The Dialectics of the Visual and the Book Culture in the Postmodern Era

Abstract

The object of research in the present work
is the issue of the coexistence of the book
and the visual cultures. Contemporary culture,
having become informational, has transformed
into a society of visual culture. The phenomenon
of visual culture of post-industrial society
is examined as a specific type of information
and as a process. The processes of virtualization
of life are becoming the distinctive feature
of contemporary informational technologies.
Information in the present era is exerting its
influence on the user of technologies to a much
greater degree as it was the case earlier.
But the author does not agree with the negative
evaluation of visualization as a replication
of the set model of communication which
impoverishes human thought. The reasons
for this intellectual impoverishment
and the lowering of the overall cultural level
of the consumer have not been incited
by art works of visual culture.
These processes are conditioned
by the specificity of contemporary mass culture
which forms the “midrange” personality.
Descriptions and comparisons are given
of the model of the sociocultural mechanism
of informational impact of art works pertaining
to visual and book culture. The attempt
is made to answer the question of whether
visual culture possesses a systematic
predominating status, or whether it must
be examined as one of the directions of culture
of the informational society. The conclusion
is reached about the prospects of coexistence
and interpenetration of the visual
and the book culture with each other.