Author: Alexandra Rusu
The title reflects the eponymous work of two personalities from different fields who united in developing a discourse of hypermodernity and its relationship with cinema. Gilles Lipovetsky and Jean Serroy argue for the disappearance of classical cinema, contemporaneity being marked by a proliferation of the screen. In this exploration of today’s society, the two authors examine the history of cinema to observe the history of its transformation into hypercinematography, a category that favors the emergence of the global screen.
The history of cinema, from the “primitive modernity” of the silent film, to the avant-garde that broke the patterns of classical cinema up to the narrative dynamics of consumer society after the ’80s, prepares the ubiquity of today’s screen, a fact widespread both in the public sphere and in the private one. A striking phenomenon is the “screenrule”, a direct result of the convergence of the multitude of screens that regulate social life.
Unlike the cinema spectator, who seeks to access imaginary realms, today’s consumer, witness to the multiplication of screens (cinema, TV, computer, mobile phone, GPS, video games, surveillance cameras, etc.) wants to feel, be disturbed and, more so, he wants to be an actor, a complete master of his own narrative. Overcoming the role of the imaginary vehicle, the cinema animates cultural trends and influences aesthetic orientations, often ephemeral effects in a society of planned obsolescence, which also shows an acceleration of the aging of cultural products.
Relevant for the anthropological study is the mechanism by which cinematographic fiction can express the anxieties and interrogations of contemporary society. This type of discourse shows especially pessimism, doubts or deep fears about the evolution and course of the world in general: ecological disasters, social violence, escalating crime and conflict, exclusion and marginalization, non-respect for human rights, national identity, ethics technology and science, etc.
Digital media has transformed the global screen into a mirror, a space where cultures interact, engage in dialogues, or build monologues, an environment of reflection or refraction. The immense creative capacity of digital media, that is made available to an increasing number of people, urges us to critically distance ourselves and to question the foundations of such creativity.
The power of the screen, in all its forms, exerts an extreme attraction and forsees a future of the virtual environment, in which what will not be available on the screen will become obsolete. We are already witnessing the deformations of the spatio-temporal coordinates. “By compressing time to the extreme and abolishing the constraints of space, the screen establishes an immediate temporality, generating intolerance of slowness and the requirement of gaining time.” A possible post-screen future is the integration of information, through implants, directly into the flow of consciousness, a future that will test human limits.”
Text & Photo: Alexandra Rusu
Bibliography:
Gilles Lipovetsky, Jean Serroy, Ecranul global, Polirom, 2008.
N.B. Kirilova, The Transformation of Screen Culture as a Phenomenon of Information Age, în Facets of Culture in the Age of Social Transition, 2018, p. 128–133.
