Am Internationalen Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften hielt Mieke Bal auf Einladung von aka einen Vortrag zum Thema „Reading the World. The Urgency of Semiotic Thinking“ und zeigte den Essay-Film „It’s About Time! Reflections on Urgency“ (2020, 30 min.) – „When I discovered the idea of semiotics, my excitement about it concerned the integration of philosophy (thinking) and (close) analysis (doing), as well as the resistance against mediaessentialism and disciplinary constraints, with their methodological dogmas. … The mythical story of Cassandra enabled me to create a cinematic account of the doubts and struggles of a female figure whose loneliness was produced by the fate imposed by her employer Apollo whose sexual advances she rejected. She would see the future but never be believed.“ – Ein Mitschnitt des Vortrages findet sich auf der Seite des IFK.