This chapter addresses the question of how the study of affect in the semiotic landscape can be done in a theoretically coherent way that can lead to insightful analytical payoffs. The chapter outlines a theoretical framework that serves to provide a concrete theorization of Wissinger’s (2007) description of affect as socially ‘contagious energy’. The actual mechanisms by which affect is materialized, circulates and becomes ‘whipped up or dampened’ are systematically articulated.