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
Giuseppe Peano
Plato
Leibniz
Cicero
Course in General Linguistics (Course de Linguistique Générale) – Ferdinand de Saussure
The City of the Sun – Tomasso Campanella
Visible World in Pictures (Orbis Sensualium Pictus Quadrilinguis) – Jan Amos Komensky
Ten Books on Architecture – Vitruvius
Roseum Memoriale – Peter Von Resenheim
Elements – Euclid
Charles Sanders Peirce