Il postfotografico nella cultura visuale mediatizzata. Memoria, performatività ed evento fotografico nei Generative Visual Media

This thesis investigates the post-photographic condition within the framework of mediatized visual culture, adopting a constructivist approach that integrates visual culture studies with social theory (Luhmann 1988; Gemini 2021). Moving beyond the traditional aesthetic and anthropological boundaries of visual culture, the research proposes an understanding of the image as a social and cognitive practice operating within complex media systems. The study examines how the photographic evolves into a post-photographic technique within the contemporary platform society and the algorithmic ecologies of Generative Visual Media (Arielli, Manovich 2024) – AI-based systems capable of producing photorealistic images devoid of any indexical link to reality. The central question is thus epistemological and operational: in what sense can we still speak of the photographic in an era when the logic of visibility is no longer testimonial but performative, algorithmic, and distributed? The thesis is structured in three parts. The first reconstructs the genealogy of the photographic through medium theory, drawing on authors such as Benjamin (1936), Flusser (1983), Debray (2000), in order to define the photographic not as an ontological object but as an operational relation between medium and form. The second part integrates this reflection within a sociological framework of mediatization and platformization (Couldry, Hepp 2013; Boccia Artieri 2015), outlining the transition from photography as an indexical document to photography as a connective and computational practice. In this context, sociological methodologies must integrate computational tools in order to analyze images within the mediatized and datafied visual culture. Through a mixed-method approach, the third, empirical part examines two case studies: Boris Eldagsen’s Pseudoamnesia: The Electrician (2023) and the Adobe Stock controversy (2023) concerning the sale of AI-generated war images classified as “photographs.” The Eldagsen case investigates the post-photographic as a performative act within mediatized visual culture, while the Adobe Stock case explores the testimonial and ethical implications of AI-generated photorealistic images in the field of visual journalism.