Visuals as Semiotic Sites: Approaching Anticipation Through a Process-Oriented Semiotic Lens

Abstract

The study approaches anticipatory processes through a semiotic lens, using visual signs as a site for meaning making and interpretation. Capitalizing on the ambiguity inherent in visual signs, the study employs hand drawn visuals as empirical entry points to materialize, reveal, and trace the effects on anticipatory assumptions resulting through interpretive plurality surrounding visual signs. The two iterative Futures Literacy Labs, both of differing epistemic purposes, were conducted to engage with anticipatory processes at two different levels of anticipation i.e., anticipation-for-the-future and anticipation-for-emergence. The first lab, however, functioned as an exploratory observational setting guiding the methodological orientation of the study, meanwhile, the second lab was theoretically grounded in semiotic inquiry and produced the empirical material analyzed in relation to anticipation and semiosis. The study focused on individual and collective drawing activities, with a primary emphasis on visual interpretation and meaning making, articulation of assumptions, and shared visual engagement and idea exchange. Furthermore, the study emphasized on how signs extend along with the meanings, ambiguity intensifies, ideas coalesce, and underlying assumptions loosen their grip, paving a way to observe emergence and novelty. Employing qualitative and process-oriented semiotic analysis approaches, the research investigates the potential of using visuals in futures research to articulate and surface anticipatory assumptions, and use of the interpretive plurality in a collaborative setting to broaden one’s anticipatory frames. The findings demonstrate that the meaning does not reside in a (visual) sign and constantly remains in flux amid interaction. Moreover, becoming aware of one’s assumptions and recognizing the existence of alternative ways of anticipating when a wider range of assumptions surfaced, alongside encountering an unfamiliar yet challenging future, opened space to engage playfully with uncertainty and reimagining present assumptions. The paper concludes by acknowledging that it is within this space of interpretative openness that a movement toward anticipation-for emergence becomes possible, not as a definitive transition, but as a gradual reorientation in how meaning is approached.