The Sleep of Vision Produces Monsters
The Sleep of Vision Produces Monsters. Constructing the Gaze and Politics of Imagination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.82068/pgjournal.2026.23.42.04Keywords:
Collective Imaginary, Scopic Regime, Visual Culture, Western Gaze, Visuality, IrrationalAbstract
The way a community observes and interprets reality, its scopic regime, is a socially constructed phenomenon. What we perceive is neither neutral nor self-evident, but is made possible by a network of practices, devices, and tools that define what can be seen and understood in relation to specific historical and socio-economic conditions. Adopting a theoretical-critical approach, this paper aims to examine the role of images in shaping the contemporary gaze from an interdisciplinary perspective that intertwines communication design with art history, visual culture, philosophy, and anthropology. Within the current mediascape, the construction of the collective imaginary has been progressively delegated to the market, which shapes its forms, languages, and desires. By highlighting the role of images as devices capable of orienting emotions, beliefs, and behaviors, this analysis traces a trajectory extending from the biological and subjective dimensions of visual perception to contemporary media regimes. In response to the commodification of vision, this study points to a revaluation of the irrational, positioning artists and designers as catalysts for new imaginaries and recognizing the automation of machines as an ally capable of relieving human beings of the constraints of technical labor.
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