The semiotics of the face in digital dating & A research direction

Abstract

The article investigates the socio-cultural meaning of the face in relation to its natural and biological features, focusing on the particular domain ofmating habits. After surveying the role of the ‘face’ in the sexual behaviors of several non-human animals, and especially of primates, the article ponders on the crucial role that the face plays in the seductive discourse which precedes and accompany mating in all human cultures and also in many primates’ behaviors. It, then, deals with the transformation that these seductive patterns of signification and communication undergo in the passage from face-to-face intercourse to digital dating. Here, the gap between the necessarily realistic representation of one’s bodily face and the idealized version of it allowed by digital picture editing widens, to the point that new epistemic parameters start to circulate throughout the digital semiosphere.

Cultures of the (masked) face

“…The face has been semiotically studied in connection with the portrait (Calabrese 1981), the self-portrait (Calabrese 2006), digital communication (Leone 2019) and digital pictorialization (Danesi 2016) and, more generally, as the sign congealing a whole aesthetic (Eco 2004(Eco , 2007. Barthes (1967) talked of the dress as "the mask of body" and compared the photographic portrait to a semiotic "death mask" (Barthes 1980).…”

Ciberespacio y semiótica de la otredad

“…Ernesto Pablo Molina Ahumada y Laura Gherlone (pág 53 -pág 62) El ciberespacio se presenta en la cultura contemporánea como un territorio complejo que habilita prácticas inéditas de representación para la relación identidad-otredad, a partir de la mediación digital de lo cognitivo, corporal, emocional y lingüístico-comunicativo potenciado semióticamente con el fin de plasmar esa tensión constitutiva de lo humano yootro. A partir del estudio de la cara digital (Leone 2018) y la semiótica de los emojis (Danesi 2016), y el abordaje del enlace específico que propone el videojuego entre jugador, avatar y mundo virtual, este artículo intenta sugerir claves de interpretación frente a las nuevas posibilidades semióticas del ciberespacio con respecto al problema de la identidad-otredad.…”

“…In contemporary culture, cyberspace is presented as a complex territory that enables unprecedented representational practices regarding the identity/otherness relationship through the digital mediation of the cognitive, corporeal, emotional and linguistic-communicative dimensions -dimensions semiotically potentiated to capture the constitutive tension between the I and the alterity. Based on the studies on digital face (Leone 2018) and on negotiation of emotions through emoji (Danesi 2016), as well as the specific connection between player, avatar and the virtual world proposed by video games, this article intends to suggest keys of interpretation in the face of the new semiotic possibilities of cyberspace, observing the issue of identity/otherness. "María Teresa Maiorana", UCA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.…”

Gotta face ‘em all: Pokémon, Japanese animated characters, and the emergence of playful visual animism

“…The contemporary mediascape (Appadurai 1990) is increasingly populated by digital(ized) faces, combining an unprecedented quantity and quality of images, new forms of interaction and the emergence of face-based cultural practices and beliefs. This can be attributed to a mix of recent technological innovations (digital photography, visual filters, software for automatic face recognition), the diffusion of novel genres of face representation (the selfie, animojis, memes) and new behaviours/ practices (swapping faces on apps for dating, using masks or occultation for political activism, covering faces for healthcare during pandemics) (Leone 2018).…”