The 21st century is the century of rapid technological developments and challenges. The technological challenges are registered in the expression of the human body through the digital reproduction of its experienced movement. Technology is governed by an ambiguity, which depends on human choice. Therefore it is a gift, and at the same time a weapon for man, who chooses each time, according to his purpose and motives, either to utilize it as a gift, or to use it as a destructive weapon at the expense of others, and consequently at the expense of himself. In the case of lectures with philosophical and scientific content, technology is used as a gift, and indeed its power is enhanced by the power of generated knowledge and fruitful dialogue.
In recent years, technology has been integrated with basic professional areas that directly concern people, such as education. More specifically, multimedia is a key element of the educational process. In higher education, in fact, digital applications have contributed the most to the annihilation of distances and free access to the teaching of courses, the so-called Open Digital Courses (Open Courses), which are undergraduate or postgraduate courses that have been videotaped and digitally formatted, to be available online. Access to Open Digital Courses is unlimited and free of cost.
So, a transition from the earlier logosphere, where the truth of the face and body is absent, and the graphosphere, to the iconosphere-videosphere is observed. The Iconosphere brings to the surface a matter-form relationship that obeys a new imaginative logic. It is about the production of signs in the form of images that are poured out activating a kind of simultaneous receiver-transmitter participation.[1]
The importance of digital and video conferencing applications has been highlighted in the last three years of the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic had the effect of increasing the distances – kilometers and personal -, resulting in isolation. Digital applications, in addition to facilitating various professional fields, enhancing telecommuting, modernized the collaboration of professionals, but mainly favored the closeness born through the experience of visual encounter.
The importance of the camera (webcamera) is decisive in the experience of the visual encounter. The webcam makes it possible to reveal the gaze as an intersection of idea and experience. Through the webcam I am seen in the gaze of the other, and at the same time the other is seen in my gaze. In this way a condition of dialectic is created within which visual proximity is visualized, as well as the modalities by which contemplation extends to my own form and at the same time to the other’s form. The dialectical reflection, the knowledge and the truth that emerges through the visual encounter are inscribed in corporeality, as an action of the intellect and at the same time as an experience, revealing to human existence itself that ” is her body” (Ponty), but also “What can her body” (Spinoza).
The body as an extension of classes within the world becomes a meeting ground between time and the movements of the event. The image as an observation of life itself is inextricably linked to time and is impossible to break away from its temporal nature. The digital lived image, then, is observation and reflection at the same time. The camera works like a mirror, as the person has the ability to see both the embodied image of others and their own.
The mirror contributes to the perception of the body image by the person himself. Through the mirror the subject receives the image of his body as an idea and at the same time as a fact. This other seen in the mirror guarantees that the first is himself. The corporeal Ego of human existence is formed through the You of reflection.
The subject’s gaze is perceived by the subject itself through the reflection. As Lacan said: “No matter how many mirrors you look into, you cannot see your own gaze.”
In the case of teleconferences, the participant experiences a tele-corporal proximity, as he meets visually with the physical presence of the other participants. In digital applications the mirror is the camera through which I see myself as a reflection, but also the self-image of another being. Within this condition, each participant experiences the intercorporeal closeness that develops through the experienced image of his interlocutors.
But what happens in a taped projection from earlier years, or in a lecture that the person watches in retrospect? In this case, the person who sees a lecture in retrospect is found as a spatial and temporal corporeality here, in the hic et nunc of the viewing. The word “here” indicates the anchoring of the viewer’s active body in the present space at the moment he watches the lecture in retrospect. The viewer tunes in tele-corporal by experiencing the present of his body and simultaneously the spatio-temporality of the speaker’s corporeal form, while entering the taped event through the modalities of the visual encounter he experiences in the present.
The contribution of filming scientific and philosophical lectures is valuable and highly necessary for every young student and researcher. The taped lectures reinforce the written text of the book, because the physical gaze of the student meets the physical expression and form taken by the reflection and thought of the speaker. For example, I watch a Gilles Deleuze lecture online and penetrate the meanings through bodily movements and facial expressions, as the Latin saying goes: Vultus est index animi (The face is the mirror of the soul).
Every time a lecture is given it is a one and only time, since what was said can never be reproduced exactly in the same way, nor can the train of thought be regenerated with the same intensity. This is another factor that encourages the use of digital applications.
Filming the cognitive process captures the moment of knowledge production and transmission. If one considers that life is a short passage within multiplicity, where the speed of time makes human closeness difficult, digital applications favor approach through visual mitsein.
By recording scientific and philosophical lectures, man found a way to capture contemplative time directly, and at the same time the ability to reproduce and repeat it at will. He thus acquired a real-time matrix of the peace of thought by recording and storing it via video camera in the past, or today via web-cam.
A phenomenological relationship develops between the speaker, the viewers and the camera. Now the camera acquires a purpose, the purpose given to it by the lived body – body of reflection – of the speaker at the moment he extends his thought and transmits his knowledge, making the camera something more than a pre-hand being (zuhanden, Heidegger). The physical form goes beyond the camera-tool (I do not focus at that moment when the gaze of the other meets me on the camera type or on the pixels), because my gaze focuses on the physical form that appears on the screen and addresses me dialectically. Thus, apart from being a tool, the camera is a point of visual proximity.
The direct relationship that develops between the person and the camera, while watching a lecture, is due to the inherent desire to see. The sense of sight is primary and fundamental. The eye and by extension the optic nerves receive stimuli, images, formatted meanings, which are registered in the body both mentally and emotionally. While attending a lecture, the individual enters a mystical state of contemplation, as he enters a reality of new knowledge through the thought-carrying gaze.
The great philosopher and student of Husserl, Edith Stein, reflected on the interactivity of bodies that develops due to empathy. In the digital condition of teleconferences, we could speak of tele-empathy. In this way, the body of the person watching experiences a dual spatio-temporality. This kind of tele-empathy develops, as the viewer meets the thoughts, knowledge and experiences of the speaker. The camera brings to the surface the gaze as an idea and at the same time an event through the constant visual interaction of bodily forms.
In the manner of asynchronously watching a scientific lecture or the synchronized form of teleconferencing, the process of self-reflection is favored, every time the person sees familiar elements in the bodily expression of another being. This familiar reflection, especially when it comes to lectures with scientific and philosophical content that favor the learning process, helps him to become familiar with deeper aspects of himself by discovering unknown elements of his personality.
Dialectical reflection as motivation enhances the power of technology which makes it a means of imparting knowledge. In this way man harnesses technology by applying it for the purpose of knowledge, closeness and friendship. In the teleconferences the experience of contemplation and the modalities of shaping it in the style of the face are extended through the camera, which reveals the chiasm of Being – Appearing as a reflection of existence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ
- Σωκράτης Δεληβογιατζής, Ζητήματα Διαλεκτικής, εκδ. Ερωδιός, 2010, Θεσσαλονίκη.
ΜΕΤΑΦΡΑΣΜΕΝΗ
- Gilles Deleuze, Κινηματογράφος ΙΙ Η χρονοεικόνα, (μτφρ. Κική Καψαμπέλη), [Cinéma 2, L’ image– temps, © 1985 by LesÉditions de Minuit], © για την ελληνική έκδοση 2004, εκδ. Νήσος – Π. Καπόλα, 2010, Αθήνα, κεφ. 8, σ σ. 214-217, 224, 225-227.
- Martin Heidegger, Είναι και Χρόνος ( Sein und Zeit, 1927), (Μεταφρ: Γιάννης Τζαβάρας), εκδ. Δωδώνη, Αθήνα, 1η εκδ. 1978, 2η, 2013, τομ., Α’
- Edmund Husserl, Για τη Φαινομενολογία της συνείδησης του εσωτερικού χρόνου, (μτφρ. Νίκος Σουελτζής), εκδ. Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις Κρήτης, Ηράκλειο 2020, Τίτλοι πρωτότυπων κειμένων: Husserliana 10, σ. 3-134, «ZurPhänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstesensins (1893- 1917).[« The Phenomenology of internal time-consciousness (1893-1917)»], επιμ. Rudolf Boehm. Χάγη, Ολλανδία: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969. Husserliana 33, σ. 3-49, «Die ‘Bernauer Manuskripte’ über das Zeitbewußtsein (1917/1918)» [ The ‘Bernauer Manuscripts’ on Time – Consciousness], επιμ. Rudolf Bernet & Dieter Lohmar , Ντόρντρεχτ , Ολλανδία: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001.
- Christian Metz, Ψυχανάλυση και κινηματογράφος, το Φαντασιακό σημαίνον, (μτφρ. Βασίλης Πατσογιάννης – Φώτης Σιατίτσας), εκδ. Πλέθρος, 2007, Αθήνα. [ Le significant imaginaire: Psychanalyse et Cinéma, © Christian BourgoisÉditeur, 1993].
- Maurice- Merleau Ponty, Φαινομενολογία της Αντίληψης, ( Phenomenologie de la perceotion), (μτφρ. Κική Καψαμπέλη), εκδ. Νήσος, 2016, Αθήνα ( Gallimard, 1945).
- Andrei Tarkovsky, Σμιλεύοντας το Χρόνο, (μτφρ. Σεραφείμ Βελέντζας), [ Sculpting in Time, translated by: Kitty Hunter- Blair, The Bodley Head, London].
ΗΛΕΚΤΡΟΝΙΚΗ ΠΗΓΗ
[1] Σωκράτης Δεληβογιατζής, Ζητήματα Διαλεκτικής, εκδ. Ερωδιός, 2010, Θεσσαλονίκη.
