Asian Congress of Semiotics (ACS)
The third Asian Congress of Semiotics (ACS) of ASIA (Asian Semiotics International Association) will be held for the first time in India from 27th to 29th November 2026, focusing on design, visual, and technological cultures.
Hosted by School of Environmental Design and Architecture (SEDA), Navrachana University, Vadodara, the conference highlights the growing alignment of semiotics with contemporary design practices, visual cultures, and emerging technologies.
ACS 2026 brings together diverse perspectives to explore how meaning is constructed and interpreted across evolving cultural and technological contexts.
The Conference aims to showcase the Indian array of Architectural and Design knowledge and practice, as well as many other representative countries from Asia, through paper presentations, Design Panels, significant Keynote and Plenary speakers. The key focus of the conference will be ‘Similitude’. Semiotically, the concept of similitude has never come into full focus, but many semioticians have covered a variety of concepts strictly related to this. An incomplete list would encompass: Gestalt’s law of similarity, Pierce’s iconicity, Baudrillard’s idea of Simulacra, Lotman’s work on translation, Greimas’ isotopies, Eco’s reproducibility in sign creation, and many more. If meaning emerges from difference, it seems that similitude is equally important for the working of semiotic systems – and the semiosphere itself.
The conference aims to look strategically at the relations (between cultures, countries, times, social strata, texts, signs) that participate in the creation of meaning in the many Scapes of Asia. As the Scapes in Asia are in the midst of these rhythms, the engaging discussions will address them in practical and meaningful ways.