Museum of Semiotic

illustrarch Team30 June 20191 Mins read197

Nathanael Hanli

Pasar Baru, Jakarta, Indonesia

2019

@nathanael2512

“Your gaze scans the streets as if they written pages: the city says everything you must think, makes you repeat her discourse, and while you believe you are visiting her you are only recording the names with which she defines herself and her parts.”

– Italo Calvino, in Invisible Cities

Through the exchange of signs, we communicate our idea and share our belief. Thus, the sign system that we use to communicate, also known as the human language become the base of our civilization, allowing ourselves to form complex intersubjective understandings.

Although these signs were first introduced through language, its usage can be found among every product of human civilization, including our built environment. A Museum set to depict the study of signs (Semiotic) should then materialize the relation of meaning (signified) and symbol (signifier), as the two components which together form a sign.

The arbitrary relation between the two elements is depicted as circular masses which are never perfect. Instead, circular masses were cut and intersected with each other to create ambiguity of meaning analogous to the phrases of a text or poetry. While commonly museum try to conceive a pre-determined message, experience visitors have inside the Museum of Semiotic leaves open interpretation for visitors to perceive, then the spaces itself become a sort of linguistic labyrinth.