Codognet – The Semiotics of the Web

Philippe Codognet’s article discusses how the indexing methods of images and hyperlinks on the internet have roots within Late Renaissance media of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, book on topics such as ars memoriae (art of memory) and scientific articles. Images in these treatises would contain indexical methods that featured letters or numbers assigned to certain parts of the image, which are then referenced by the text. Such labeling of images with icons calls to minds the methods of linking information on the internet, labels on the image lead to their corresponding icon which elaborate on the particular content that has been labeled. Such labeling would work in reverse as well, with the icons referenced in the text once again linking text and image together, this time the image would illustrate the written content. Earlier in the article Codognet states that the success of computers as “universal information processing machines” is due to their implementation of a “universal language” referring to the binary notation language used to represent content. Later he once again refers to a “universal language”, this time to illustrations of a prayer book used by Jesuit missionaries from Europe in China, where illustrations were “linked” to the adjoining text via indexing labels.

I think an interesting example of indexing on the web lies in Wikipedia, where practically any article features numbered references and notes at the end of the article, just as Codognet’s own article does. These sources are labeled by numbers which are then referred to in the text. As the reader reads these numbers appear following content within the text, the reader can then refer to the notes section to see where more information on the indexed content can be found. The same can be done in Wikipedia articles although these notes can also provide direct links to the references in question, thus resulting in an indexed index. The internet itself being a collection of hyperlinks can be considered a collection of indexes, each one pointing to another, and many of these indexes even appear as icons or images.