Testimonies of the Future: The Digital-Turn in the Philosophy of Media and Hybrid Arts

Abstract

The article provides an overview of several academic disciplines, such as the philosophy of media, theory of art, and visual studies for the analysis of transformation of visual knowledge and image in the digital era. The views of researchers are presented with attention to three largest traditions in the philosophy of media and visual studies — Anglo-Saxon, Russian, and German. During the review, three basic theses are proposed: 1) digital ontologies are close to “flat ontologies” in basic principles of ontology, where the most important is modularity, which cannot be reduced to either hardware or software; 2) the influence of digital era is reflected in the hybrid art, as a result of incorporate high technology and art; 3) the result of digital revolution can be considered as the distinction between analog and digital media. In this case, a new type of digital object (virtual) is understood as the difference between a copy and original work, a new variation of materiality. The prospects for further research on the role of digital objects and hybrid art are as follows: — One of the tasks is a critical analysis of the ontology of a digital object with attention to image production in the context of postmodern art studies and philosophy; — The second task may be to study the works of new media with attention to the transformation of their institutional relationships, the role of Museum archives, and exhibition practices.