Magdeburg, R., 2025.
Losing Our Heads: Finding Bodies in the Digital Anthropocene Through Contemporary Painting Practice
| Output Type: | Chapter in a book |
| Publication: | Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication |
| Volume/Issue: | Part F705 |
| Pagination: | pp. 145-174 |
This chapter examines the metaphorical and visual significance of decapitation in contemporary painting as a means to critique Cartesian dualism and the separation of mind and body. It argues that emoji, as ubiquitous digital symbols, function as contemporary severed heads, re-embodying lost physicality in the digital Anthropocene. Through a semio-materialist lens and art practice as research, the chapter explores how painting reanimates emoji, imbuing them with affect and disrupting the subject-object dichotomy. This artistic inquiry situates emoji within a broader discourse on rupture, representation, and digital mediation.