Introduction: Semiotics x Curating, or Why this now?

This special issue aims to expand and enhance existing understandings of the semiotics of curation or, more precisely, of curating as a semiotic practice. The goal is to examine its theoretical elaboration, methodological perspectives, and manifold applications in diverse sectors where curating is now ubiquitous but effectively used to serve diverging purposes, including personalize access, signal distinction, amplifying ideological positions (propaganda), generating wealth by inflating value, and even establish identities. Otherwise put, the issue’s ambition is to explore how semiotics (with an emphasis on interpretation, framing, translation, engagement, enunciative assemblages, image-acts, storytelling, open text, multi-modality, and meta functions) could be used as a valuable toolkit to unpick and grapple with the intended and unintended consequences of human and algorithmic curation on personal and collective sensemaking and valorization processes.