Vol. 3 No. 5 (2026): Signifying Signs
Articles

Protography, or on the Origin of the Graphic Sign

PDF - ITA (Italiano)
  • Enrico Cicalò
Enrico Cicalò
University of Sassari
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/tribelon-3972

Published 2026-07-02

Keywords

  • Protography,
  • Sign,
  • Drawing,
  • Graphisms

How to Cite

Cicalò, E. (2026). Protography, or on the Origin of the Graphic Sign. TRIBELON Journal of Drawing and Representation of Architecture, Landscape and Environment, 3(5), 44–51. https://doi.org/10.36253/tribelon-3972

Copyright (c) 2026 Enrico Cicalò

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This essay introduces the concept of protography in order to investigate the origin of the graphic sign understood as drawing: the primordial act of tracing, impressing, and gen­erating marks through bodily gesture. Protography is a neologism that does not point towards linguistic, scriptural, or figurative forms, but rather explores the production of lines and forms as archaic or spontaneous tactile and spatial imprints.If, for anthropol­ogy, the graphic sign is a techno-motor extension of the body; if, for semiotics, it is the causal trace of a gesture and, at the same time, a motivated figural possibility; if, for archaeology, it is evidence of the technical skills and knowledge of the past, then for the graphic sciences it is instead the origin of drawing, images, and graphic languages. Through this latter approach, the essay aims to outline the origins of the graphic sign by considering the human being as homo graphens, with their natural tendency towards graphic expression, whose technical-operational, neurocognitive, and psycho-emotional implications characterize the entire history of art, science, and technology.

PDF - ITA (Italiano)

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