THE PROBLEM OF CULTURAL STATUS AND THE ROLE OF THE SCREEN IN THE VISUALIZATION OF DIGITAL CONTENT

Abstract

The cultural dimension of “screenological” research on digital visual content is outlined: cultural issues are those that are formed at the intersection of research into the technical aspect of screens (as devices) and their functions (as participants in the processes of digitalization of visual content/visualization of digital information) in the cultural environment; the problems of cultural status and cultural role of the screen are recognized as major cultural problems. The cultural paradox of the status of the screen is revealed, different from the well-known paradox of mobility/ staticity and materiality/immateriality: The screen, where it is an information surface, is an integral – final – part of digital visualization as a cultural representation. At the same time, the evolution of the screen and the emergence of VR technologies have led to the screen losing its universal status as a carrier-translator of digital visual content and a mediator, – and therefore cannot be considered an integral part of the cultural representation of digital visual. It is shown how the cultural role of the screen is revealed in its complex function and essential purpose of being not only a “window/gate” to the world of digital images, but also a boundary – a kind of “border outpost” or, depending on the context, an internal boundary, a demarcation line that separates the real (objectively present in the external world) and the virtual (subjective, man-made, phantasmagoric, and simulacra by origin). The absence of a screen with clear boundaries in VR leads to the replacement of the image of physical reality with a simulacra virtuality, the function of which is similar to the illusory-compensatory one. But in any case, the screen is a structured information space and supports the dominance of the visual (audiovisual), while VR, devoid of screen boundaries, objectively reduces the power of visual dominance by adding simulators of other senses to the immersiveness of the visual perception experience.