International symposium "Ancient and artifical languages in today's culture"

The international symposium Ancient and artifical languages in today's culture takes place on 8th-9th June 2018 at Sala Principi d'Acaja - Palazzo del Rettorato (Via Verdi 8, Turin).

Unknown, lost or dead languages – as well as new, invented ones – do not lose meaning because of the lack of speakers. On the contrary, their very opacity confers on them a rich set of semiotic connotations, including a flavour of mystery, magical powers, issues of social, political and cultural identity, initiation and belonging, as well as a singular aesthetic character, for example connecting an ancient language to a peculiar writing code and iconography. 

The symposium aims at exploring the rich semiotic features of ancient and artificial languages and their role in today’s culture. It will tackle, for instance, the following issues: 

• today’s religions and ancient languages 
• ancient languages in complex aesthetic systems
• new media, invented languages, identity building and secrecy
• invented and ancient languages and fictional world-building 
• the never-ending search for the perfect language.