Abstract
The present lecture is aiming at offering a theoretical reflection on the concept of ‘trace’, trying to propose a possible distinction from other similar concepts as ‘index’ and ‘footprint’. These latter seem to share what has been called a lack of intentionality from the producer, which was at the basis of a classification between what is considered to be a signal and what a sign (Eco 1975).
If both indexes and footprints are examples of signals, traces have been generally read as already signs, or better, as something already recognized as a sign (Mazzucchelli 2015; Sozzi 2014; Violi 2015). Umberto Eco outlined the gap between the moment in which a signal is ‘produced’ and the moment in which it is ‘perceived’ and interpreted by someone: the question that arises is consequently if this gap can open also to the possibility the trace will not be grasped, thus leaving the space for a sense of insignificance.
Yet, can really a trace be interpreted as the sign of a pure nothingness? This speech proposes a possible paradigm of the significance of traces articulated in the three factors of intentionality, circumstance and acquaintance, through which the meaning of the trace as a sign is reinforced. Based on some interesting suggestions from the book On insignificance by Massimo Leone (Leone 2020), it will be discussed the possibility for an ‘authentic’ insignificance in our present-day society; in particular, the analysis will be focused on the specific case study set by the phenomenon of trolling (and the digital traces in general), characterizing what Leone defines as our post-material age.