Immagini, algoritmi e social media: appunti per una prospettiva di studio interdisciplinare

Translated title of the contribution: [Autom. eng. transl.] Images, Algorithms and Social Media: Notes for an Interdisciplinary Study Perspective

Elisabetta Locatelli*

*Corresponding author

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

[Autom. eng. transl.] Visual social media (e.g. Instagram, TikTok and YouTube) are one of the most interesting phenomena of both contemporary visual culture (Pinotti, Somaini, 2016) and of the “algorithmic turn”. In them, in fact, the relationship between devices and apparatuses, images (still and moving), social practices and algorithms is “ontogenetic” to the extent that all these components are indispensable for the existence of the system implemented by the platforms. Algorithms act in the fruition of images that are circulated according to specific logics (Van Dijck, Poell and De Waal, 2018), and in their production, for example through augmented reality filters (Eugeni 2022), conditioning the regimes of visibility and discourse, social practices and cultural contexts. Such complexity makes it necessary to adopt a multidisciplinary (Sturken, Cartwright 2018) non-reductionist approach. Starting from the sociological perspective and taking up the work of Gemini (2015) and the methodological proposal of Rose (2016), the essay aims to show how the analysis of images on social media can activate contiguous disciplines, such as visual sociology, aesthetics and semiotics. The first part of the essay will be dedicated to a theoretical reflection aimed at building a multidisciplinary model for the analysis of images on visual social media and in particular of their connection with algorithms (e.g. filters, algorithmic assemblages through hashtags or suggestions) with the aim of activating a deep understanding between social practices, imaginaries, cultural forms, aesthetic ideas (e.g. ideal of beauty or harmony), discursive and rhetorical forms and strategies; in the second part this perspective will be applied to the stimuli that come from the representation of the maternal body on Instagram, an emblematic case study for the social, cultural and aesthetic meanings it contains.
Translated title of the contribution[Autom. eng. transl.] Images, Algorithms and Social Media: Notes for an Interdisciplinary Study Perspective
Original languageItalian
Pages (from-to)49-60
Number of pages12
JournalLA VALLE DELL'EDEN
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Keywords

  • social media, immagini, algoritmi, corpo, immaginario visuale

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