Auli Viidalepp is a Research Fellow in Semiotics at the University of Tartu (Estonia). Her research focuses broadly on the semiotic, sociocultural and environmental implications of technological systems. She investigates how synthetic media interfere with our habitual meaning-making mechanisms and how sociotechnical imaginaries impact the perception of and expectations to AI systems in society. As the PI of the project Envirotechnical intelligence: how imaginaries activate societal values, she is developing a technosemiotic framework to analyse the environmental, socio-material and semiotic becoming, functioning and impact of complex technological systems.
In 2023, she founded a research network called Technosemiotics.
teaching
Technosemiotics (FLSE.00.361, 6 ECTS), an elective MA-level course at the University of Tartu.
selected publications
Viidalepp, Auli; Olteanu, Alin (2025). Les avenirs technologiques en sémiotique: Retour sur l’année 2024. Semiotica 267: 225–241. DOI: 10.1515/sem-2025-0243.
Viidalepp, Auli (2025). Apotheosis, apocalypse, and the epistemic collapse: technology and the fear of future. — Through the Lens of Dread: Exploring the Meaning-Making of Fear in the Mediasphere, edited by Merit Maran, Andreas Ventsel, Mari-Liis Madisson. Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 308–341.
Viidalepp, Auli (2025). Artificial intelligence as a filter and as a philter. In: Piluso, Francesco and Leone, Massimo (eds.) Semiotica dei filtri. I saggi di Lexia 60. Rome: Aracne, 119-134.
selected conference presentations
11.06.2026. Representation without reference: Symbolic hegemony in the age of generative media. The 16th Annual Lotman Days «The End: Finality and Renewal in Culture», 10-12 June 2026, Tallinn, Estonia. doi:10.5281/zenodo.20643292.
05.06.2026. Environmental signs and automated agencies. The 6th Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS6), 4-6 June 2026, Rome. doi:10.5281/zenodo.20558829
08.04.2026. Tuleviku taltsutamine: sotsiotehnilised kujutelmad hirmudiskursuses. Eesti humanitaarteaduste aastakonverents, 8.-10. aprill 2026, Tartu. doi:10.5281/zenodo.19470524
28.11.2025. The use of generative AI in information influence activities. Budapest Workshop on Philosophy and Technology (BudPT25), 27–28 November 2025. doi:10.5281/zenodo.17747981
eesti keeles | in Estonian language
Vaba Akadeemia avalik loengusari tehisintellektist »
Viidalepp, Auli (2024). Mida tehisintellekt meile tähendab [What artificial intelligence means to us]. Teater. Muusika. Kino. 10: 106−115.