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THE ROLE OF CLICHÉS IN CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL AUDIOVISUAL ARTS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 2 (28). P. 43-62

In this study, I analyze the role of clichés in contemporary digital audiovisual arts. The use of clichés in the author’s high art is considered to be a manifestation of a low artistic level. But the same use of clichés in folklore and popular art is not considered to be a “primitive” performance. Clichés in art are defined as a formula. The article presents an approach to formulaic art by John G. Cawelti and Juri Lotman. This approach is the methodology of my study of the role of clichés in the creation of virtual space and hyperreal fictional world. Since clichés play a very important role in contemporary popular culture, I present the data by Lev Manovich, the researcher of digital visual culture. He analyzes the digital component in the digital audiovisual medium. Thus, for the first time, I link Cawelti and Manovich in the analysis of contemporary digital audiovisual art. Speaking about the digital component in art, I should mention that the interface, defined as a formulaic construction, is its important feature. The article states that the cliché in modern digital audiovisual art is one of the main structural elements of a work of art which affects the aesthetic form and content of an audiovisual work. Using clichés, we create virtual and hyperreal worlds that help the addressee to feel escapist feelings and get immersed in these fictional worlds. Also, clichés give us the opportunity to see the new in the already familiar in the perception of art. I define the vision of “new in the already familiar” as defamiliarization by Viktor Shklovsky. The listed properties of the cliché are manifested in all digital contemporary audiovisual arts: cinema, video games, video art, and video installation. The examples are given below in the study. The obtained results are relevant for studying the new types of digital audiovisual arts such as Internet art, interactive cinema, science art, computer art, and others. These arts are now at the stage of their formal, aesthetic and content formation. The obtained results will help to understand the new processes taking place in our postmodern society

Keywords: cliché, formula, formulaicity, Cawelti, Lotman, popular art, audiovisual arts, hyperrealism, Baudrillard, postmodernism, virtual space, End of Art, Manovich