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Techno-Ecologies II. Acoustic Space #12

n his book Différence et répétition (1968), Gilles Deleuze elaborates an essential concept for the theory of the image: the simulacrum. The plane of the simulacra is characterised by the co-extensiveness of images, which are individuated by their own difference, and not by their placement in an ontological hierarchy, platonic at its origin; and that has as its poles true and false, being and not-being, fair or unfair. In current times, the concept of simulacrum seems to be one of the most efficient tools to overcome a further dichotomy: a dichotomy - old and based on past ontologies -, between virtual and real, and therefore, between virtual images and real images. Firstly, the present work intends to apply the notion of simulacrum to the study of digitally-based images to make evident their belonging to the same plane of any other kind of images, namely the material ones. Secondly, the notion of simulacrum is applied to the screen, to make evident how it has been mistakenly included in the plane of the images. Historically, the consequence of this mistake has been inauthentic experiences, and the triggering of processes of desubjectification. After verifying the mentioned hypotheses and removing the screen from a potential ontology of the image, the screen is then correctly relocated in a semiotic and mediologic horizon. In this context, C.S. Peirce’s notions of icon and symbol, and Bolter-Grusin’s polarities of hypermediation and transparency are applied to demonstrate how the evolution of the screen in the last thirty years has culminated in a strong mannerist phase in the recent past, especially since the touch-screen technology has lead to a blurring of the limits between screen and interface. However, it is relevant to notice that in more recent releases of contemporary interfaces a return to a symbolic and hypermediated regime can be observed. As a conclusion, the main aim of this article is to restore, in the light of the notion of simulacrum, a clear and fair relation between image and screen, so that from both of them an authentic and subjectifying exp …View full abstract