K O D I K A S / C O D E Volume 43 (2020) · No. 3 - 4 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen Preface The theme of vanitas has preoccupied me for decades. Since it has received increased attention in recent years, I have decided to juxtapose it with the theme of identity. In the following study, I outline the history of the modern era as a social construction of causality that follows this principle: rules replace rulers. I try to explain why equality, competition or technology have changed in the course of modernity from something frightening to something attractive, and why the exhaustion of this aspiration is becoming increasingly apparent. My semiotic concern is as follows: I suggest substituting the ahistorical models of 20thcentury semiotics with a historical model in which the concept of sign is replaced by the concepts of model and afterimage, depending on perception. The contrast described is, in my view, a principle of perception that is learned in the civilized world like a language. Models are not tangible as such but only exist as embodiments; afterimages are tangible, but refer to something intangible. The skull, for example, is either an embodiment of an abstract anatomical model (in the doctor ’ s office) or an afterimage of a missing human being. The model need not be a specific skull: indeed, after several real skulls broken, it might be replaced by one made of unbreakable plastic. A skull of a saint, on the other hand, is irreplaceable as a relic. Writing, as (automatable) reading or as typographic design, is either the embodiment of a model, or the afterimage of a missing voice. This could also apply to the grooves capturing the sound on a vinyl audio recording. If the signified is absent, then the signifier is an afterimage. If, on the other hand, the signified is embodied and present, then the signifier is a model for it (e. g. a text in a speech or a book): it arises in the observer ’ s perception. These constellations correspond to a semiotic triangle. In this way, distinctions between interpreter, sign and object become obsolete, and distinctions between levels of observation become the focus. The distinction is not between language and metalanguage, or text and context, but between mere functioning and conscious action. The model approach combines the evidential value of the trace with the legibility of the letter. The afterimage approach states that the trace only proves an absence and that the letter is a convention. I would like to thank Ernest Hess-Lüttich for his committed support of my project over many years, Richard Weihe and Isabella Bosoky for innumerable pieces of advice, and last but not least Kate Hopkins and Tash Siddiqui for accurate and expert English editing. Mathias Spohr Semiotic Triangle 200 Preface