Digital sublime

Last updated
Artistic depiction of computer virus Virus (15462325023).jpg
Artistic depiction of computer virus

The digital sublime is the mythologization of the impact of computers and cyberspace on human experiences of time, space and power. [1] [2] It's also known as cyber sublime or algorithmic sublime. It is a philosophical conception of emotions that captivate the collective conscience with the emergence of these new technologies and the promises and predictions that emerge from them. [1] These emotions are the awe, the astonishment, the rationality-subsuming glory, and the generally intense spiritual experience.

Contents

This feeling is essentially provoked by intentionally black-boxed algorithms or by the lack of knowledge about algorithms. [1] The sublime can be either utopian or dystopian depending on the individual's interpretation of their emotional response. The utopian interpretation of the digital sublime is known as digital utopianism and the dystopian is referred to as digital dystopia. [3]

The Classical Notion of the Sublime

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) engraving.jpg
Immanuel Kant

The classical notion of the sublime was fathered by Immanuel Kant in his work Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (1764). [4] He defined the Sublime in his piece Critique of Judgment (1790) as:

“an object (of nature) the presentation of which determines the mind to think of nature's inability to attain to an exhibition of ideas.” [5]

The nature of the classical sublime according to Kant was the sensation produced in the individual when confronted with something that:

  1. Was beyond the realms of the mind's comprehension
  2. Overawed the imagination

The result was an overwhelming sense of empowerment at being able to stand before such a spectacle and exhilaration at how fragile a person is in the face of such tremendous power and immensity. [6] Examples for Kant were standing before a mountain or overlooking the raging sea. [7]

Edmund Burke's (1756) work, "Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" is another contributor to this classical notion, written at a similar time to Kant. For him, the sublime emerges from the terrible or that which invokes terror. [8]

Origins of the Digital Sublime

Example of Sublime Art - Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth by JWM Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner - Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth - WGA23178.jpg
Example of Sublime Art - Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth by JWM Turner

Vincent Mosco is one of the leading thinkers in the development and distinction of the digital sublime as a highly respected academic amongst the international community and is currently a professor at Queen's University in Canada. [9] His seminal work "The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace" [10] explains that the digital sublime did not have a definite beginning. However, he outlines how it emerged as a progression from the technological sublime, which was the beginning of a shift in conceptions of the sublime connected to the industrial revolutions of the late 19th century and early 20th Century. Inventions such as the railroad, electricity, the radio, and the aeroplane all captivated the collective conscience in the possibility of ushering in a global village.

Mosco argues that there has not been a significant change in our approach to the appearance of new technologies, with the same prophecies of revolutionizing the human experience of time, space and power, even to the extent of ending world conflict. Mosco identifies these same promises heralded by Computers and Cyberspace. The digital revolution and information revolution are captivating the imagination and attention of global onlookers in an almost identical fashion.

Skowronska, an emerging academic from the University of Sydney and contemporary artist, [11] proposes that it was with the emergence of new technologies such as graphics cards for video games, open source programs, three dimensional computer processing engines, the digital video screen and others opened up whole new possibilities of virtuality as a creative tool. [12] She proposes that it was in the ability of these technologies to represent the invisible that truly distinguished the digital sublime from its classical notion and that it did so "through a virtual channel of mathematical coding, or algorithms, that act as correlates for this invisible world, translating it into a visual field perceptible by human optics". [13]

Artistic Expression

Example of composite photograph Artistic-asphalt-automobiles-799443.jpg
Example of composite photograph

The classical notion of the sublime has been represented by various artists such as Joseph Mallord William Turner drawing off the inspiration described by both Kant and Burke, that is the natural world. [14]

Artwork on the digital sublime has now emerged attempting to capture our awe and excitement around Big Data, New Media and Web 2.0. Huang proposes that the digital sublime in artistic expression is the representation of something unpresentable. [15] A prime example of this is digital composite-photography which involves stitching photographs together to create images that would not be possible without recent technology in order to conceptualise complex ideas through image.

Skowronska, however, associates the digital sublime in art as a move away from the massive to the minutiae. She proposes that the representation of what is not physically perceptible to the eye, but that has a representation in the virtual facilitated by new technology is the distinctive mark of this art form. She has done significant work of her own in this field as well as developing the digital sublime conceptually through her thesis. He individual work focuses on the manipulation, projection and representation of data through different digital forms.

Criticisms of the Digital Sublime

The digital sublime, for some theorists, is not only unhelpful in understanding and engaging with new technology, but they believe that Mosco's myths inhibit and endanger cyberculture in a way that Burkart likens to the endangerment of biodiversity. Such theorists argue that the digital sublime blinds users to the risks and vulnerabilities of cyberspace. [16]

The Digital Sublime and Political Economy

The Digital Sublime has been taken by media theorists to obscure and obfuscate the interworking of Web 2.0. Media theorists have worked to critically analyse and evaluate the processes, algorithms, and functions behind the user interface in order to unveil the driving forces of development and updates online. Political economic theorists have proposed that as opposed to the myths espoused by the digital sublime of the internet providing a faultless user experience providing everything desired at the user's fingertips, that in reality this is far from the truth. Behind the surface, business owners are manipulating the infrastructure and digital architecture of platforms in order create the most profit. [17]

The Digital Sublime and the Music Industry

The digital sublime has seemingly encouraged the narrative that streaming services and cloud based storage will lead to unprecedented freedom and access music. While it is true that our physical limitations in access to music content has been reduced to the requirement of having an electronic device with internet connection, the truthfulness of this emancipation has been brought under scrutiny.

Patrick Burkart is another prominent academic and editor in chief of the International Journal of Media and Culture [18] and he proposes that the emancipation of content is limited to that of the mobilisation of content. As opposed to freeing up content, access is still limited by algorithms giving preference to more popular content and consequently further obscuring the greater diversity of content that is actually available. Instead, he argues that it is those who disrupt our perception of the seamless and all encompassing nature of music streaming services that reveal to us the technical and legal barriers that benefit content providers and are limiting, even shepherding, user experience so as to meet their goals. [19] He sees pirates of media content as the key dissenters to this otherwise invisible vertical integration and that they are symptomatic of the fragility of cyber-communities.

See also

Related Research Articles

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and the nature of taste; and functions as the philosophy of art. Aesthetics examines the philosophy of aesthetic value, which is determined by critical judgements of artistic taste; thus, the function of aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Immanuel Kant</span> German philosopher (1724–1804)

Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern Western philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technological utopianism</span> Any ideology based on the premise that advances in technology could bring a utopia

Technological utopianism is any ideology based on the premise that advances in science and technology could and should bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet culture</span> Culture that has emerged from the use of computer networks

Internet culture is a quasi-underground culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet who primarily communicate with one another online as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence is "mediated by computer screens" and information communication technology, specifically the Internet.

<i>Critique of Judgment</i> 1790 book by Immanuel Kant

The Critique of Judgment, also translated as the Critique of the Power of Judgment, is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique", the Critique of Judgment follows the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and the Critique of Practical Reason (1788).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sublime (philosophy)</span> Quality of greatness

In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation.

Cyberfeminism is a feminist approach which foregrounds the relationship between cyberspace, the Internet, and technology. It can be used to refer to a philosophy, methodology or community. The term was coined in the early 1990s to describe the work of feminists interested in theorizing, critiquing, exploring and re-making the Internet, cyberspace and new-media technologies in general. The foundational catalyst for the formation of cyberfeminist thought is attributed to Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto", third wave feminism, post-structuralist feminism, riot grrrl culture and the feminist critique of the alleged erasure of women within discussions of technology.

The problem of mental causation is a conceptual issue in the philosophy of mind. That problem, in short, is how to account for the common-sense idea that intentional thoughts or intentional mental states are causes of intentional actions. The problem divides into several distinct sub-problems, including the problem of causal exclusion, the problem of anomalism, and the problem of externalism. However, the sub-problem which has attracted most attention in the philosophical literature is arguably the exclusion problem.

The concept of genius, in literary theory and literary history, derives from the later 18th century, when it began to be distinguished from ingenium in a discussion of the genius loci, or "spirit of the place". It was a way of discussing essence, in that each place was supposed to have its own unique and immutable nature, but this essence was determinant, in that all persons of a place would be infused or inspired by that nature. In the early nationalistic literary theories of the Augustan era, each nation was supposed to have a nature determined by its climate, air, and fauna that made a nation's poetry, manners, and art singular. It created national character.

Applied aesthetics is the application of the branch of philosophy of aesthetics to cultural constructs. In a variety of fields, artifacts are created that have both practical functionality and aesthetic affectation. In some cases, aesthetics is primary, and in others, functionality is primary. At best, the two needs are synergistic, in which "beauty" makes an artifact work better, or in which more functional artifacts are appreciated as aesthetically pleasing. This achievement of form and function, of art and science, of beauty and usefulness, is the primary goal of design, in all of its domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital architecture</span>

Digital architecture refers to aspects of architecture that feature digital technologies or considers digital platforms as online spaces. The emerging field of digital architectures therefore applies to both classic architecture as well as the emerging study of social media technologies.

Racist rhetoric is distributed through computer-mediated means and includes some or all of the following characteristics: ideas of racial uniqueness, racist attitudes towards specific social categories, racist stereotypes, hate-speech, nationalism and common destiny, racial supremacy, superiority and separation, conceptions of racial otherness, and anti-establishment world-view. Racism online can have the same effects as offensive remarks made face-to-face.

Cyber-utopianism or web-utopianism or digital utopianism or utopian internet is a subcategory of technological utopianism and the belief that online communication helps bring about a more decentralized, democratic, and libertarian society. The desired values may also be privacy and anonymity, freedom of expression, access to culture and information or also socialist ideals leading to digital socialism.

Transcendental humanism in philosophy considers humans as simultaneously the originator of meaning, and subject to a larger ultimate truth that exists beyond the human realm (transcendence). The philosophy suggests that the humanistic approach is guided by “accuracy, truth, discovery, and objectivity” that transcends or exists apart from subjectivity.

Technoself studies, commonly referred to as TSS, is an emerging, interdisciplinary domain of scholarly research dealing with all aspects of human identity in a technological society focusing on the changing nature of relationships between the human and technology. As new and constantly changing experiences of human identity emerge due to constant technological change, technoself studies seeks to map and analyze these mutually influential developments with a focus on identity, rather than technical developments. Therefore, the self is a key concept of TSS. The term "technoself", advanced by Luppicini (2013), broadly denotes evolving human identity as a result of the adoption of new technology, while avoiding ideological or philosophical biases inherent in other related terms including cyborg, posthuman, transhuman, techno-human, beman, digital identity, avatar, and homotechnicus though Luppicini acknowledges that these categories "capture important aspects of human identity". Technoself is further elaborated and explored in Luppicini's "Handbook of Research on Technoself: Identity in a Technological Environment".

Digital labor or digital labour represents an emergent form of labor characterized by the production of value through interaction with information and communication technologies such as digital platforms or artificial intelligence. Examples of digital labor include on-demand platforms, micro-working, and user-generated data for digital platforms such as social media. Digital labor describes work that encompasses a variety of online tasks. If a country has the structure to maintain a digital economy, digital labor can generate income for individuals without the limitations of physical barriers.

Convergence culture is a theory which recognizes changing relationships and experiences with new media. Henry Jenkins is accepted by media academics to be the father of the term with his book Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide. It explores the flow of content distributed across various intersections of media, industries and audiences, presenting a back and forth power struggle over the distribution and control of content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iusnaturalism</span> Theory of law

Jusnaturalism or iusnaturalism is a theory of law, which holds that legal norms follow a human universal knowledge on justice and harmony of relations. Thus, it views enacted laws that contradict such universal knowledge as unjust and illegitimate. Modern theorists considered as iusnaturalists include Hugo Grotius, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Franz von Zeiller, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital dystopia</span>

Digital dystopia, cyber dystopia or algorithmic dystopia refers to an alternate future or present in which digitized technologies or also algorithms have caused major societal disruption. It refers to narratives of technologies influencing social, economic, and political structures, and its diverse set of components includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous connectivity, ubiquitous surveillance, and social networks. In popular culture, technological dystopias often are about or depict mass loss of privacy due to technological innovation and/or social control. They feature heightened socio-political issues like social fragmentation, intensified consumerism, dehumanization, and mass human migrations.

Digital self-determination is a multidisciplinary concept derived from the legal concept of self-determination and applied to the digital sphere, to address the unique challenges to individual and collective agency and autonomy arising with increasing digitalization of many aspects of society and daily life.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Ames, Morgan G (1 January 2018). "Deconstructing the algorithmic sublime". Big Data & Society. 5 (1): 2053951718779194. doi: 10.1177/2053951718779194 . ISSN   2053-9517.
  2. Gardner, William O (1 March 2009). "The Cyber Sublime and the Virtual Mirror: Information and Media in the Works of Oshii Mamoru and Kon Satoshi". Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 18 (1): 44–70. doi:10.3138/cjfs.18.1.44. ISSN   0847-5911 . Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  3. Natale, Simone; Ballatore, Andrea (1 January 2014). "The web will kill them all: new media, digital utopia, and political struggle in the Italian 5-Star Movement". Media, Culture & Society. 36 (1): 105–121. doi:10.1177/0163443713511902. hdl: 2318/1768935 . ISSN   0163-4437. S2CID   73517559 . Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  4. Scott, Joe WT (July 2015). ""The majesty of desolation": Ryoji Ikeda's digital sublime". Kerb: Journal of Landscape Architecture. 23: 18–21 via INFORMIT.
  5. Kant, Immanuel (1987). The Critique of Judgment . Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. pp.  232.
  6. Most, Glenn (2012). The Sublime, Today? In Dynamic Reading: Studies in the Reception of Epicureanism. Oxford University Press. p. 244. ISBN   9780199794959.
  7. Kant, Immanuel (1987). The Critique of Judgement . Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. pp.  256.
  8. Burke, Edmund (1998). A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful. New York: Oxford University Press.
  9. Mosco, Vincent. "About". Dr. Vincent Mosco. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  10. Mosco, Vincent (2004). The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
  11. "elwira skowrońska". elwira skowrońska. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  12. Skowronska, Elwira (2018). datascapes: Redefining the Sublime in Contemporary Art. Sydney: The University of Sydney, School of Literature, Arts and Media.
  13. Skowronska, Elwira (2018). datascapes: Redefining the Sublime in Contemporary Art. Sydney: The University of Sydney, School of Literature, Arts and Media. p. 17.
  14. "Kant's Aesthetics and Teleology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  15. Huang, Yi-Hui (2012). "The Digital Sublime: Lessons from Kelli Connell's Double Life". Journal of Aesthetic Education. 46 (4): 70–79. doi:10.5406/jaesteduc.46.4.0070. S2CID   193216781.
  16. McDevitt & Sindorff (2012). "How to Kill a Journalism School: The Digital Sublime in the Discourse of Discontinuance". Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. 67: 109–118. doi:10.1177/1077695812440942. S2CID   145001400.
  17. Hutchins, Brett (2016). "Tales of the digital sublime: Tracing the relationship between big data and professional sport". Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 22: 494–509. doi:10.1177/1354856515587163. S2CID   148266357.
  18. "Patrick Burkart | Texas A&M University - Academia.edu". tamu.academia.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  19. Burkart, Patrick (2014). "Music in the Cloud and the Digital Sublime". Popular Music and Society. 37 (4): 393–407. doi:10.1080/03007766.2013.810853. S2CID   144348686.