Jamie Cohen

Master's Thesis

A History of the Screen Through the Perspective of Postmodern Philosophy

Abstract: Major screen advancements and the reduction of the visual screen medium from film to electricity to digital have caused thoughtful discourse of the presentation of reality on the viewer and spectator. The screen, as it has not only reduced in size and become portable, affects the human understanding of reality more than any other visual medium. Philosophers and theorists from Walter Benjamin to the present have seemingly been concerned with the penetration of the technological screen as a replacement of reality. Each philosophical perspective, from Benjamin to Debord to Eco and McLuhan through the later culminated thoughts of Postman and Baudrillard, has described the image as not only reproducible, but the active catalyst in reality replacement. At the end of the 20th century, the movie-going audience was treated to a visual narrative of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation in the form of the big-budget Hollywood film, “The Matrix” in which society has been enslaved by machines in an expansive visual simulation. Unfortunately, the film’s presentation as entertainment worked against its message. Ten years later, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, a film in which the characters obtained a digital self, or avatar, was considered desirable in James Cameron’s “Avatar.” The mimesis of the representation of reality has always been the dominant concern in philosophy. In 1936, Walter Benjamin recognized that the presentation of reality in film was the most significant for the people of that time since it provided the equipment-free aspect of reality the viewer was entitled to demand from a work of art. The idea was to use the screen to represent reality and utilize the third dimension in the mind on a two dimensional surface. The technological innovations of the first decade of the 21st century have been exponential to all advancements of the screen that had ever previously occurred. The current student accepts the screen and the content visually presented without any trepidation while the instructor and professor look on with considerable dismay and concern for how the student will recognize reality in the future. This essay poses the hypothesis that understanding the different philosophical approaches to screen reality will not only create a more media literate student, but also allow the instructor to find common ground with younger generation. To understand the genealogical history of philosophical thought regarding the visual aesthetic of screen reality will enable the reader to consider what may be the next advancement in the visual replacement of reality.

Course Contributions

Hofstra University: RTVF 65i - Television for the Web Practicum

Created course that taught storytelling, television production technique and video compression theory for Internet distribution

Hofstra University: RTVF 25 - Introduction to Digital Media

Authored course that will teach the distribution of video online. Introduction to website code, video compression, basic website design and content management systems

Molloy College: COM 243 - Introduction to New Media

Authored course for Molloy Communication Arts Department open to all majors at the college. The course covers participatory culture, Internet media, content creation and media literacy in all disciplines of study

Web Initiatives

Hofstra Stories

Project Manager of the Hofstra University 75th Anniversary Oral History Project website multi-media project. HofstraStories.com

Week Without the Web

Creative Manager of a large scale School of Communication experiment where students attempted to not use the web for an entire week. WeekWithoutTheWeb.com