TÉCHNÊ OF THE VISUAL
KATARINA PEOVIC VUKOVICABSTRACT. The paper discusses the distinction between high and popular culture through the elaboration of the craftsmanship, or what is in the ancient Greek named téchnê. The paper will argue that téchnê remains the ultimate element of the distinction between high and popular culture. The concept of remediation inaugurated by David Bolter and Richard Grusin (2000) serves to lighten a material aspect of an artefact, especially remediation as a ground for distinguishing the immediacy from the hypermediacy as two representational strategies. The model is demonstrated on the example of the computer games were the immediacy is a common technique that aims at “seamless bond” between the narrative and the algorithm. On the other hand, art forms often follow modernist tradition with the affinity toward non-transparent hypermediacy. The article discusses modernism as a specific turn in representational strategies that can be described through the concept of immediacy/hypermediacy. Further, the paper questions political aspects of such affinity. In order to define authentic political art, the paper reads Benjamin’s essay “The Author as Producer”. pp. 29–42
Keywords: téchnê; hypermediacy; modernism; actuality; computer games; popular culture
doi:10.22381/KC5520173