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This brief essay provides evidence that, beyond the nostalgia factor we may enjoy in participating in retro-cultures circulating around out-dated technologies, like cassette tapes, vinyl, or VHS, the ASCII aesthetic carries with it important implications for our psychological, cultural, and political well-being.
Note: [Indexicality] refers to the reality bearing quality of photography and video, the 1-to-1 relationship between what is depicted in the frame and what actually exists.
Truth claim (photography) [indexicality]:
Take any pornographic image that reliably gets you excited.
Run it through `chafa` to get its full color ASCII representation.
What do you see now? I think you'll find that while you get a lot of the same /information/ you don't get the same /feeling/ or certainly not to the same degree of intensity. By converting the image to ASCII, you now enjoy distance from the scene being depicted. It no longer has an immediate hold on you.
Consider the film adaptation of Lord of the Rings, which won many Oscars and is considered to be one of the greatest film adaptations in history. Anyone who has actually read the book can tell you the indexical images presented by the film, while very compelling, pale in comparison to the story and descriptions contained in the book. No matter how undeniably impressive and true-to-the-book Peter Jackson's adaptation was, the action thrills of the film, while impressive, are ultimately superficial, appealing to the lowest common denominator. The original text is more important than the derivative image, providing stronger and longer-lasting associations than the film.
Images are shallow, while text is deep. Naturally this means that images have wider appeal. While on the surface this appeal suggests a more democratic culture, by broadening the audience and being more inclusive, it implicitly carries with it an elitist agenda: we know the elites use images to manipulate us by pandering to our biases. And we know that social media is a lightning rod for the latest memetic propaganda. Such manipulation is leading, in some corners of the world -- like Myanmar -- to genocidal outcomes, in other corners to neo-fascistic politics. By short-circuiting text culture, image culture is subverting liberal democracy.
The above points suggest that (a) non-indexicality provides us crucial psychological distance enabling us to escape the power of images, (b) the power of text is greater, longer lasting and more important than the power of images, and (c) we have very good /political/ reasons to regulate our exposure to indexical images, due to their relationship to propaganda and psychological manipulation.
The ASCII image is not just a "bad" copy of a "real" image. Instead, it offers us an aesthetic with important psychological, cultural, and political implications.
It is my belief that the ASCII image can promise good personal and collective hygiene. We should want all our images to arrive first in ASCII, to be unwrapped in their full indexicality only after an intercedeing thought.
I therefore propose that any browser capable of presenting indexical images should (by-default) (a) show first an ASCII version instead, and (b) require users to type in a single-digit number (randomized by the browser) before presenting the indexical image. This method would provide
- the information carried by the ASCII image, and
- access to the indexical image, but only with a verified moment of introspection.
But that's not convenient!
Who said defence-in-depth was convenient?
If text is the ultimate means of expression, why bother with non-text at all?
First, non-indexical ASCII art does not represent the same risk as indexical images and video does. I'm just not as worried about it.
Second, we live in a multi-media world, and we interact with a lot of images, sound, and video. Shall these remain silent or hidden in ASCII culture? Or, worse, shall we dump all these things into Geminispace without any thought as to the consequences? To be a part of the world, without being transformed by it, ASCII culture has to respond to these things. And it does so by converting them to ASCII formats.
Third, ASCII media is useful. ASCII images can liven up an essay. ASCII podcasts can link voice to document analysis better than video podcasts do. ASCII animations can make lightweight logos. ASCII video can convert indexical clips of disturbing events to an ASCII format that protects us from the gruesome details.
Fourth, ASCII can be beautiful. Just because text is the best doesn't mean we should deprive ourselves of beautiful things. ASCII should enjoy a rennaisance as a decorative art.
Rather than viewing ASCII as turning back the clock, we can see it as a tool that makes our existing world better.
Jun 20 · 3 weeks ago · 👍 drh3xx, stack, decant_ · 🙁 1
peculiar lexicon, but I can't disagree with more text based content