All that is the case: documents and indexicality

Abstract

Three alternative epistemologies of documentation are discussed, starting from the Otletian conception, following with Suzanne Briet´s reframing, and finishing with the neo-documentalism of Michael Buckland. Regarding the theoretical plane, Wittgenstein’s language games and Buckland’s perspective on documentation are brought one in front of the other. The main objective is to discuss the problems of significance and meaning, drawing on the concepts of indexical presence and absence. Some photographs of the late Professor Eduardo Murguia are taken as an example and reference. The author comes to the conclusion that documents can be characterized not necessarily as evidence or proof, but as an index, which can reveal both what is present and what is absent in the documentary record.