Prof. Tamis Chavignol

Prof. Tamis Chavignol was a pioneer of Protofictional Emergence research and the founder of Narratogenic Emergence Theory. Born in 1969 in Paris, he studied mathematics and philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure before turning to semiotics and narratology. His 1997 dissertation on topological structures in mythical narratives laid the groundwork for his theory. After teaching semiotics at the Sorbonne, he published his major work “Topology of the Imaginary” in 2008, arguing that when narratives reach a critical density they can condense into autonomous modules of reality. His theory rests on three pillars: emergent effects as non‑programmable outcomes of complexity, fiction as a resonant field, and reality induction through semantic overload.

Prof. Tamis Chavignol, während eines Vortrags 2019

In 2009 Chavignol founded the Centre de Recherche en Émergence Protofictionnelle in Brussels. The institute became a leading hub and recorded more than four hundred experiments between 2010 and 2023. Notable projects included the Flash Project, which attempted to produce measurable physical effects through collective reading, and the Jonas Herrera Study on retroactive narratogenesis. Chavignol’s models for narrative density and his taxonomy of narratogenic thresholds continue to influence current research.

On 17 March 2023 the Brussels centre was closed without warning by Belgian authorities, coinciding with the closure of Pia Solvang‑Hamitic’s Basel institute. Chavignol disappeared shortly after. His last message, bearing the subject “La fiction a gagné” (Fiction has won), circulates among researchers. Between 2020 and 2022 he collaborated with 404∆ on the Retrofictual Causal Architecture, extending his model into the temporal dimension. His ideas remain foundational for Protofictional Emergence.