Comprehending Screens: A Meditation in Medias Res

Abstract

This essay argues that the digitization and proliferation of contemporary screens has moved us from a “screen-scape” to an encompassing “screen-sphere” – a new topologically-bounded and systemically-organized domain that has not only radically changed our lifeworld but also our ontological and epistemological comportment in it. With reference to recent cartoons and other popular discourses as well as to Humberto Maturana and Francesco Varela’s description of, and distinction between, “autonomous” and “autopoietic systems,” the essay speculates on the organizational structure of this new “screen-sphere” and, more significant, our positioning in relation to it.

Keywords

• screen
• Humberto Maturana
• Francesco Varela
• autopoietic systems
• screen-sphere