Controlled Illusion. Recursion as Emotional Suggestion in Post-Cinematographic Space

Abstract

The article deals with an aspect of the phenomenon of controlled illusion — manipulating emotional reactions and behaviour through the space of an artificially created reality. The subject of the article is a relevant feature of the process — recursion within a fictitious space. The methods of mass suggestion become more complicated with each step of evolution, borrowing the techniques of the past and multiplying them by the technologies of the present. Today’s technologies create a process of self-repetition of elements — a process within a process: artificially created illusions are embodied and massively repeated as patterns. Nowadays, controlled illusion generates a problem of imbalance between the accumulated practice of control and an individual’s ability for distancing. The urgency of the problem is due to the obvious dominance of the methods of manipulating public conscience over the development of an individual via industries of culture. The aim of this article is to define the role of sensory suggestion capabilities through control spaces in the 21st century. The objective is to consider the features of the effects of radiance, the influence of flickering light, and the imitation of the world by adomed structure. These effects stem from the Baroque era, are passed on in evolution, and carry a suggestive potential through an emotional factor. While borrowing and accumulating the techniques of the past, new tools such as artificial intelligence, communication networks, electronics, and biotechnologies bring new qualities to manipulations, including a multisensory impact. The author proposes to reconsider the traditional view on the role of algorithms in cultural objects: what until recently was negatively described as “inanimate” and programmed is now able to control and reveal the emotional potential of a person. The outcome depends on what the algorithms are trained for, who trains them and why. The social function of illusionism is either commercial and political benefit or the promotion of an inclusive culture and the development of a person and their abilities. This cannot but affect the role of designer and artist, whose activity today is increasingly moving away from the decorative and turning to interaction through scientific approaches, which determines the property that offers a choice of path and goal in illusionism.

Keywords

• illusionism
• control
• suggestion
• dome
• phantasmagoria
• space
• emotion
• recursion
• luminance