogiat, geograafiat ja sotsioloogiat. Selle nn geosemeiootilise lähenemise abil otsib Elliot vastust küsimusele, miks üldse loodust vaadeldakse ja milliseid vahendatuse viise võib selles tegevuses eristada.

Loengus tutvustatava uurimuse tulemused ilmuvad peagi samanimelise raamatuna. Ellioti varasem monograafia “Mediating Nature” (Routledge 2006) on üks oma uurimisvaldkonna tähtteoseid.

Loeng toimub kolmapäeval 7. novembril kell 14.15-16.00 aadressil Jakobi 2-114. Loeng on inglise keeles. Kõik huvilised on oodatud!

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Observing Wildlife in Tropical Forests

A Geosemeiotic Approach

Nils Lindahl Elliot

How do tourists observe wildlife in tropical forests? Why would anyone engage in such a practice – or perhaps more precisely, in such practices? And what exactly is entailed by ‘wildlife observation’?

In this lecture Nils Lindahl Elliot will address these questions by way of what he describes as a geosemeiotic approach – a transdisciplinary perspective that articulates semeiotic, ecological, geographic, and sociological theories in order to explain how it is that tourists may perceive, conceive and interpret the fauna and flora in what are popularly described as ‘rainforests’. The spelling of semiotics with an extra ‘e’ reflects the investigation’s debt to Charles Sanders Peirce, who spelled the term in this manner, and whose semeiotic theory, phenomenology and ideal-realist philosophy provide a point of departure for the inquiry.

The presentation is divided into two parts. The first will offer an overview of the research, starting from an ethnographic investigation that engaged with the observational practices of tourists visiting the internationally-renowned biological reserve on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The second part will focus on the semeiotic-phenomenological dimensions of the practices, with an account of the manner in which Peirce can be used to articulate three general modes of wildlife observation: immediate, dynamical, and mediate.

Nils Lindahl Elliot is a writer, teacher, and researcher based in Bristol, UK. His research investigates popular pedagogies of nature, with a special interest in the mediazation of such pedagogies. He is the author of Mediating Nature (Routledge, 2006), and of the forthcoming Observing Wildlife in Tropical Forests, a two-volume study that presents the results of research supported by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).