Is it Real? Structuring Reality by Means of Signs

Is it Real? is a collection of twenty-eight papers on the most challenging, provocative – and profound – topics related to the quest for real and virtual realities of vision and other senses, and realities that are either constructed or imagined. There was no school, no theory, no methodology, nor any empirical approach in semiotics which was not forced to take a position, whether implicitly or explicitly, in attempting to discuss this issue. Semiotics is a discipline dealing with signs, and, thus, it is commonly thought that if we say of something that it is a “sign”, then it is something “less” real than the thing itself to which it refers. As such, the field of problems which opens from the theme “Is it Real?” is almost endless – but also relevant. This volume presents interactive dialogue related to this question structured under six different headings: five papers on the topic of “Visual Realities”; six on “What is Real?”; five on “Textual Realities”, concentrating on realities revealed from literature or the written language through texts; five on “Constructed Realities”; three on “Virtual Realities”; and, finally, four papers on “Imagery Realities”.

About the Author :
Zeynep Onur is a Professor in the Department of Architecture at Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey. Her specific research areas are semiotic studies in architecture and architectural education. She co-authored the book Modern Sonrası Mimarlık Üzerine Notlar (with Z. Tanalı, 2008), and is the editor of the architectural monography of the Turkish architect Ziya Tanalı (2010).Eero Tarasti is a Finnish musicologist and semiologist, who served as a Professor of Musicology at the University of Helsinki between 1984 and 2016. Tarasti has written and edited numerous books encompassing a semiotic approach to music. He also served as the President of the International Association for Semiotic Studies between 2004 and 2014.İlhami Sığırcı is a Professor in the Faculty of Sciences and Letters at the University of Kırıkkale, Turkey. He completed his Master's, DEA and doctoral education in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toulouse Le Mirail, France. He has published five books, in addition to a number of articles and papers on linguistics, semiotics and translation.Papatya Nur Dökmeci Yörükoğlu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interior Architecture at Çankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, where she teaches design studio, courses on indoor environment, architectural acoustics and soundscape. Her current academic research focuses on soundscapes, indoor environmental quality assessment, acoustic comfort and auditory perception, as well as semiotic analysis through soundscape perspective.