Digital Primitivism: Preservation and Distribution of Images in Contemporary Visual Culture

Contemporary visual practices аге characterized by rapid democratization of the ways of access and preservation of images. Due to the wide access to data, simplification and individualization of the practice of creating and distributing images, the ways of evaluating, storing and transmitting information change. The habitual legitimizing mechanisms cease to work, both at the institutional and aesthetic level. The democratic public image, called by the media theoretician Hito Steyerl “poor image”, representing the dominant type of image in modern visual culture, re-poses the problem of clarifying the theoretical attitude towards products of amateur art, primitive art, outsider activity and simple “amateurism”. The article is devoted to the study of current practices of digital culture on the basis of digital art. The aim of the article is to study the genealogy and iconography of digital primitivism, mainly in Russian art. Among the research objectives: definition of the concept of “digital primitivism”; identification of its genetic basis; consideration of the main stylistic trends and visual cliches; identification of the impact of digital subcultures on artistic practices; a description of the impact of digital art on contemporary popular culture, the definition of the meaning of digital primitivism in the context of the visual experience of our time. As a result of the study, it was possible to show the main components of digital primitivism, including: digital subcultures, art-game design, naive digital picture, reflective primitivism, eight-bit aesthetics, post-Internet, digital pop culture. The following statements serve as conclusions. Ways of inheriting visual material in the digital world are based on the tendency to hold a nostalgic note, supported by media archeology and longing for the eight-bit era (which has already become widespread in popular culture from video clips to computer games such as Undertale) and at the same time, constant awareness the impending posthuman reality that appears to be a digital apocalypse. In the context of these tendencies, digital primitivism performs the therapeutic function, creating a sense of control over the growing element of the all-powerful digital culture.

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