The "Reflective Function" of the Aestheticization of Technology: Take Yao Lu's "New Landscape" Photography as an Example

Abstract

Marcuse's theory of the aestheticization of technology seeks to emphasize that individuals must employ the power of a "new sensibility" to resist the repression imposed by technological rationality. From the 1970s onward, while effecting paradigmatic transformations in the arts, the new technologies have progressively enframed human cognition and behavior within their constitutive "cybernetic system". The system points to an open aesthetic situation that can reconstruct people's reflection on the external world and provide people with the internal motivation to change reality. The "New Landscape" created by Chinese contemporary photographer Yao Lu uses digital technology to collage different elements into a visual "reality", putting the audience in an embodied situation based on the sensory system. Through the situation, the audience can re-reflect on the relationship between the subject and the world, and between humans and the ecosystem, which reflects the continuation of Marcuse's ideas in contemporary art.

Keywords

digital technology / contemporary art / Chinese landscape / reflection / aesthetics

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