Digital images subject attention to objective abstractions preconfigured by protocols

Evidence

Even if the difference between an analogue image or sound (a film photograph, a vinyl or tape recording) and their digital equivalent is generally beyond our consciousness, or even our perceptive ability, it is nevertheless necessary to note here a completely fundamental anthropological and ontological change, whose importance was highlighted by Vilém Flusser as early as the 1970s. Flusser summarized this change in a dense but enlightening formula: ‘the old images are subjective abstractions drawn from phenomena, while technical images realize objective abstractions’. When I look at a field of poppies, it is in my mind that the sensory continuum is segmented into forms and colours whose contrasts and oppositions I comprehend: my mental image is a ‘subjective abstraction’ that I draw from phenomena through the collective perceptive schemas that define my culture. When I look at a digital photograph of this field, a whole series of ‘objective abstractions’ have preconfigured what is submitted to my attention (depending on choices relating to the sampling rate, the contrast setting, the focal length, the exposure time, etc.). The core of the concrete perception that I receive of this field is structured (and haunted) by a certain abstract ‘logic’ – in the strong sense of a human language (logos) determining certain relationships among a finite stock of discrete units, which is to say, by a certain ‘protocol’ which introduces a filter between my personal attention and that to which it is applied. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 209

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Flusser’s distinction between subjective and objective abstraction — a key conceptual tool for analyzing digital perception.
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘The field of poppies vs. the photograph’ — a concrete case for how device defaults (sampling rate, contrast) become invisible political filters on perception.
• XREF: connects to: Abstraction is the essential instrument for revealing structures invisible to direct observation — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 199; Attention transforms raw information into images rather than choosing among made ones — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 445; Attention modulates in discrete samples just as digital media do — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 383

Broader Connections

• Abstraction is the essential instrument for revealing structures invisible to direct observation #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 199
• Attention modulates in discrete samples just as digital media do #expands (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 383
• Attention transforms raw information into images rather than choosing among made ones #complicates (0.70) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 445