While walking on the streets of any ‘civilised' city, its not possible to ignore the huge amount of screens that also populate it.
Screens of all shapes and sizes, in the most original places, giant, medium and small noticeboards, bus stops, shop windows, inside and outside vehicles, walls, cellphones, tablets, clocks, computers, televisions… the list goes on. We are constantly being bombarded by screens, stormed by its lights, inebriated by its power, consuming its messages. Why? Why do we perceive it as a natural inevitable activity? What is its history? What is a screen? There are many different types of screens, developed throughout History, the cathode ray tube, Flip-Flap, Light-emitting diode, Vacuum fluorescent display, LED, LCD, OLED, etc. Even though their construction and physiognomy are distinct, all screens share the same purpose: Attract attention to the message it contains. How do screens attract attention? Screens captivate human eyes in an exceptional way, and this is mostly due to its light. Unlike most objects, screens emit light, instead of reflecting it. Just like lamps, fire, or the sun, screens illuminate instead of being illuminated. This is of extreme relevance: Emitted light allures our eyes because of its power and significance - warmth, familiarity, aliveness. Just like mosquitoes, humans are intuitively attracted to light. During the night, artificial emitted light devices are a substitute to day-light. This is convenient, but also has its disadvantages - while looking at a screen the eyes get tired easily of constantly being buzzed with light, the brain acts as if it isn’t sleepy. Human nature is perturbed with these modern habits, and the long-term consequences haven’t been discovered yet. What do screens communicate? In the final part of his book and programme “Ways of Seeing” (1972), John Berger discusses advertising. His manner of critical thinking was significant and cutting-edge for his contemporaries, since he spoke about this habitual subject in a profoundly unconventional way. “In our urban world, in the streets where we walk, in the buses we take, in the magazines we read, on walls, on screens, we’re surrounded by images of an alternative way of life. We may remember or forget these images, but briefly we take them in, and for a moment they stimulate our imagination”. His introduction is tangible, precise, and doesn’t apply only to advertising. Nowadays, this description goes beyond publicity, and integrates into games, films, the internet! We are surrounded not only by still images, but moving images. It captivates our attention, we briefly take them in and distort our perception of reality. Advertising and Propaganda is everywhere to be consumed, conscious or unconsciously. Can this be dangerous? Can we be manipulated by how it distorts our notion of reality? The world inside screens - this created reality - does it enrich and improve our physical world? This cultural text’s rationale was motivated by the themes discussed in the lecture “Mediated Culture”, such as mass produced culture, the hyperreal, how “images come to you, you do not come to them”, and how “the mass media, popular culture and media images (…) control and shape all other social interactions and dominate our sense of reality.”
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