数字传媒时代的图像表意与文字审美

Image Ideograms and Character Appreciation in the Digital Media Age

图像表意的强化与文字审美的式微正在改写这个时代的艺术社会学和符号美学。数字媒介革命的巨大历史性推力所形成的图像文化转向,引发了社会符号生产的文化经济转轨,把图像生产打造成了物质生产和消费的文化法则。数字传媒技术孕育的"图像时代"调整了人与对象世界的聚焦方式,"镜像文化"加速成为社会的文化主打产品,图像的虚拟变成了生活的现实、艺术的真实和文化的事实。图像中心化的转向,虽然凸显了图像符号的表意功能,却弱化了原有的文字表意体制,挤压了书写印刷文化的审美空间,迫使"语言艺术"审美移至后台,形成了文字审美萎缩而图像符号强化的文化事实;而文字书写方式的"以机换笔",也使得艺术生产的思维方式呈现为"字思维→词思维→图思维"的范式转换。然而,从未来发展看,中华文字与西洋字母不同,它的书写能抒发情性,表征心灵,达至审美境界,语言表意的想象空间和彼岸超越是图像符号所难以企及的,而这些特征正是文学、艺术、审美文化所不可或缺的价值底色,也是图像所代替不了的。

Reinforcement of image ideograms and the decline of character appreciation are changing the artistic sociology and symbol aesthetics of this age. The image cultural turn caused by the revolution of digital media, initiates a cultural economy transition of social symbolic production, and establishes image production into cultural law of material producing and consumption. The ＂Image Era＂ of digital media technique adjusts the focusing pattern between the human and objects＇ worlds; The ＂Mirror culture＂ become cultural hits of society; the virtual of image turns into the reality of life, the truth of the art and the fact of the culture. Image centralizing changing highlights the function of expressing meanings, however, weakens the original graphic character system, squeezes the aesthetic space of print culture, and forces aesthetics of ＂language art＂ moving backstage. The way of language writing that calls ＂PC displaced the pen＂, yet made the mode of thinking of artistic production has assumed as a kind of paradigm transformation from ＂character thought＂ to ＂word thought＂ and to ＂picture thought＂.