The Semiotic Square
The basic structure
Note 901 lays out a semiotic square applied to aesthetic positioning:
| New | Old |
|---|---|
| Not New (used, second hand) | Not Old (recent, up-to-date) |
| Different | Same |
|---|---|
| Not Different (insisting, sceptical) | Not the Same (conflicting, inconsistent) |
The move is diagnostic: "As we withdrew ourselves from the endless struggle for the New and the Different, a deeper underlying problem was exposed. Namely, the question of how to recognize, or even establish, Relevance." The square doesn't resolve into a preferred position — it maps the logical space of positions, including the negations that are usually invisible.
The artwork Loin de moi (the title means "far from me") is linked directly to this note — possibly the sculpture enacts a position on this map: neither identifying with the object nor disavowing it, but at a studied distance.
The parallel matrix in note 1010
Note 1010 applies the same logical structure to artistic practice itself:
| N → ∞ | ∞ → N |
|---|---|
| ∞ → ∞ | N → N |
Where N = a fixed problem/approach, ∞ = endless variation:
- N → ∞: same limited set of problems, indefinite approaches — "obsession is gratifying, gradually they get closer to the essence"
- ∞ → N: ever-changing circumstances, same approach — mannerism, "never change a winning team"
- ∞ → ∞: everything different — hard to pinpoint; either incoherent or homo universalis
- N → N: same problem, same approach — "most unfortunate," but most visible in a crowd
This is the semiotic square re-applied from the realm of cultural positioning (what the work is in relation to) to the question of practice itself (how the artist operates).
The square as a recurring formal tool
The repetition of this structure across different domains — aesthetics, practice, and via 909 the visual representation of semiotic squares as such — suggests it is doing recurring philosophical work. It allows mapping logical space without claiming to occupy a privileged position within it. It is anti-programmatic: the square doesn't prescribe a position, it names all positions including the ones defined negatively.
The most interesting positions in the square are always the negations: "Not New" (used, second-hand), "Not Different" (insisting, sceptical). These don't simply collapse into Old or Same — they occupy a distinct logical slot that has no simple cultural name.
Connection to assemblage identity
The semiotic square's refusal to reduce to a single term resonates with the assemblage theory in assemblage identity: both resist the logic of general categories and essential properties in favor of a topology of relations and positions.
See also
- Assemblage Identity — shared resistance to essentialism; topology of relations over essential properties
- Protocol, Taste, and Systems — Quantizer's "permanence of change" is analyzed there as a challenge to the square's positional logic; you cannot locate Quantizer as New or Old
- Works Overview — Recursive Intervention (recursion made architectural) and Loin de moi (912) as works that enact positions on the square
"Subdued iconoclasm" as a position on the square (ZORA ZINE, 2021)
The ZORA ZINE journalist's label for van den Dorpel's stance — "subdued iconoclasm" — names a position that the semiotic square helps locate. He explicitly refuses the revolutionary posture ("Fuck the old system, we are going to just start from scratch") and equally refuses conservative defence of the traditional gallery system. The position is defined by its negations: Not-Revolutionary, Not-Conservative.
On the New/Old axis: the work is not asserting Newness (it doesn't require the destruction of the Old) but it is also not Old. It occupies the "Not New" slot — present in a new medium without performing novelty — while simultaneously refusing the "Not Different" slot of conservative sameness.
This is the structural correlate of his label-agnosticism elsewhere: "I used to be called a net artist, then I was a Post-Internet artist, now I'm a crypto artist. I don't care." Refusing to be pinned by a label is the same refusal to occupy a fixed position on the square.
Relevance as the displaced problem
The key claim in 901: relevance cannot be found by retreating to Old or Same once New and Different are abandoned. Relevance is the problem that remains after the obvious answers are exhausted — "the most sustainable quest is the one for the non-existing."