数字“海洋”中的“崇高”与“创伤”——重思数字美学的三个关键词

The Trauma and Sublime in the Digital Ocean:Three Approaches of Rethinking of Aesthetics of the Digital

数字艺术发展至今已有将近百年的时间,但对于它的美学反思还有待深入。数字美学的根本问题大致有两个,一是本真性和重复性之辩,二是媒介的特殊性和普遍性之争。要深刻回应这两个难题,不妨围绕三个关键词入手来层层递进。第一个关键词是数字海洋,它揭示出一个要点,即数字艺术看似是机械复制的极端形式,实则以可见与不可见、多与一的二元又互渗的关系深刻而全面地改变了传统艺术的方方面面的基本形态。但由此也就导致了自律与他律之间的张力这个主体性的难题。第二个关键词“数字崇高”之提出,正是意在以崇高体验的演变或衰变为线索,再度对数字美学中的主体性危机进行深入考察。对这个难题和困境的回应最终回到“数字创伤”这第三个关键词,德里达的幽灵概念和海尔斯的创伤叙事正是在数字时代重建主体性之美学体验的两个可能方向。

Digital art has been developed for nearly a hundred years,but its aesthetic reflection still needs to be deepened.There are roughly two fundamental problems in digital aesthetics,one is the debate between authenticity and repetition,and the other is the debate between the particularity and universality of the medium.To answer these two problems in depth,one might as well start with three key words and proceed step by step.The first keyword is digital ocean,which reveals a point that digital art seems to be an extreme form of mechanical reproduction,but in fact it profoundly and comprehensively changes the basic form of all aspects of traditional art.But this also leads to the problem of subjectivity,the tension between autonomy and heteronomy.The proposal of the second keyword"digital sublime"is intended to use the evolution or decay of sublime experience as a clue to re-examine the crisis of subjectivity in digital aesthetics.So,how to respond to this dilemma?It seems right to return to the third keyword of digital trauma.Derrida’s notion of specters and Hayles’narrative of trauma are just two possible directions for reconstructing the aesthetic experience of subjectivity in the digital age.