
The Hybrid Face
Paradoxes of the Visage in the Digital Era
Massimo Leone(Editor)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 5. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
252 pages
978-1-032-46096-3 (ISBN)
Description
This original and interdisciplinary volume explores the contemporary semiotic dimensions of the face from both scientific and sociocultural perspectives, putting forward several traditions, aspects, and signs of the human utopia of creating a hybrid face.
The book semiotically delves into the multifaceted realm of the digital face, exploring its biological and social functions, the concept of masks, the impact of COVID-19, AI systems, digital portraiture, symbolic faces in films, viral communication, alien depictions, personhood in video games, online intimacy, and digital memorials. The human face is increasingly living a life that is not only that of the biological body but also that of its digital avatar, spread through a myriad of new channels and transformable through filters, post-productions, digital cosmetics, all the way to the creation of deepfakes. The digital face expresses new and largely unknown meanings, which this book explores and analyzes through an interdisciplinary but systematic approach.
The volume will interest researchers, scholars, and advanced students who are interested in digital humanities, communication studies, semiotics, visual studies, visual anthropology, cultural studies, and, broadly speaking, innovative approaches about the meaning of the face in present-day digital societies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The book semiotically delves into the multifaceted realm of the digital face, exploring its biological and social functions, the concept of masks, the impact of COVID-19, AI systems, digital portraiture, symbolic faces in films, viral communication, alien depictions, personhood in video games, online intimacy, and digital memorials. The human face is increasingly living a life that is not only that of the biological body but also that of its digital avatar, spread through a myriad of new channels and transformable through filters, post-productions, digital cosmetics, all the way to the creation of deepfakes. The digital face expresses new and largely unknown meanings, which this book explores and analyzes through an interdisciplinary but systematic approach.
The volume will interest researchers, scholars, and advanced students who are interested in digital humanities, communication studies, semiotics, visual studies, visual anthropology, cultural studies, and, broadly speaking, innovative approaches about the meaning of the face in present-day digital societies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced
Illustrations
18 s/w Abbildungen, 16 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 2 s/w Zeichnungen, 2 s/w Tabellen
2 Tables, black and white; 2 Line drawings, black and white; 16 Halftones, black and white; 18 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
402 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-46096-3 (9781032460963)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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Additional editions

E-Book
12/2023
Taylor & Francis
€0.00
Available for download

Book
12/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€206.60
Shipment within 10-20 days

E-Book
12/2023
Taylor & Francis
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Massimo Leone is Professor of Philosophy of Communication at the University of Turin; Research Director at the "Bruno Kessler Foundation", Trento; part-time Professor of Semiotics at the University of Shanghai; associate member of Cambridge Digital Humanities; and Adjunct Professor at the UCAB University of Caracas. He is the PI of ERC Projects FACETS (2019) and EUFACETS (2022).
Content
Masked Faces: A Tale of Functional Redeployment between Biology and Material Culture
Contagious Faces: Coping Digitally with the Pandemic by Means of Memes
Uncertain Faces: An Investigation into Visual Forms for Communicating Otherness
Simulacral Faces: A Dramaturgy in Digital Environments
Emerging Faces: The Figure-Ground Relation from Renaissance Painting to Deepfakes
Timely Faces
Featureless Faces: A Film Aesthetics
Imaginary Faces: Aliens, Monsters, and Otherness
Automatic Faces: The Transcendent Visage of Trans-Humanity
Algorithmic Faces: Reflections on the Visage in Artistic Translation and Transition
Dating Faces: The Facial Space of Belonging in Online (Dating) Communities
Evanescent Faces: A Semiotic Investigation of Digital Memorials and Commemorative Practices
References
Contagious Faces: Coping Digitally with the Pandemic by Means of Memes
Uncertain Faces: An Investigation into Visual Forms for Communicating Otherness
Simulacral Faces: A Dramaturgy in Digital Environments
Emerging Faces: The Figure-Ground Relation from Renaissance Painting to Deepfakes
Timely Faces
Featureless Faces: A Film Aesthetics
Imaginary Faces: Aliens, Monsters, and Otherness
Automatic Faces: The Transcendent Visage of Trans-Humanity
Algorithmic Faces: Reflections on the Visage in Artistic Translation and Transition
Dating Faces: The Facial Space of Belonging in Online (Dating) Communities
Evanescent Faces: A Semiotic Investigation of Digital Memorials and Commemorative Practices
References