Prof. Dr. Pia Solvang‑Hamitic

Prof. Dr. Pia Solvang‑Hamitic is recognised as the founder of Phenosemantics (PSM), one of the most radical and controversial theories in the field of Protofictional Emergence. Born in 1978 in Sarajevo during a period of intense political upheaval, she studied semiotics and comparative literature in Vienna and Paris, completing her doctorate in 2006 on semantic condensation in the narrative structures of the Balkan War. Her 2008 essay “The Narrative as a Condensed Field” introduced the radical idea that fictional texts can, under certain discursive conditions, manifest phenomenologically.

Pia Solvang-Hamitic und 404∆ 2017, Basel

In 2012 Solvang‑Hamitic founded the Institute for Protofictional Emergence Studies in Basel. Operating on the margins of established science, the institute drew researchers and students from around the world willing to question the boundaries between fiction and reality. Among her most notable pupils was the operative phenosemanticist later known as 404∆. At Basel she developed rigorous testing protocols combining textual analysis, cognitive observation and documentation of external coincidences, always emphasising ethical standards and participants’ rights.

On 17 March 2023 the Basel institute was suddenly shut down by Swiss authorities. On the same day Tamis Chavignol’s research centre in Brussels was closed. Solvang‑Hamitic disappeared and her final communications alluded to mounting pressure from unknown sources. In a message to Johannes Schwebe she wrote that their discovery was “too dangerous for those who want to control the narrative” yet too important to be silenced. Despite the closure of her institute, her writings circulate in underground academic networks and her 2016 foundation paper on Phenosemantics remains an essential reference.