Crypto
This is a paper on the visual world of cryptocurrency and the inherent friction of translating something so abstract into a shared visual shorthand. While specific market trends and technical 'facts' from that era may have changed since it was written, the underlying thesis holds firm: we are approaching a terminal point for new iconography.
In this paper, I focused on the use of physical, minted coins to represent digital ledgers, but the same phenomenon is visible today in the ubiquitous 'glitter' or 'sparkle' icon used to signify AI. It is a defining irony of our era that our most forward-thinking innovations are forced to wear the symbolic hand-me-downs of antiquity. Increasingly the distance between the signifier and the signified is widening.
As our technology scales toward the infinite, our semiotics remain stubbornly finite. A sign of the times is that only old signs can represent our times.
Crypto
This is a paper on the visual world of cryptocurrency and the inherent friction of translating something so abstract into a shared visual shorthand. While specific market trends and technical 'facts' from that era may have changed since it was written, the underlying thesis holds firm: we are approaching a terminal point for new iconography.
In this paper, I focused on the use of physical, minted coins to represent digital ledgers, but the same phenomenon is visible today in the ubiquitous 'glitter' or 'sparkle' icon used to signify AI. It is a defining irony of our era that our most forward-thinking innovations are forced to wear the symbolic hand-me-downs of antiquity. Increasingly the distance between the signifier and the signified is widening.
As our technology scales toward the infinite, our semiotics remain stubbornly finite. A sign of the times is that only old signs can represent our times.