The Idea

“The spoken and written word is not entirely vanishing from our world. It is only gradually losing its former dominant position. As a matter of fact our today’s reality is being perceived and experienced increasingly through audiovisual media. Universal visualization tends to aesthetize the social world. Audiovisual signs and symbols are the principle of a global communication culture. The trend leads both to standardization and fragmentation of media symbols.”

“This global media aesthetization does not mean that social realities in their particular forms are disappearing. Even though the traditional division into social classes is no longer valid, social, regional, gender and especially ethnic differences, to name just a few of them, remain constant. Different social realities, milieus and lifestyles remain in existence.”

“The social-aesthetic theory of „symbolic milieu“ascribes great significance to perception and symbolic processing. Media literacy and audiovisual symbolic processing will become the basis for understanding and toleration of different lifestyles and cultures that dominate this planet in the media age. We must learn to „swim” in different symbolic systems. The challenge is to develop a current, socio-aesthetic theory of symbols, based on the analysis of the relationship between worldwide and regional symbolic systems and networks.”

Prof. H. Niesyto University of Ludwigsburg – Germany

Our civic society has chosen this path!