Enacting computer icons. The dynamics of

Enacting computer icons. The dynamics of interpretation between forms and diagrams Fusaroli, R., & Morgagni, S. (2009). Enacting computer icons. The dynamics of interpretation between forms and diagrams. ARCo’09, 71.

The DESKTOP metaphor is explicitly dismembered and projected on very different plateaux and activities. But it keeps making sense. How? (72)

Effective transpositions and adaptations rely “as we will see” on wider topological, chromatic and eidetic configurations, as supported by practices and interactional rhythms. (72-73)

Umberto Eco – after a long flirtation with a strong cultural relativism for what concerns iconism (Eco, 1975) – tackles the need for a basis of interpretation, for a beginning of semiosis: “a pure perceptual state that is free from any interpretation and that in some way precedes it” (Sini, 2004: 24), through which the world “kicks the subject” (Eco, 1997) thus triggering her/his interpretations

Leaving aside the discussion of what is exactly consciously or unconsciously perceived and what is not, we can certainly state that the event of perception, the “percussivity” of the world on the subject, emerges only on a ground established by former practices.

“For a great distinguishing property of the icon is that by the direct observation of it other truths concerning its object can be discovered than those which suffice to determine its construction. (…) Given a conventional or other general sign of an object, to deduce any other truth than that which it explicitly signifies, it is necessary, in all cases, to replace that sign by an icon. This capacity of revealing unexpected truth is precisely (…) the iconic character (…)”. (cp. 2.279).

    This is the role Virgil plays in Divine Comedy (and thus Dante can play for the reader); similarly this is the role the book of images plays for the reader (and thus the world plays for the good Christian)

– the importance of the activity in course for defining the relevance of the perceptual stimulus and its iconic properties (of the Thirdness as a ground on which Firstness can emerge) – the operational value of iconic properties, their being grounded and confirmed through inferential activities and their power to enable the subject to know and/or to do something more.