Homo Theatralis: The Illusion of Simulacrum, from Bernini and Warhol to Avatar

Abstract

Homo Theatralis: The Illusion of Simulacrum, from Bernini and Warhol to Avatar

The exponential development of information technologies and mass communication, diversification and permanent interconnection of transmitting messages radically transforms the way of perception and interpretation of reality, permitting new cultural experiences. The impact of social media on the individual is projected in the way of self-construction and hypostasis, and in changes regarding tolerance against otherness. Our study brings in foreground analysis the concept of the social character, from masque to assumed active roles. The analysis of social character in a different position and assertion strategies conditioned by the imperatives of the new social constructs generates a new series of interrogations on individual destiny. Starting with these considerations we’ll try to ascertain the cover-up techniques and proceedings through which contemporary individual understands to use the social media devices to construct a more seductive new identity. The character’s metamorphosis in a public figure, in axiological reference to others, validates Andy Warhol’s prediction, which opens the way to celebrity within a motion of bounteousness proposing everyone the right to 15 minutes of fame. Nowadays, with all devices submitted by social media, celebrity is prefabricated through quid pro quo procedures through the cohesion of existing models.