Leere-Signifikanten.Net is a vcard website done and maintained by Michael Lindner, Leipzig. This was a blog in the past, but laziness and other interest made a vcard out of it. It's growing recently, and so you will be finding some more information about me.

If you are interested in such, see the imprint and all the other law requirements here.

Oh so many people asked me, what leere signifikanten (in english: emtpy signifier) actually means. Here is an explanation:

A floating signifier (also known as an empty signifier) is a signifier without a referent in semiotics and discourse analysis, such as a word that points to no actual object and has no agreed upon meaning. For more information, see wikipedia (en).

Der Begriff der leeren Signifikanten kann auf Konzepte wie Rasse und Geschlecht angewendet werden, um zu behaupten, dass das Wort konkreter ist als das Konzept, das es beschreibt, wobei das Konzept vielleicht nicht stabil ist, das Wort aber schon.

Er wird oft auf nichtsprachliche Zeichen angewandt, wie das Beispiel des Rorschach-Tintenklecks-Tests zeigt. Roland Barthes verwendete den Begriff "fließender Signifikant" zwar nicht ausdrücklich, bezog sich aber speziell auf nichtsprachliche Zeichen, die so offen für Interpretationen sind, dass sie eine "fließende Kette von Signifikaten" bilden. So ist beispielsweise eine Nationalflagge gleichzeitig ein Signifikant für die geografische Nation, die sie repräsentiert, für den Patriotismus gegenüber dieser Nation, für die Regierungspolitik der Nation oder für die mit ihr verbundenen Ideologien wie die Freiheit. Je nach Kontext kann die Flagge entweder eine positive oder eine negative Bedeutung haben.

Because the signifier moves between projects, it is said not to be empty but floating.

To make a long 40 year story short: I was born in Plauen (late GDR), learned and lived in Hof/Saale and Upper Franconia for a long time, lost my heart to the Ruhr Area - and am now living in Leipzig in Saxony. All this happened in Germany. See here for a full CV of mine. You can find some links to the typical social presence in the footer below.

I have been working with computers for a long long time. More about this is still to come, but will do some day eventually.

Having no car since like some years, I am an avid biker. Yes, it is possible to do everything without a car. And yes, I live in a bigger city, where this is easier to get done. However I do believer that this also is possible in smaller villages and on the countryside. In the end, it's infrastructure, baby. I do regularly attend critical mass in Leipzig. Meet me there or at other gatherings around bike friendliness.

I have done some political work in the past. First in Bavaria for the Social Democrats - which turned out to be a mistake quickly.

It was followed by the party which was before the German Left Party (Die Linke), then in Bavaria. There I was active in the whole federal state, but mainly in upper franconia. Long time gone. Since 2002 I am in Saxony.

After moving to Leipzig, doing some local stuff mainly regarding changing cities, first in a shrinking environment, since 2006 in a growing city. Since having kids, the party lent me to my family to raise them. Currently it is only working towards being more bike and pedestrian friendly cities, some parent school stuff, and smaller initiatives. This might change in the future, as the kids become old enough to care for themselves.

I once was a blogger like you, but then I got a arrow twitter to my knee. However, now with Twitters demise, I have a microblog of sorts. Read it here. Also, you can find me on Mastodon.