The glyph (which also recurs as a favicon) is representative of this website, the Aporion — a conceptual space defined by productive impasse. The symbol I created for it (and it took me quite a while to eventually decide on something I liked) depicts a circular labyrinth encircling a central symbol that cannot be reached. The maze represents the recursive motion of thought around an absent center, echoing the structure of the Lacanian Real: that which resists symbolization absolutely. One may approach, circle, and theorize, but can never fully grasp.

At the center sits the Kenaz/Kaunan rune (ᚲ) from the Elder Futhark rune alphabet, one of the earliest signifiers of fire. In a reference to the archaic sense, it represents the origin of language, inscription, and meaning-making — fire as the first technology, the first symbol. Its semiotic associations are manifold: it is the spark of creation (Hephaestos), the fire of knowledge and rebellion (Prometheus, Lucifer), the danger of hubris (Icarus), and succession of thought; the flame passed from one thinker to another. Simultaneously, the rune resembles the modern glyph < — the opening symbol of code, the beginning of structure and syntax in digital language. It also prefigures the Greek letter kappa, a constant across mathematics and physics.

To me, as a signifier, it is inexhaustible. Its meaning changes with the observer. It therefore stands at the heart of the Aporion not to resolve meaning, but to signify the impossibility of final interpretation.