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It is often cheesily stated that the purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but “serve the body”. Whereas technological innovations have various effects on individuals and the society, simultaneously giving birth to an increasing amount of issues and concepts, it as well has an effect on our understanding of the so-called human nature. Fundamentally, the industrial revolution gave birth and modified society into the form we acknowledge it today, but it is now being commonly said that the two decades after millennium have shaped the world more than any other period of time ever before in human history. During the past few decades, humanity’s foundational understanding of its own state of being (in space) has transformed towards new directions because of digital tools and the internet -- the body, which technology is supposed to serve, has in itself become an increasingly abstract concept, regarding its relation to terms such as identity and place. (Buchanan, 1) Whereas the bodies of individuals are represented in the virtual space of the internet and connected to others, a strong social effect is created; the meaning of the original is a subject to change. Today, even the simple, manually operated tools are being linked to virtual, immaterial networks, becoming as well prominent parts of the virtual rhizome as social objects filled with information, multi-layering the connection between machines and humans. “As our worlds become smarter and get to know us better and better, it becomes harder and harder to say where the world stops and the person begins.” (Clark, 7)
The current setting of these ‘parallel realities’, which are in fact rapidly merging, could offer a fruitful base for future outlooks, comparable to well-known, perhaps to some extent ominous theories of the postmodern era, dominantly dealing with the notion of representation -- which is also one of the main features of the internet as a social wholeness. Nonetheless, this thesis does not attempt to predict the future, but by connecting influential accounts dominantly from the fields of media theory and philosophy from the past decades, it ventures to offer an interdisciplinary overview about the relationship of the customary, ‘physical real’ and the newer ‘virtual real’ in the context of social media and internet phenomena, such as internet memes, which operate hand-in-hand. Historically, postmodern figures such as Jean Baudrillard and Susan Sontag (in relation to photography) created a significant base for the discussion regarding the ‘real’ and the concept of representation. In this paper their early accounts are used as a historical standing point, which do not directly connect to the post-internet age, but are useful in order to illustrate a wider picture regarding the concept in question. Whereas the internet was once considered as a representative of freedom on various levels, it has along its popularization and capitalization transformed into an ultimate apparatus of representation, deterritorialization and (in)control, affecting basically all the aspects of Western, capitalist societies.
Whereas the world has become hyperconnected, only lately we have understood the broad significance of the internet’s social side and certain problems it has the ability to create, which resemble Sartrean ideas regarding a widely discussed philosophical concept, ‘the gaze’, which operates between the individuals and the others/society. For Jean-Paul Sartre, the gaze of others signifies hell, since it makes our “socially codified identities” visible, also making us realize that we cannot fight against it. (Cornell & Halter, 361) And in the words of Boris Groys: “... we try to avoid the gaze of others for a while so that we can reveal our “true self” after a certain period of seclusion—to reappear in public in a new shape, in a new form.” (ibid) The internet provides a sensation of possibility to alter this hell, since it functions without the immediate restrictions of space and time -- however, at turn, the same qualities can also strengthen the hell further. It can be said that the virtual representations on the internet are already in an equal position with their physical ‘originals’, especially in terms of social reality. As social media complexicates the foundational concept of an individual, it is today possible to exist only in the internet’s virtual gaze, dependent on one’s virtual communication, maintaining her physical remains as an essential bad -- such as the concept of Japanese origin, hikikomori.
Images and visuality are today evidently more crucial for communication than ever because of the internet; it is mundane to communicate and express oneself through visual content such as emoticons, gifs and memes. In the popular platforms of social media, especially photography as a replicative medium is in a central position and therefore as well an important aspect to include in this paper: it allows an individual to curate herself by letting to choose what to share regarding her analog presence and outlook. However, whereas identification is crucial for creating and/or re-creating networks online, the hell once illustrated by Sartre becomes evident. Nathan Jurgenson offers a significant take on the phenomenon by arguing that today’s social theory “should be, in part, a theory of social media, which should be, in part, a theory of social photography“ (Jurgenson, 16) For him, the so-called social photography is a cultural practice, “a way of seeing, speaking, and learning.”, which develops the skills of sociality and self-expression. (ibid) After all, today predominantly everyone needs to take part in the practice also in the sphere of internet to meet the standards of contemporary society.
The examination of the effect of social media and the perception-related ‘mind-body axis’ are mainly inspired and co-affected by the conceptual framework of my diploma art project, which serves as an elementary example of a wide and complex phenomenon. The project deals with matters such as social media, memes and most importantly representation, which is, as noted above, a conjunctive aspect of the internet as a social, non-linear space. Also human language is central for the project, as it is especially in the sphere of pragmatic philosophy understood as the only tool for us to describe reality. As internet memes have become central and extremely effective means of communication, comparable to the widely discussed concept of mythos, various words originated in such content have become parts of the analogue intercommunication, therefore collectively transforming the way reality is perceived and described: the online is present offline. Apart from my individual artistic practice, this thesis discusses art and its connection to the topic, including a slight comparison to popular culture, which functions on different means, but is likewise affected by the virtual realm. Talking about popular culture as an autonomous gestalt in addition to art makes it possible to create a wider overview of the phenomenon; the internet shakes and intertwines the boundaries of both, interconnected parts of capitalist society. The fifth chapter of this thesis goes through certain important characteristics for internet based/inspired art, including few examples of contemporary artists who are reflecting the current state of art as an institutional, social wholeness to the multidisciplinary power of the internet, dealing with matters examined in the previous chapters.