Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage

The medical masks that have emerged as a device to contrast the contagion of COVID-19 heavily affect the presentation and perception of the face, radically altering its phenomenology and semiotics, and thwarting its singularity. The global cultural production has often reacted to these unprecedented...

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Main Author: Massimo Leone
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université de liège 2023-11-01
Series:Signata
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/signata/4324
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author Massimo Leone
author_facet Massimo Leone
author_sort Massimo Leone
collection DOAJ
description The medical masks that have emerged as a device to contrast the contagion of COVID-19 heavily affect the presentation and perception of the face, radically altering its phenomenology and semiotics, and thwarting its singularity. The global cultural production has often reacted to these unprecedented constraints, emphasizing the ethical importance of the face’s wholeness and singularity against any attempt at fragmentation, segmentation, and classification. The article proposes a general semiotic reading of the cultural tendencies which, in contemporary societies, operate, on the contrary, towards a reification of the face, and which the COVID-19 pandemic has only accentuated. The article focuses, in particular, on the new techniques of automatic processing of facial images, whose rhetoric of technological achievement it debunks. In conclusion, the article suggests that the protection and liberation of the face as a bulwark of humanity can only be achieved by envisioning a new era called the “Prosopocene”, which would guarantee an inalienable face to every form of life against any human or automatic de-figuration.
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spelling doaj.art-87b7f39c45ab42d3b665ed8ddfcb8e742023-12-06T15:52:25ZengUniversité de liègeSignata2032-98062565-70972023-11-011410.4000/signata.4324Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visageMassimo LeoneThe medical masks that have emerged as a device to contrast the contagion of COVID-19 heavily affect the presentation and perception of the face, radically altering its phenomenology and semiotics, and thwarting its singularity. The global cultural production has often reacted to these unprecedented constraints, emphasizing the ethical importance of the face’s wholeness and singularity against any attempt at fragmentation, segmentation, and classification. The article proposes a general semiotic reading of the cultural tendencies which, in contemporary societies, operate, on the contrary, towards a reification of the face, and which the COVID-19 pandemic has only accentuated. The article focuses, in particular, on the new techniques of automatic processing of facial images, whose rhetoric of technological achievement it debunks. In conclusion, the article suggests that the protection and liberation of the face as a bulwark of humanity can only be achieved by envisioning a new era called the “Prosopocene”, which would guarantee an inalienable face to every form of life against any human or automatic de-figuration.http://journals.openedition.org/signata/4324visagemaskveilpandemicProsopocene
spellingShingle Massimo Leone
Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
Signata
visage
mask
veil
pandemic
Prosopocene
title Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
title_full Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
title_fullStr Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
title_full_unstemmed Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
title_short Plaidoyer pour un Prosopocène : sémio-éthique du visage
title_sort plaidoyer pour un prosopocene semio ethique du visage
topic visage
mask
veil
pandemic
Prosopocene
url http://journals.openedition.org/signata/4324
work_keys_str_mv AT massimoleone plaidoyerpourunprosopocenesemioethiqueduvisage