Медији - алхемија друштва привидног преображаја
Media - the Alchemy of the Society’s Illusionary Transformation

Summary/Abstract: Research into the ways in which man observes the world around him, receives different information and in turn influences the environment has been largely focused throughout the history of mankind on the relationship between perception and what is actually seen. This comparative analysis is aimed at establishing the relationship between truth and illusion by exploring the state of transformation in alchemy, with specific emphasis on the colorful imagery that occurs in creating the Great Work and the colorful imagery of the television screen. In particular, the authors focus on the alchemistical state known as nigredo which compares to a black television screen. This initial (Saturnine) phase which gives rise to a spectrum of colors and images is comparable to the media-mediated reality. Considering the fact that man participates in the pseudo process of creating the Great Work by receiving media images on a daily basis, man loses the ability to distinguish between truth and illusion. The individual thus remains “in the dark”, i.e. at the initial phase of nigredo where he receives media-mediated contents fearful of the guard of the first threshold, i.e. dreading the nightmarish images from the dark side of the collective unconscious. His transformation is an illusion and it remains within the scope of fantasy.

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