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Cultural Dimensions of Viewing and the Various Models of Opticons: Symbolic Boundaries in Digital Era Social Communication
Małgorzata Bogunia-Borowska
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9807-7484Justyna Kopczyńska
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6346-6578Abstract
This article seeks to describe the multidimensional phenomenon of gaze as an act of establishing and blurring symbolic boundaries in the communication space of the digital era. We identify five types of gaze, calling them “opticons” (Pol. optykony), which have emerged (or developed) during the development of contemporary digital society. These are: the panopticon, in which society is subjected to constant control exercised through instruments of power (also dispersed); the synopticon, illustrated by the metaphor of theatre, in which many spectators watch the stage performances of individual actors; the demopticon, developing with the widespread use of smartphones and other devices capable of recording image and sound, enabling the observation of everyone by everyone in real time; the homoopticon, in which – as one frequently interacts with one’s own image (including digital one) – the eyes of an individual are constantly focused on themselves; and the aeternusopticon, within which – thanks to modern technologies that immortalize and recreate an individual’s likeness even after their death – the representation of a social actor occurs in social interactions beyond the boundaries of time and space. The concept of opticons is set within the broader context of contemporary cultural changes, described as a transition from the “linguistic turn” described by Rorty in the 1960s towards the “iconic turn”, also called the “pictorial turn”.
Keywords:
communication, gaze, symbolic boundaries, opticon, pictorial turn, visual turn, panopticon, synopticon, demopticon, homoopticon, aeternusopticonDetails
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.