Recensione del libro "So cosa hai fatto. Scenari, pratiche e sentimenti dell’horror moderno" di P... more Recensione del libro "So cosa hai fatto. Scenari, pratiche e sentimenti dell’horror moderno" di Pier Maria Bocchi, Lindau, Torino 2024.
The paper examines the interplay between media and the supernatural in contemporary horror cinema... more The paper examines the interplay between media and the supernatural in contemporary horror cinema, focusing on the concept of haunted media-communication technologies that become conduits for metaphysical malevolence. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of Jeffrey Sconce's media hauntology and Jacques Derrida's hauntology, it explores how films reflect societal anxieties surrounding technology and its "magical" qualities. The analysis delves into the moral panic and techno-fetishism inherent in media history, emphasizing how communication tools blur the lines between the mediatic and the mediumistic. Four case studies are analyzed: Truth or Dare (Jeff Wadlow, 2018) portrays a demon that spreads its curse through media, highlighting moral panic around teen culture; Countdown (Justin Dec, 2019) investigates smartphone dependency and algorithmic determinism; Friend Request (Simon Verhoeven, 2016) explores digital connectivity as both a social enabler and a source of isolation through ghosting and stalking; and Cam (Daniel Goldhaber, 2018) examines identity fragmentation in the age of digital reproduction and surveillance. These films, though largely genre-based, serve as mirrors of the current mediascape, where technological advances evoke both fascination and dread. They reveal the ethical and gendered dimensions of mediainduced fears, situating horror cinema as a laboratory for cultural anxieties and social critique.
Nuove tecnologie digitali e immersive: valori, pratiche, significati culturali e terapeutici, 2025
This study explores the theme of the uncanny in contemporary
audiovisual production, focusing on ... more This study explores the theme of the uncanny in contemporary audiovisual production, focusing on the tagging systems used by streaming platforms and their ability to capture audience emotions. After reflecting on the centrality of “pathematic tagging” in constructing algorithmic recommendations, the Freudian concept of the uncanny (Unheimliche) and its resurgence in current media culture is analysed. A state–of–the–art review on the uncanny as a semiotic problem is outlined, interpreting it as a complex dynamic that disorients the reader or viewer through narrative, enunciative, or ideological betrayals. Through the analysis of movies like Leave the World Behind (2023) and The Power of the Dog (2021), the study delves into how the uncanny operates structurally, creating a sense of interpretative disorientation and reflecting contemporary cultural and social uncertainties. Furthermore, it differentiates between “unsettling” and “uncanny” audiovisual content, highlighting the inadequacy of generic labels and proposing the need for more precise classification criteria. Finally, the investigation connects the uncanny to the context of the Anthropocene, emphasizing how contemporary narratives metabolize global tensions into a visual and narrative language capable of expressing the complexity of our time.
In the first part, the essay explores the concept of immersivity as an ideological phenomenon lin... more In the first part, the essay explores the concept of immersivity as an ideological phenomenon linked to virtual reality (VR). Starting from a critique of the term "virtual reality", it argues that the virtual does not alter reality, but manifests as "actualized virtuality", deeply affecting semiotics and individual perception. The text examines how VR, once seen as an isolating technology, is now presented as integrated into everyday life, with examples such as Apple Vision Pro. However, this integration raises issues regarding technological determinism and an ideology of self-exploitation that blends work and entertainment in a pervasive manner. In the second part, the essay uses case studies from cinema (such as Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix and eXistenZ) and other areas of the mediascape to show how VR not only creates virtual worlds but also acts as a meaning-making device, influencing cognitive processes and critical engagement. In this context, immersivity offers new sensory experiences but tends to focus attention on perceptual involvement, remodulating the space for more detached and analytical reflection.
Ultracorpi. Il fantastico nelle Arti dello Spettacolo, 2024
The article explores the complex relationship between religion and science
fiction, focusing part... more The article explores the complex relationship between religion and science fiction, focusing particularly on the representation of alien religions in the Star Trek (ST) universe. The case of ST is particularly significant because, despite the secular orientation of its creator Gene Roddenberry, the series consistently explores religious themes, integrating an epistemic horizon of rationality with spiritual issues. The various ST series (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) and the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (William Shatner, 1989) are analyzed, highlighting the development of an internal dialectic between science and faith. This relationship is articulated through various ideological declinations, starting from the dogma of the Prime Directive, which prohibits the Federation from interfering with less developed civilizations, raising important ethical questions. The discussion focuses on how religious faith is often depicted as an illusory belief system that compensates for the lack of adequate scientific knowledge, and how overcoming these beliefs is seen as a civilizational advance. The article also investigates a series of traditional components of religious discourse, focusing on the representation of the figure of God (and multiple deities) and the devil in science fiction cinema and ST, as well as the role of traditions and religious scriptures, the archetype of the chosen one, and the idea of the afterlife. Through this analysis, the article demonstrates how ST uses science fiction to explore and question religious themes, always maintaining a rational and secular perspective while admitting mystery in certain circumstances. The strength and longevity of ST lie in its ability to combine narrative inventiveness and philosophical reflection, offering a vision of the future based on cooperation, tolerance, and respect for spirituality as a legitimate part of the human experience.
Riflessioni semiotiche attorno alla rappresentazione cinematografica del sushi E G, B... more Riflessioni semiotiche attorno alla rappresentazione cinematografica del sushi E G, B S : The Imaginary of Food, the Food of Imaginary. Semiotic Reflections on the Cinematographic Representations of Sushi : Sushi has permeated numerous spheres of sense in present-day Western society. This Japanese dish, increasingly less exotic and more familiar, has come to constitute a semiosphere of its own which, starting from the semiotic issue of food as a signifying vehicle, now crosses into other universes and assumes the status of a crossmedial vector. This conception of sushi as an actor whose semiosic identity in Western societies is in constant evolution lies at the base of this paper which, concentrating on case studies belonging to a specific medium about which semiotics has already had much to say, intends to recreate the structure of the Western imaginary of sushi in relation to its cinematographic representation. If the crasis between food, cinema and imaginary already underpins a literature which still has a lot more to say, it proves fruitful at this point to ask what the consequences are in terms of the imaginary when sushi becomes the dominant element in a triad of recentand totally Western -films: Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Gelb ), Sushi Girl (Saxton ), Sushi: The Global Catch (Hall ).
Quelle del cibo e del gusto sono sfere esplorate con vigore negli ultimi anni, in tutte le dimens... more Quelle del cibo e del gusto sono sfere esplorate con vigore negli ultimi anni, in tutte le dimensioni che esse coinvolgono, o quasi. Fra queste infatti ne esiste una che pare sistemicamente elusa. È la dimensione terminale ma necessaria del cibo, quella in cui esso si trasforma naturalmente da meraviglioso testo nel piatto in massa fecale. Sulla cacca vige un tabù, eppure relegarla ai margini della semiosfera, negli anfratti del cattivo gusto, in un simbolico rimosso fognario, non impedisce che essa sia a tutti gli effetti prolifica produttrice senso, costituendosi come chiave comune che attraversa tutte le culture. La cacca è l'universale linguistico fondato sul disgusto, luogo di una simbologia retta sull'estesia del ripugnante, che parrebbe refrattaria a qualsiasi mise en langue. Eppure essa invece è sempre assai semiotizzata. Attraverso un percorso di testi, cinematografici e non solo, in questo saggio miriamo a reintrodurla nel dibattito semiotico, enfatizzando l'importanza di una semiotica del disgusto (complementare a quella del gusto), e ponendo le basi per lo sviluppo di una futura coprosemiotica generale. Il fecale è infatti un formidabile dispositivo semiotico troppo spesso sottostimato e taciuto, che dà conto di come le culture trattino quel senso che vorrebbero inesistente o celato nell'alveo innominabile del disgusto.
Today’s pornography constitutes a semiotic laboratory capable of meticulously describing some cha... more Today’s pornography constitutes a semiotic laboratory capable of meticulously describing some characteristics of the cultures from which it comes and for which it is intended. In it, the role of the face is preeminent and assumes relevance both from a diegetic and a formal point of view. A face which makes itself a sign and is articulated in a dialectic between the syntagmatic and the paradigmatic axis, finding expression as an aspectual device, establishing a peculiar semiotic procedure of absentia in praesentia, and highlighting an eminently enunciative dimension of the textual genre. Thus a facial semiotics of pornography becomes to all effects a cultural semiotics, which through the exploration of a transversal genre – both in its mainstream and more niche actualizations – produces significant results in defining how cultures of the face, including extrapornographic ones, delineate themselves. The aim of this article is to verify this peculiar facial semiotics through a case his...
The Greimasian semiotic perspective defines the sentient subject's perception of the world as, fi... more The Greimasian semiotic perspective defines the sentient subject's perception of the world as, first of all, a narratological operation. Thus not only are "canonically" narrative texts (novels, movies, comics, etc) decodified as Stories, but also the places we live in, the clothes we wear, and finally the objects we encounter during our lives. Semiotics has, in fact, devoted a lot of attention to objects and, conversely, drawn advantageous theoretical models from them, such as -unus pro omnibusthat of affordances, which sees the object as a Gestalt of narrative programmes more or less able to narrate certain functions. In this objectual landscape the drone is a pervasive presence. It is an object capable of telling stories (from the most tragic stories related to the war drone and to its double dimension of, on the one hand, scopic device for filming areas and transmitingt their images and, on the other, blasting tool, to more simple stories like those deriving from "domestic" drones utilized for para-cinematographic or advertising purposes), but it is also and above all an object which narrates itself, combining preeminent dimensions, from the toy-ludic one to the primitive and anthropological one related to flying, from the technological one -able to enchant technomaniac audiences -to the proto-panoptic one. The ensemble of possible utilizations intrinsically suggested by the "domestic" drone comprehends a conglomeration of narrative extensions that deserve to be analysed. The investigation of the semio-narrative structures conveyed by the drone means a better understanding of the peculiarities of contemporary imaginaries, and this is precisely the objective of this dissertation, interpolating semiotics with onticology, a discipline which sees objects as entities capable of shaping new physical and semiosic itineraries. La parola drone in italiano assolve a tre significati diversi, afferenti alla stessa etimologia (dal Merriam-Webster: "Middle English, from Old English drān; akin to Old High German treno drone, Greek thrēnos dirge"). Il primo, tendenzialmente poco noto, è quello di fuco o pecchione, cioè il maschio dell'ape, animale caratterizzato da una presunta pigrizia poiché non compierebbe atto alcuno se non l'inseminazione della regina. Il secondo è quello di aeromobile a pilotaggio remoto, comunemente utilizzato a scopi bellici. Il terzo, quello di cui ci occuperemo, è quello di velivolo amatoriale o professionale di piccole dimensioni, sempre a pilotaggio remoto, usato per diversi scopi, primariamente in ambito di riprese video. In questi tre significati co-occorrono senz'altro alcune valenze semantiche: si tratta in tutti i casi di entità volanti, connotate da una forma di "pigrizia" (i droni artificiali sono pilotati da terra, il drone entomologico è considerato accidioso poiché non produce miele), votate a un distinto ronzio simile atavicamente a un lamento funebre (quelle belliche per la verità sanno essere brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
The illusionist enunciates his texts on the basis of calibrated exercises in self-censorship. He ... more The illusionist enunciates his texts on the basis of calibrated exercises in self-censorship. He is above all an actor performing a narrative plot and, as such, embodies a dual agency divided between what is concealed -that is, the action really executed for the realisation of the trick -and what is revealedthe moment of conjury effected through the staging of appearance disguised as being. On the level of cultural semiotics this scheme, fruitfully related to Greimas' square of veridiction, persists from semiosphere to semiosphere, in space and time. Whether it be prestidigitation, escapology, mentalism or card manipulation through sleight of hand, the magician conceals in order to reveal. The objective of this paper is to investigate the semiotic mechanisms underpinning this relationship of significant complementarity between self-censorship and mise-en-scène shared, what's more, by both the main currents of magic identified in the anthropology of magic: teleological sorcerers, those who give their magic a "pseudo-scientific" value designed to explain (or act upon) otherwise inexplicable cause-effect relationships, and the fairy-tale magicians who create textuality in order to entertain. This dichotomy is enriched by the presence of figures inserted in a domain of otherness, able to overturn the popular imaginary by means of extra-physical marvels, but which concern rather different semiospheres. In the present case the entertainment illusionists insert themselves in the semiosphere of show-business, in cultural topologies endowed with marked contexts of limelight and backstage, where they perpetrate their conjuring by collocating themselves in the liminal interstice which is the space of self-censorship, the place where the success of the trick is decided. Finally, but equally important, the magician is catharctically conceded the possibility of crossing the frontier towards areas of culture commonly associated with zones of censorship: he dialogues with death, penetrates minds, dissects bodies.
Ipotesi per una teleologia semiotica da Das Ghetto a A Film Unfinished B S * ... more Ipotesi per una teleologia semiotica da Das Ghetto a A Film Unfinished B S * : The Intentions of Memory: Hypothesis for a Semiotic Teleology from Das Ghetto to A Film Unfinished : In a troupe of German servicemen shot a film in the ghetto of Varsavia which was subsequently found in an archive only in the s. For over years historians used this film as a base for their studies of life in the ghetto. In , however, another reel was discovered containing elements which had been excluded from the first, and which made it clear that the situations shown in Das Ghetto were for the most fruit of a mis-en-scene, staged by the Nazis for purposes of propaganda. Historians had placed their trust in a text without knowing its context. In , Israeli director Yael Hersonski produced A Film Unfinished, for the first time including in the same film Das Ghetto and the revealing reel, and editing everything together with testimonies of survivors and extracts from diaries and documents belonging to those who had lived in the ghetto. The result is a film of rare complexity, where numerous layers of intentionality are entwined. The aim of this essay is to propose an analysis of the dialectic of intentions inscribed in A Film Unfinished and how this relates to Das Ghetto. Parallel to the narrative and formal inquiry, it will be necessary to re-examine the paradigm of "textual autonomy" and define the way in which semiotics can interface with historical research through intentional analysis.
La rostrosfera: mediatizaciones entre lo analógico, lo real y lo digital / On the facesphere: med... more La rostrosfera: mediatizaciones entre lo analógico, lo real y lo digital / On the facesphere: mediatizations between analogic, real and digital
That of filmic enunciation is an open and never entirely closed problem. Film as a specific does ... more That of filmic enunciation is an open and never entirely closed problem. Film as a specific does not lend itself to the tendency of the classic semiotic theory of enunciation based on a glottocentric matrix. Furthermore, the film, as a syncretic and constitutively multi-authorial and multi-level text, is an act of parole far more complex than a verbal text. The aim of this paper is therefore to explore the varied mix of issues related to the filmic enunciation, starting from the impasse of classical glottocentrism, already widely criticized by the traditional semiotics of cinema, engaging the debate in the context of a foundational "metalinguisticity" of cinema, intended as a system of articulation first of all of gazes, and finally attempting to propose a theoretical framework for which filmic enunciation is not an exclusively textual problem, but also an interpretative one, to be approached from the side of the viewer. Christian Metz definisce l'enunciazione come "l'atto semiologico attraverso il quale alcune parti di testo ci parlano di quel testo come di un atto" (1994, p. 19). Ma che atto è il film? La definizione dell'enunciazione, così come rilevato da Metz, è usualmente impostata su una matrice glottocentrica, a partire dalla nota teorizzazione di Émile Benveniste (1966). Appena ci si discosta da un contesto verbale i problemi tuttavia insorgono, dal momento che se "l'enunciazione è definita come il meccanismo di generazione di un testo, l'apparizione nell'enunciato del soggetto dell'enunciazione" (Kébrat-Orecchioni 1980, p. 30), nel cinema "le marche di enunciazione non rimandano direttamente a un locutore, ma più generalmente a un progetto comunicativo; non alle circostanze concrete di produzione dell'enunciato (cioè al processo di lavorazione), ma alle intenzionalità che lo hanno determinato e che lo permeano" (Sainati 1987, p. 41). Il glottocentrismo pertanto, fondato sulla presenza di un locutore, per quanto sia un retaggio difficile da scardinare richiede di essere riconsiderato alla luce della complessità del testo filmico, 1 notoriamente sincretico. Così quasi tutti gli autori che si occupano di enunciazione cinematografica partono da Benveniste, cercando però di traslare il tema dell'hic et nunc simulato nel discorso verbale nel "discorso cinematografico", come ad esempio Michel Marie: Trasposta in ambito cinematografico, l'enunciazione è ciò che permette a un film, a partire dalle potenzialità inerenti al cinema, di prendere corpo e di manifestarsi. Ma l'idea linguistica di enunciazione si basa sul fatto che un testo è sempre scritto da qualcuno per qualcun altro, in un
Per una semiotica grinchiana del Natale cinematografico 1 Bruno SURACE, Università di Torino "È N... more Per una semiotica grinchiana del Natale cinematografico 1 Bruno SURACE, Università di Torino "È Natale!" (Qualsiasi bambino, scoprendo l'acqua calda, in qualsiasi film natalizio, la mattina di Natale) Da Babbo Natale… Come più o meno tutti sanno, senza scomodare apparati troppo complessi, Natale è discorsivamente due cose. Da un lato una festività cristiana (la più importante, assieme alla Pasqua); dall'altro una festività non cristiana. Forse l'aspetto più straordinario di questa festività è in effetti il riuscire a tenere armonicamente insieme -cioè velando 1 Questo articolo è parte di FACETS -Face Aesthetics in Contemporary E-Technological Societies, progetto finanziato da ERC (European Research Council) nell'ambito del programma Horizon 2020 (grant agreement: 819649).
XLVI congresso Associazione Italiana di Studi Semiotici, 2019
Quelle del cibo e del gusto sono sfere esplorate con vigore negli ultimi anni, in tutte le dimens... more Quelle del cibo e del gusto sono sfere esplorate con vigore negli ultimi anni, in tutte le dimensioni che esse coinvolgono, o quasi. Fra queste infatti ne esiste una che pare sistemicamente elusa. È la dimensione terminale ma necessaria del cibo, quella in cui esso si trasforma naturalmente da meraviglioso testo nel piatto in massa fecale. Sulla cacca vige un tabù, eppure relegarla ai margini della semiosfera, negli anfratti del cattivo gusto, in un simbolico rimosso fognario, non impedisce che essa sia a tutti gli effetti prolifica produttrice senso, costituendosi come chiave comune che attraversa tutte le culture. La cacca è l'universale linguistico fondato sul disgusto, luogo di una simbologia retta sull'estesia del ripugnante, che parrebbe refrattaria a qualsiasi mise en langue. Eppure essa invece è sempre assai semiotizzata. Attraverso un percorso di testi, cinematografici e non solo, in questo saggio miriamo a reintrodurla nel dibattito semiotico, enfatizzando l'importanza di una semiotica del disgusto (complementare a quella del gusto), e ponendo le basi per lo sviluppo di una futura coprosemiotica generale. Il fecale è infatti un formidabile dispositivo semiotico troppo spesso sottostimato e taciuto, che dà conto di come le culture trattino quel senso che vorrebbero inesistente o celato nell'alveo innominabile del disgusto.
The notion of "Snapchat Dysmorphia", which we extend here to a more generic "Selfie Dysmorphia", ... more The notion of "Snapchat Dysmorphia", which we extend here to a more generic "Selfie Dysmorphia", has been under discussion online for at least a couple of years. It concerns the increasingly widespread inability to accept one's own appearance and the spasmodic need to control it through filters and postproduction effects with the smartphone. This trend, which from epidemic is becoming endemic, configures an unprecedented modality of relationship with one's own body and its image, specifically (but not only) facial. A new semiopolitics of bodies is developing, with not only psychosocial but also socio-semiotic consequences which summon up complex notions such as that of the figure, an in-depth reflection on the interpretative dynamics involved in the choice of pertinentising some plastic configurations of images as figuratively salient, and a reflection on the semantics of the concept of "disfiguration" as an isotopy of contemporary society.
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Papers by Bruno Surace
audiovisual production, focusing on the tagging systems used by streaming
platforms and their ability to capture audience emotions. After reflecting
on the centrality of “pathematic tagging” in constructing algorithmic recommendations,
the Freudian concept of the uncanny (Unheimliche) and its
resurgence in current media culture is analysed. A state–of–the–art review
on the uncanny as a semiotic problem is outlined, interpreting it as a complex
dynamic that disorients the reader or viewer through narrative, enunciative,
or ideological betrayals. Through the analysis of movies like Leave
the World Behind (2023) and The Power of the Dog (2021), the study delves
into how the uncanny operates structurally, creating a sense of interpretative
disorientation and reflecting contemporary cultural and social uncertainties.
Furthermore, it differentiates between “unsettling” and “uncanny” audiovisual
content, highlighting the inadequacy of generic labels and proposing
the need for more precise classification criteria. Finally, the investigation
connects the uncanny to the context of the Anthropocene, emphasizing how
contemporary narratives metabolize global tensions into a visual and narrative
language capable of expressing the complexity of our time.
fiction, focusing particularly on the representation of alien religions in the
Star Trek (ST) universe. The case of ST is particularly significant because,
despite the secular orientation of its creator Gene Roddenberry, the series
consistently explores religious themes, integrating an epistemic horizon of
rationality with spiritual issues. The various ST series (TOS, TNG, DS9,
VOY, ENT) and the film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (William Shatner,
1989) are analyzed, highlighting the development of an internal dialectic
between science and faith. This relationship is articulated through various
ideological declinations, starting from the dogma of the Prime Directive,
which prohibits the Federation from interfering with less developed civilizations,
raising important ethical questions. The discussion focuses on
how religious faith is often depicted as an illusory belief system that compensates
for the lack of adequate scientific knowledge, and how overcoming
these beliefs is seen as a civilizational advance. The article also investigates
a series of traditional components of religious discourse, focusing
on the representation of the figure of God (and multiple deities) and the
devil in science fiction cinema and ST, as well as the role of traditions and
religious scriptures, the archetype of the chosen one, and the idea of the afterlife. Through this analysis, the article demonstrates how ST uses science
fiction to explore and question religious themes, always maintaining
a rational and secular perspective while admitting mystery in certain circumstances.
The strength and longevity of ST lie in its ability to combine
narrative inventiveness and philosophical reflection, offering a vision of
the future based on cooperation, tolerance, and respect for spirituality as a
legitimate part of the human experience.