Immagini senza segreto. Media, simulazione e rappresentazione in Baudrillard e Simmel

Abstract

The essay compares the theory of "radical transparency" proposed by Jean Baudrillard with the analysis on "secret" developed by Georg Simmel. In the well-known essays on L'effet Beaubourg and Telemorfosi, Baudrillard focuses on an extremely important trend detectable in mediological studies: the inescapable depletion of the representative function of images. According to the French philosopher, not differently from the famous Parisian museum, television reality-shows plastically demonstrate how the radical transparency regime is only capable to produce a simulation of reality, devoid of any reference value. On the contrary, in the fifth chapter of Simmel’s Soziologie, secret is considered indispensable and functional for any kind of relationship, either intimate or collective, precisely because it facilitates the realization of representations. In this latter perspective, the construction of someone else’s image is therefore the result of a constant interplay between mutual interactions based on revealing and concealing, where secret plays a fundamental role. The present contribution emphasises how both the analyses of Baudrillard and Simmel, notwithstanding their differences, represent a fundamental theoretical assumption for the comprehension of the current exponential growth of images produced and distributed by the digital media. The aim of the essay is eventually to outline a theoretical approach descending from these two authors, suit for the current media landscape.