ABSTRACT
Charles Sanders Peirce’s emphasis on the indexical provides a means of elevating the role of the physical world in communicative structures. According to Peirce, an indexical is a sign that refers to an object by being affected by the object. The indexical relationship is a direct connection between a sign and its object, as if the sign is caused by its object. Indexicality appeals to the post-digital as it diminishes the role of resemblances and abstractions. An indexical architecture avoids an architecture suffused with the spatial equivalents of colourful adverbs and adjectives. Demonstrative and relative pronouns are nearly pure indices, because they denote things without describing them. Forensic investigations in criminal cases inevitably appeal to the idea of the indexical sign: the bullet hole in the wall is a sign that someone fired a gun, as a fact. A crack in the wall is a sign of movement in the foundations.
