Hacia una semiótica del pixel

The essay suggests some lines for the possible development of a “pixel semiotics”. It is a highly speculative investigation, for it must begin with a fundamental skeptical question: Are pixels semiotic objects at all? Do they mean indipendently from the image to which they give shape? And if that is not the case, if they are mere and inert constituents of digital configurations, what is their state, then? According to Umberto Eco’s ingenious definition, everything that can be used to lie can become an object of semiotic research (1976: 18); but can pixels really ‘lie’? Or are they obliged to produce light and color according to a cold mathematical rule, without the possibility of introducing randomness into intentional communication? (Mitchell 2005: 87-92). In other words: Is it possible to design imperfections in digital meaning and communication, reproducing that vibration that, as a result of the dialectic between homogeneity and heterogeneity, is characteristic of both nature and the analogical art that imitates it?