Using Composition to Re-Present Personal Collections of Hypersigns

This paper develops a semiotic operand, the hypersign. The hyperlink is structurally amenable to semiotic analysis. Anchor and destination function as signifier and signified. Especially significant are digital surrogates, such as Amazon catalogue entries, and Google gists, which are systematically produced hypertextual signifier-signified pairings. Hyperlinked surrogates constitute the hypersign form. We take cues from the art theorist John Berger, the installation artist Hanne Darboven, and the hip-hop DJ Spooky, in theorizing about transformational forms for personal hypersign collections. We provide an architectural overview of combinFormation, a mixed-initiative tool for using composition to re-present personal collections of hypersigns. combinFormation interjects personal speech, or syntagm, into the process of collecting information resources. We illustrate the use of combinFormation with a narrative description of the process of creating a composition of hypersigns, using the source materials that this paper draws from. The result is a form of recombinant information, in which visual bookmarks are transformed through assemblage, to create new meanings. Like the work of Darboven and Spooky, the resulting form interjects a personal sense into the experience of reproductions. In doing so, it recasts Benjamin’s aura of the original as a postmodern process of personal collection.