| The screen has become the latest symbol of human existence.As the totem of the digital age and the metaphor of information civilization,ubiquitous screens shape the liquidity of modern society,which is negleced by people due to their obscurity.Screen is not only like the skin of modern media,but also like the capillaries in social life.They are constantly circulating,layered and multiplied,thus building an increasingly complex and interactive media ecology.The screen creates a community where people can gather,disperse,and interact in various ways.However,the "double transparency" composed of media attributes and material attributes,as well as the "tripartite covering" caused by the periodic evolution from technology acceptance side,material prejudice from academic side and the orientation of consumerism from capitalist side,lead to a long-term "hidden presence" of the screen.Therefore,although the screen has been at the center of people’s cultural experience since the beginning of the 20th century,it has not been discussed as an independent research in the main humanities and social sciences.On the other hand,the digital screen represented by smartphones has led the revolution of cultural consumption terminals in the 21st century,and the screen,as the infrastructure and consumption interface closest to cultural consumers,has had a profound impact on the cultural industry,especially the digital cultural industry.Based on the above all,the study takes ’cultural consumption terminal-cultural consumption/cultural life" as the entry point.interprets the screen as an independent technical and cultural phenomenon from three aspects:academic history,essential attributes and evolution process.and also takes the screen as a window to observe the correlation between the evolution of cultural consumption terminal equipment and the development of human cultural life.There are many kinds and shapes of screens,and the angles of screen studies are also varied.The investigation of screens in this study is mainly based on the perspective of cultural history of technology,whose essence is how we should treat the cultural dimension of information and communication technology.First,one of its aim is to advocate a retrospective investigation of existing emerging technologies.focusing on the root cause and distinguishing things from others to make them in right place;Second,it focus on the social and cultural impact of technology from a macro perspective and a holistic perspective,and pay attention to the use of technology by the public and the cultural changes it brings;Third,based on returning to the original and opening up the new,we advocate re-taking care of all kinds of"new cultural formats" that have appeared in history.From this point of view,the screen can be regarded as the technology of mass cultural consumption,and the research object is limited to the screen types that have a great influence on human cultural changes,that is,screens in the sense of image media since the end of the 19th century,which are mainly movie screen,TV screen,computer screen and mobile phone screen.The academic history of screen studies shows the rising process of screen studies from obscurity to prosperity,reflecting the increasing importance of screen in social life and the increasingly prominent nature of screen in the process of material carrier strengthening.The exploration of the academic potential of screen studies is also deepening with the evolution of screen.Although covered by multiple factors,some scholars have begun to pay attention to the ubiquity of the screen and point out the necessity of it as an independent research object.Since the end of the 20th century,especially in the 2010s,when smart phones became popular,screen studies has gradually become a grand view.For example,there are 17 academic journals named after it,20 special issues,and 13 directly related symposium.In recent years,terms such as "philosophical screen","archi-screen" and "screenology" have been continuously introduced.Screen studies presents obvious interdisciplinary characteristics,and the academic center of research is gradually forming.The United States is not the international center of screen studies,and Britain,Australia and France are in the leading position.On the whole,the screen studies in Europe,America and China is still in its infancy.China’s vast and rich practice of digital screen culture may make China have greater academic discourse power in the theoretical research of screen culture.The nature of the screen can be defined from two angles:the material interface and the cultural consumption terminal.First of all,from the perspective of cultural consumption,the nature of the screen can be defined as "the material interface that can carry dynamic content information".There are two main reasons.First,based on the etymological analysis of"screen" in Chinese and English contexts,it is found that the screen is related to information and has a material entity,and its meaning changes in a trend of "upgrading from reality into virtuality".The second is to synthesize the research results about the essence of screen in China and the West,and combine the application of screen in the contemporary context to determine that information and interface are the basic elements of screen.The evolution of screen from functionality to content not only coincides with the essential attribute of"spirituality"of cultural products,but also makes revolutionary changes in screen and cultural industry.Secondly,the screen is of great significance as a cultural consumption terminal.Cultural consumption terminal is the material carrier of cultural products from the perspective of consumers.From the related scholars’ or artists’ discussions on the materialism of the scaffold and the surface,the text,the homology of object and painting,and the significance,strength and independence of form,we can find that the relationship between material,form and materiality respectively reflects the material attributes and media characteristics of the cultural consumption terminal.Therefore,the screen is divided into projection screen and electronic screen.The projection screen is projected by external artificial light source,and the electronic screen depends on the attached electronic picture tube.As a cultural consumption terminal,screen has great advantages,which makes people’s consumption of cultural products not only depend on the text content contained in cultural products,but also on the material carrier of cultural products and their time and space dimensions.Therefore,the nature of screen is limited to the level of cultural consumption and cultural life,and as the ultimate embodiment of cultural consumption terminal,the evolution of screen can be divided into four stages,which also correspond to the four major changes of cultural consumption and cultural life respectively.The first stage of screen evolution is "visualization",that is,dynamic images can be displayed stably and openly,realizing the stability as a narrative means and industrialization as a production and projection method.At the end of 19th century,movie screens created a historic transition of cultural consumption from live performance to recording and watching,thus opening the mass era of cultural consumption.The consumption activities of visual culture in the pre-film era paved the way for the birth and popularization of movies.People’s curiosity and dynamic images,entertainment demand and the desire for stories,the collision and integration of old and new forms of entertainment,the formation of a global cultural integrated market,the continuous rise of cities and the development and growth of the working class have jointly promoted the film to become the dominant form of cultural consumption in the first half of the 20th century.The second stage of screen evolution is "settled in household",that is,stepping into thousands of households and eventually becoming a member of the family.Since 1950s.the movie screen has been relegated to a secondary position,and the TV screen has become the main cultural consumption terminal.and cultural consumption has ushered in the family era.Adapting to suburban entertainment and new family life is the fundamental reason why TV screens can successfully create a family era of cultural consumption.Television has become a necessary furniture and the center of family entertainment.The popularity of cable TV,video recorder and remote control provides more choices for family watching,and also enhances the initiative and interaction of watching behavior.At this stage,the film screen declined,but it also actively sought new living space by setting up multiplex cinemas in shopping centers.developing drive-in theaters,ancolor wide-screen technology and special effects.The third stage of screen evolution is "unified",which represents the uniformity of information composition and cultural consumption brought about by digitalization.At this stage,interactive screens were introduced and people’s cultural consumption began to change to cultural life composed of production and consumption.In the mid-1970s,personal computers entered the historical arena.After being used in offices and homes,the invention of the World Wide Web and browsers in the early 1990s made computer screens become production and consumption tools for ordinary consumers.Graphical user interfaces,software and content,along with computer games,were three important factors that promoted personal computers from the professional office market to the mass consumer market.The digital technology brought by computer screens showed great power,deeply affecting cultural consumption in three aspects:integration,interaction,and expansibility.Digitalization unified the content of cultural consumption into formats of 0 and 1.created interactivity and connectivity of screens,and laid an important foundation for the universal display of information.The digitization of movie screens and TV screens has also become an inevitable trend.The fourth stage of screen evolution is "dominated exclusively",which is reflected in the entire screen ecosystem and various carriers of cultural consumption,as well as in the relationship between property rights and power of screen users,and the relationship between time and space occupation of screen users.Since 2007,a new generation of smartphones began to appear and popularize,and the screen gradually became closely tied to individuals,playing an extremely intimate role in human daily cultural life.A smartphone is a collection of mobile communication devices and personal smart devices,making it a perfect comprehensive device for cultural production and consumption.The Internet has become a real personal internet,and the mobile phone screen has also become the internet access interface with the lowest cost for the public."Traversing Individuals",the ultimate pursuit of almost all consumer technologies,has finally been realized."Smartness from Below" reflects the great potential that has erupted after the individualization of cultural life.The short video represented by TikTok and the mobile AR game represented by Pokemon Go are two typical representatives of the new format of digital cultural consumption,which fully embodies the infinite possibilities of innovative forms of native cultural products on the mobile internet.However,after the mobile phone screen is "dominated exclusively",due to the lack of sufficient technical counterbalance and tightening bundling driven by capital inch by inch,the"alienation accumulation" of screen culture is steadily increasing.In this regard,we should emphasize governance and supervision,and it is more important to promote new technical checks and balances to solve this problem from a higher level of technical form.Generally speaking,the evolution of the screen is a process of continuous integration of human and information civilization through the carrier.It is not only reflected in the screen process of human cultural consumption,but also in the domestication of human senses by the screen itself as a new visual mechanism:from projection screen to electronic screen to digital screen,from pure viewing interface to interactive interface to virtual-real fusion interface,from reading and writing era to audio-visual era to immersion era.In the post-screen era,the ideal metaverse will break and melt the material interface,and take everything in the world as the screen,which can be called recreating heaven and earth.With the support of the newly adapted technology base and industrial ecology,the contact mode and interaction mechanism between people and the spiritual world will also be completely changed,and the richness and variety of Chinese culture is expected to release greater potential and energy in the metaverse era and become a human civilization with more global influence and exemplary significance. |
