ENVIRONMENTAL INTERVENTIONS IN VISUAL STUDIES AND MEDIA THEORY

The modern stage of scientific knowledge is characterized by the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity. Historically established boundaries between sciences are gradually blurring, disciplinary areas are opening up to their near and far "neighbors", entering into multiple symbiotic relationships. The topic of introducing ecological discourse into the content of various fields of social and humanities knowledge has long attracted the attention of researchers; however, the cartography showing the convergence of visual studies programs and media theory with ecology still awaits detailed development. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to describe the interdisciplinary interactions that characterize the path of these transformations, especially when media processes begin to be conceptualized in the categories of the ecosystem approach. The subject of this study requires its consideration in the focus of interdisciplinarity, since the convergence of two research areas –visual studies and media theory, on the one hand, and ecology, on the other – is conditioned by the inherent interdisciplinary nature of each of these fields. The article is based on an original approach being developed on the basis of the research activities of the Center for Media Philosophy of SPbSU, in particular, on the project of visual ecology – a new research program emerging at the intersection of media theory and urbanism. The result of the work was the identification of the problem field of visual ecology. The project development directions were outlined (image analytics, urban activism, mediatization and digitalization of urbanized spaces) and the criteria of visual pollution of modern cities were outlined. The possibility of philosophical understanding of the essence and phenomena of the new stage of technogenic civilization, the key characteristics of which are total mediatization, hybridity and fluidity, depends on the flexibility of our conceptual tools. Only such hybrid and methodologically open disciplinary assemblages as media ecology and visual ecology can effectively understand the permanent transformations of contemporary reality, the ontological basis of which are digital technologies and new media.