The hidden aspects of signification. Semiotics of practices and sensory science

Abstract

[Abstract] Studying practices implies to cope with hidden aspects of signification. This is particularly true when an interaction does not take place at a verbal level. Considering food and wine tasting as a case study, this paper aims at discussing the problems this peculiar object presents to a semiotic gaze. The richness of these meaningful practices and the need to make the tasters’ experiences attestable and analysable requires different methodologies, such as interviews, videos and participant observation. How do these typically ethnographical tools integrate in the semiotic perspective? Moreover, may the sensory sciences’ methodology help to develop a semiotic analytical model which allow to discover the hidden aspects of signification? Any attempt to build a semiotics of practices has to answer this question