Hacia una semiótica de lo cutre

The essay defines the semantics of oldness, antiquity, and vintage, in relation to bodies, objects, and cities. It reads the cultural trends and the semiotic procedures of modernization and antiquation as epiphenomena of more general conditions of the semiospheres. It concludes that the excess of collective embellishment leads to a paradoxical aesthetics of the ugly and even of the squalid, so that what is not beautiful and does not manifest any beautification effort is perceived as a semiotic source of authenticity.