The symbol succumbed to the image after the advent of mass media. The bear in the dog pit, the symbol was overwhelmed by the many images springing forth from photo journalism, motion pictures, television,...
Do we miss them? The symbols, I mean. Or we're they always bricks in a kind of mental prison that kept us from experiencing the flow of images we are immersed in every moment?
Miss it…I don't know...I miss maybe its size and influence. And perhaps the weight and the emotion of ‘archetype’ which most symbols embody.
True, the symbol has too often been deployed simplistically. And I think one could argue that certain images spawned by mass media now have an ‘iconic status’ that rivals any symbol’s heft and influence.
3 comments:
You might find Henry Jenkins's latest book "Spreadable Media" of interest in this regard...More than a symbol's succumbed
Have you read Ranciere, also very apropos?
Do we miss them? The symbols, I mean. Or we're they always bricks in a kind of mental prison that kept us from experiencing the flow of images we are immersed in every moment?
Miss it…I don't know...I miss maybe its size and influence. And perhaps the weight and the emotion of ‘archetype’ which most symbols embody.
True, the symbol has too often been deployed simplistically. And I think one could argue that certain images spawned by mass media now have an ‘iconic status’ that rivals any symbol’s heft and influence.
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