Ancient Images and New Technologies: The Semiotics of the Web
Leonardo, Feb. 2002, v. 35, no. 1, pp. 40-49
The author analyzes how computer-based images, texts and hypertext links, relate to the ancient concepts of binary notation. He explores the texts of Cicero, Leibniz, Abdallah Beidhawy, Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, among others, to trace the connection between the visual language of computers and a long tradition of ideas of the "universal language of images".
ITEM 2002.205 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Mechanical Calculator – Wilhelm Schickard
Arithmetic Machine – Blaise Pascal
Difference Engine – Charles Babbage
Analytical Engine – Ada Byron
Course in General Linguistics (Course de Linguistique Générale) – Giuseppe Peano
The City of the Sun – Plato
Visible World in Pictures (Orbis Sensualium Pictus Quadrilinguis) – Leibniz
Ten Books on Architecture – Cicero
Roseum Memoriale – Ferdinand de Saussure
Elements – Tomasso Campanella
Jan Amos Komensky
Vitruvius
Peter Von Resenheim
Euclid
Charles Sanders Peirce