Things and not-things

I think the shortest name for what’s shown in this picture is the back of a sign . It’s not a mouthful, but it is kind of a clunky thing to say as something’s name. While the back of a sign can only be indicated by saying the back of a sign , it seems clear that the front of a sign can be referenced just by saying the sign --that this term refers both to the physical object that it is, and the perspective of it from the opposite point of view shown by this photo (its front). To state a third variation of this: in referring to the sign , the object and one particular viewpoint of it are both conveyed, but with the back , only a viewpoint is described (not any physicality or objectness). (Well, actually, I don’t know…how does the back of something relate to its overall objectness?) The designation of the sign intertwines one portion (maybe one half) of the sign’s two-dimensionality with its entire three-dimensionality; it puts these two planes on an equal footing. With this logic, it ...