Art for Nothing

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Notes

1. According to Peirce:

the most frequently useful division of signs is by trichotomy into firstly Likenesses, or, as I prefer to say, Icons, which serve to represent their objects only in so far as they resemble them in themselves; secondly, Indices, which represent their objects independently of any resemblance to them, only by virtue of real connections with them, and thirdly Symbols, which represent their objects, independently alike of any resemblance or any real connection, because dispositions or factitious habits of their interpreters insure their being understood. (460–61)

In other words, an icon bears some kind of visual likeness to the object. A portrait of a person, such as the drawing by the Corinthian girl, can be a sign indicating the person portrayed. However, an icon can also be of an object that does not exist. Hence, the drawing of the Corinthian girl could be interpreted as an icon, because it resembles the object. An index is a sign that has some causal physical relationship to its object. Differing from an icon, an index depends on the actual existence of the object it signifies. Furthermore, the index is a sign of something particular: a footprint indicates the real and specific person who left it, not people in general.