The reality of the human being as sign-using animal (zoon
semiotikon) corresponds to the fact that we project our
individual reality into the reality of our existence through
semiotic means. In the market, the three entities of sign
processes meet: that which represents (representamen), that
which is represented (object), and the process of interpretation
(interpretant). These terms can be defined in the market
context. The representamen is the repertory of signs that are
identified in the market. These can be utility (usefulness of a
certain product), rarity, quantity, type of material used to
process the merchandise, imagination applied to the conception
and creation of a product, and the technology used and the
energy consumed in the manufacturing process, for example.
People can be attracted by the most unexpected characteristics
of merchandise, and can be enticed to develop addictions to
color, form, brand name, odor. Sometimes the representamen is
price, which is supposed to reflect the elements listed above,
as well as other pricing criteria: a trend, a product's sexiness;
a buyer's gullibility, ego, or lack of economic sense. The price
represents the product, although not always appropriately. The
object is the product itself, be it a manufactured item, an
idea, an action, a process, a business, or an index. Except for
the market based on exchange of object for object, every known
market object is represented by some of its characteristics.
That these representations might be far removed from the object
only goes to show how many mediating entities participate in the
market.
Nothing is a sign unless interpreted as a sign. Someone has to be
able to conjure, or endow, meaning and constitute something (an
idea, object, or action) as part of one's self-constitution.
This is the interpretant-understood as process, because
interpretations can go on ad infinitum. For example: bread is
food; an academic title acknowledges that a course of study was
successfully completed; computers can be used as better
typewriters or for data mining. As a sign, bread can stand for
everything that it embodies: our daily bread; a certain culture
of nourishment; the knowledge involved in cultivating and
processing grain, in making dough, building the ovens, observing
the baking process. Symbolic interpretation, relating to myth or
religion, is also part of the interpretation of bread as a sign.
Interpretation of an academic title follows a similar path:
educational background (university attended, title conferred),
context (there are streets on which mostly lawyers and doctors
live), function (how the title affects one's activity), and
future expectations (a prospective Nobel Prize winner). Likewise
with computers: Intel inside, or Netscape browser, networked or
stand-alone, a Big Blue product, or one put together in the back
alleys of some far Eastern country.
According to the premise that nothing is a sign unless
considered as such, interpretation is equivalent to the
constitution of human beings as the sign, represented through
their product. A product is read as being useful; a product can
be liked or disliked; a product can generate needs and
expectations. Self-constituting individuals validate themselves
(succeed or fail) through their activity as represented by the
product of this activity, be it tangible or intangible, a
concrete object, a process (mediations are included here), an
idea. These readings are also part of the process of
interpretation. A conglomerate of the readings mentioned above is
the mug shot of the abstract consumer, behind whom are all the
others who constitute their individuality through the
transactions that make up the market. A used car or computer
salesman, a small retailer, and a university professor identify
themselves in different ways in and through the market. Each is
represented by some characteristic feature of his or her work.
Each is interpreted in the market as reliable, competent, or
creative in view of the pragmatics of the transaction: Some
people need a good used car, some a cheap, used computer, others
a leather wallet, others an education or counsel. The forms of
interpretation in the market are diverse and range from simple
observation of the market to direct involvement in market
mechanisms through products, exchange of goods, or legislation.
As a place where the three elements-what is marketed (object),
language or signs of marketing (representamen), and
interpretation (leading to a transaction or not)-come together,
the market can be direct or mediated, real or symbolic, closed or
open, free or regulated. A produce market, a supermarket, a
factory outlet, and a shopping mall are examples of real market
space. The market takes on mediated, conventional, and symbolic
aspects in the case where, for example, the product is not
displayed in its three-dimensional reality but substituted by an
image, a description, or a promise. Mail-order houses, and the
stock and futures markets belong here, even though they are
derived from direct, real markets. Once upon a time, Wall Street
was surrounded by various exchanges filled with the odors,
tastes, and textures of the products brought in by ships. It is
now a battery of machines and traders who read signs on order
slips or computer screens but know nothing of the product that is
traded.
In our day, the stock market has become a data processing center.
Pressures caused by the demand for optimal market efficiency
were behind this transformation. Nevertheless, the time involved
in the new market semiosis is as real and necessary as the time
of transactions in the market based on barter or on direct
negotiations; that is, only the amount of time needed to ensure
the cooperation of the three elements mentioned above, as human
beings constitute themselves in the pragmatic context of the
market. The pragmatic context affects market cycles and the speed
at which market transactions take place. This is why a deal in a
bazaar takes quite a bit of time, and digital transactions
triggered by programmed trading are complete before anyone
realizes their consequences. Market regulations always affect the
dynamics of mediations.