#visual semiotics

The Institute for Psychogametous Life: A Novel Approach to Investigating Symbolic Alien Replication and Human Cognitive Response

''This recent 🇷🇺 recruitment video is actually right up my research alley. So, a few thoughts on this concentrated broth of propaganda, masculinity and militarization of the mundane in Russia. - The appeal to the (hyper)masculine - disregarding that women participate in the so called "special military operation" as well, albeit in much smaller numbers - is not surprising, considering that...he Russian national identity has been actively constructed around stereotypically masculine images since the early 2000s by the state. Think of the portrayals of Putin as a supposedly strong and rational leader, riding a horse (shirtless, of course). Since 2012 this remasculinization process has been combined with an increased state focus on traditional values and conservative gender norms: the "real" Russian man had to be manly and the "real" Russian woman feminine. Naturally this has historical roots. I will save the explanation of how masculinity and femininity has developed in Russia since the Soviet times for another time, and just say that images of a manly-man have strong ideological ties to Kremlin politics today. In this video the masculinity discourse unfolds within the promotion of war: it is no longer enough to radiate testosterone, you have to particapate in military action to be a "real" Russian man - a "muzhik" (мужик). The choice of the term "muzhik" in the vidео is noteworthy. During the Russian empire, a muzhik had class connotations as it described a male peasant. Today, the word has come to symbolize "real" and "raw" expressions of masculinity, and used eagerly by Putin himself. At the same time the video has a clear target group: (white) men in low-status, low-income jobs, who have failed to live up to the "muzhik" ideal in their everyday life. It plays on masculine shame and tries to foster feelings of inadequacy. Another noteworthy thing is that the video is not explicitly patriotic, but more elegantly so, as it does play on the familiar propaganda notes of being a defender (insert: of Russia and traditional values). If you are interested in reading more on strategic and (toxic) top down promotions of masculinity in Russia under Putin's rule, I warmly recommend the work by Riabov and Riabova, fx "The Remasculinization of Russia?" from 2014.''

Hemos llegado a un punto en el que somos capaces de descomponer todo en bits y empe­zamos a ver cómo podemos fabricar creativa y técnicamente, a base de estos bits, mundos al­ternativos. (…) Nos encontramos, sin embargo, al final de la Edad Moderna. Todo está en la fase de convertirse en algo duro y matemático. En esto consiste la transformación en la cual nos encontramos y en la que pasamos del pensa­miento histórico, lineal, procesal, lógico, al pen­samiento cerodimensional, calculatorio, de aná­lisis sistemático, de síntesis sistemática, estruc­tural.

“Alrededor de nosotros, las omnipresentes imágenes técnicas están en vía de reestructurar de forma mágica nuestra realidad e invertirla en un escenario global de imágenes. Se trata, funda­mentalmente, de un acto de olvido. El hombre olvida que él era quien generaba esas imágenes para orientarse en el mundo. Ya no es capaz de descifrarlas y, a partir de ahora, vive en función de sus propias imágenes: la imaginación se ha convertido en alucinación.