The Lexicon · Genealogy · 19th Century
PEIRCE, CHARLES SANDERS
1839–1914
The Triadic Sign (Wall Text, Work, Visitor)
Peirce: a sign is a triadic relation — representamen, object, interpretant. CoCA's exhibition apparatus is Peircean by deliberate design. The wall text is the representamen; the work is the object; the visitor is the interpretant. None of the three is the artwork. The relation is the artwork. Strip any vertex and the sign collapses. The institution provides all three vertices and lets the triangle hold.