Page 64 - The Documenta issue of World of Art magazine (2002)

elite umBerto eCo

uMberTo eCo was born in 1932 in Alessandria, Italy. He is a professor THE FOLLOWInG IS An ExTEnSIvE LISTInG OF THE WORKS OF ECO
of semiotics, the study of communication through signs and symbols, at The Island of the Day Before (1995). Postscript to The name of the Rose (1995).
the University of Bologna, a philosopher, a historian, literary critic, and The Search for the Perfect Language (1995). How to Travel with a Salmon and
an aesthetician. He is an avid book collector and owns more than 30,000 Other Essays (1994). Apocalypse Postponed (1994). Six Walks In the Fictional
volumes. The subjects of his scholarly investigations range from St. Thomas Woods (1994), Misreading (1993). Interpretation and Overinterpretation (1992).
Aquinas, to James Joyce, to Superman. He lives in Milan.

UMBERTO ECO ELITE WRITER AnD SEMIOTIC PROFESSOR AnD PETRU RUSSU vISUAL ARTIST, PUBLISHER AnD EDITOR OF WORLD OF ART MAGAZInE

receives a phone call asking things like: “What do you think about the marriage
a conversation on information (episode 3) of princess so-and-so?”, or even incredibly stupid questions like “what do you
by PatricK coPPocK at the university of Bologna. a bay-window opens out onto a tiny balcony cannot be anything other than some kind of formality. So it is not only a personal
think about the death of Greta Garbo?”. now why should you ask me about
this? you answer either with a triviality like, “Well yes, she was a great actress,
a chain-smoking and jovial umberto eco receives me in his crowded,
and I was very shocked by that,” or, if you want to be very original: “oh, I am
untidy but cheerful little office at the institute for communication Studies
very happy that that lousy whore is dead - I hated her...” Obviously your answer
overlooking the garden of the villa where the institute has its offices
experience of mine, but of everybody.
and library. the walls of the office are covered with rows of well-filled
So you receive continuous pressure to do everything. That’s why I told you that
bookshelves; a sofa along one wall is full of piles of papers, books and
I don’t receive messages, I don’t read faxes and I don’t answer the phone.
articles, a modest writing desk hidden under even more books and papers.
“So you don’t follow electronic forums, or take part in online news group
in one corner of the room is an iBm 486 clone with Windows, a new article
discussions or other activities of the Internet community?”
not until now. But that is another problem; it is not due to the pressure at
or book obviously in progress on the screen. eco offers me a chair in front
of his desk.
all. I will do it in the course of the next few months. But only in order to make a
sort of survey, starting to put together some ideas. Maybe there can be something
in advance i had given him a list of some possible issues we might
I might want to start with; I think there is an old book collector’s network that I
discuss so he would have some idea of what was on my mind: computer
think can be useful because you can ask other people things like: “I found an old
technology, the internet community and Processes of cultural change. i
edition from 1643; I am not sure if there is a previous edition”. OK, I will use it.
begin by asking:
Eco nods seriously. SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.CUDEnvER.EDU/~MRyDER/ITC_DATA/ECO/ECO.HTML MARTIn RyDER
I think that is one of the most exciting things about the Internet is that
(continued from the previous number) you can look upon it as a “community”. I notice you mentioned in that paper
you gave me from the San Marino conference that you were a bit unsure about
Different is the point of view of reception. Here there is another problem: the whether we could really create this Global village or community. Well now I do
fact that you are transformed into an icon. They are asking you something that have some reservations -- but I certainly have had some positive experiences. If
you do not want to give... you find the right community like for instance the PEIRCE-L discussion list that
“Transformed into an icon: you mean in the sense of becoming an I am a member of: I find this very good, because you have some kind of quality
oracle?” control there since people that “go there” only do so because they are specially
yes, an oracle. One is asked all the time, “What do you think about...?”. interested -- now just to develop this point a bit: you were talking about this
now, why should I think anything about that? This happens not only to me. business of being an icon etc. and Michael Crichton ...
At this moment in time, Italian journalism is such that every scholar every day Well, in the last year I have published three books. I was obliged to read tons
62 World of art