ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that the transition to the culture of the screen comes with important ontological implications. In the culture of the screen, by contrast, many screens are staring at their user simultaneously, one can engage in multiple tasks, and these tasks remain always unfinished and provisional. Older forms of screens, be it paintings, cinema screens, and television screens, only imperfectly materialized the possibilities that come with the digital screen. However, so Vilem Flusser argues, the power films have to attract our attention is predicated on the more fundamental potential of the screen to present reality. The gist of Henri Wallon’s work is that animals don’t show a particular interest in what appears on the screen and start looking behind the mirror, whereas children are completely captivated by the phenomenon of self-reflection itself. It seems that they are fascinated by the fact that on a flat reflective surface things can appear.