VISUAL HERMENEUTICS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Abstract
The article examines the emergence of visual hermeneutics as an independent field of philosophical inquiry in the context of digital cultural transformation. The relevance of the research is driven by the unprecedented dominance of visual forms of communication and the development of algorithmic technologies that radically transform traditional practices of understanding and interpretation. The author analyzes the theoretical and methodological foundations of visual hermeneutics, which are formed at the intersection of classical hermeneutic tradition, semiotics, media theory, and innovative approaches of Digital Humanities.
Special attention is given to the analysis of key epistemological shifts: overcoming textcentrism, establishing multimodal ontology, and developing algorithmic hermeneutics. The processes of transformation of classical hermeneutic categories in the digital environment are examined, where algorithms become invisible co-authors of meaning, shaping the understanding of the contemporary interpreter. The specificity of visual rhetoric as an autonomous mode of meaning-making is analyzed, characterized by simultaneity, polysemy, affectivity, and a particular form of indexicality.
The empirical basis of the research consists of a critical analysis of the TikTok platform as a paradigmatic example of visual-algorithmic media and the phenomenon of internet memes as the quintessence of digital meaning-making. The fundamental ambivalence of contemporary digital environments is revealed, which simultaneously expand the hermeneutic horizon and create new forms of limitation of interpretive experience. TikTok's platform architecture demonstrates mechanisms for reducing hermeneutic complexity through algorithmic mediation and temporal compression, creating a paradoxical situation of pseudo-participatority. The analysis of memes reveals the phenomenon of «condensed meaning», where complex semantic constructions are reduced to minimalist visual forms through processes of semiotic compression and metonymic reduction. The article substantiates the need to develop new methodological strategies: synoptic reading, affective hermeneutics, and algorithmic literacy. It is argued that visual hermeneutics in the digital media era requires a fundamental rethinking of basic categories of interpretation, where meaning is not so much «deciphered» as «lived» through immersive interaction with media artifacts, and technology transforms from a neutral intermediary into an active co-author of meaning.
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