Introduction to Visual Culture & Cyber-Culture

It is true to say that as a modern society we have become more aware of visual representation (as opposed to textual), a phenomenon that because of its increasing importance with our everyday lives; we strive to understand it, in a way to understand our own lives and how they function. Mirzoeff rightly claims that “human experience is more visual [...] than ever before”. His statement is backed up with the good examples of satellite imagery, X-ray and medical imaging. We continually rely on the image; to help us live our lives more efficiently and be able to express ourselves. Yet as much as the image aids us in our advancement of human existence, it is also the very element of existence that we fear the most; CCTV is just one form of imagery than inhibits our freedom, rights and ability to live an independent life. Many “shocking” films and pieces of pop culture (most notably that of cyber-culture); use the abuse and exploitation of the image to frighten their audiences (eg, The Matrix “what we see really isn’t what is real”). Also to be able to visualize the unseen, Mirzoeff briefly touches on this with his example of the Jamie Bulger case, whereby our imaging technology apparently creates improved security which is good, yet it didn’t prevent the crime from happening. However without this technology way may never have known the true happenings of the crime. This “Big Brother” aspect to our lives is reinforced in the film Threshold (2005), whereby the prisoners are put into the room together and controlled from an exterior location. This interesting scenario says two things; it suggests the absurdity of the constant worries over our fears with disease and surveillance; yet, as the reading points out, it is also reinforcing the reality of our situation and offering a new take on an issue so readily dramatized in cyber-pop.

When reading the piece by Mirzoeff there are certain areas of the reading that link so closely with the set films. The first opening part of the 6^th Day (2000) features the quote:

“God created man in his own image, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” Genesis 1.27.31

We all know this to be a quote from the bible, yet it echoes what Mirzoeff states on page 9 of the reading. He briefly mentions a theory from Pluto stating that “objects encountered in everyday life are just bad copies of the perfect ideal of those objects”. This very old notion of recreation is perhaps the reason behind the human cloning/genetics ideologies present in cyber-culture, the idea that we suddenly have the technology to make ourselves seemingly better than what we were intended to be. Many aspects of Cyber-culture use biblical foundations a way to develop a binary opposition between right and wrong. A simple techno-figuration (as described by Donna Haraway). Like many other cyber-pop productions we must have an element of familiarity before our eventual exposure to a new innovation. The main point that I took major interest from in the reading was the short passage on “Cyber-Pop and Paradox” in the Cyber-poetics as methodology reading. The very interesting thing about this section is the idea that what we can gain from technology, we can also lose. For example, if we take this and apply it to a cyber-pop context (whereby elements of both fiction and fact are present), we can see in many sci-fi films we create robots/clones to obtain greater control and efficiency over our lives. Yet, as you would expect in a compelling narrative, this very same technology leads to the break-down of society, in essence, a lack of control or efficiency (ie I Robot, The Matrix, Blade Runner, The Island; and of course the 6^th Day). It is such a major part of cyber-culture and modern popular culture ranging from film all the way to street graffiti. These visual representations of the arrangements of power and social orders are what visual culture is all about, decoding messages from images; and what makes cyber-pop so intriguing is the level of decoding available. A convention of a great cyber-culture production is one where multiple decoding can take place, the audience to be left with familiarity but also with ambiguity. This ambiguity is what intrigues the human mind, we are not satisfied and so must explore the topic in more depth – for example The Matrix, whereby it is almost impossible to develop a single solid resolution for its meaning. In essence, re-description.