The Poiesis of Reality-Perception. Making Sense of the Digital Media Regime through Cinema

Abstract

This essay takes up a question as old as human thought itself: What is reality? But rather than returning to Aristotle or Habermas, it places, with Kappelhoff and Luhmann, the relation between media and human perception of reality at the center of the argument. If there is no way of knowing the world other than through media, and media are a major element in constituting a shared sense of reality, then the processes of perceiving audiovisual media in the digital age demand closer analysis. Building on Müller and Kappelhoff’s concept of the cinematic metaphor, the essay argues that human perception of reality is not only rooted in image-based thinking but also unfolds affectively as a networked process grounded in our media consumption. Through an analysis of Tenet and the example of climate change, this essay aims to show how films constitute a particular reality that is rather felt than understood.