Soul searching : an exploration of the relationship between technology and soul through the interpretation of contemporary visual texts

Abstract

This study aims to critically analyse the contemporary relationship between the concepts of the soul and technology, with reference to the manner in which the relationship is represented in selected examples of visual culture, most notably film, photography and artworks. The relationship between the soul and technology is explored by expanding the framework provided by psychiatrist Alison Gray (2010:638), where she identifies three main categories when dealing with the soul. The three categories are namely dualism as found in the gnostic approach, monism as it manifests in the animistic approach, and finally the physicalist approach. Gray (2010:638) considers these three approaches as amongst the most common worldviews in contemporary society, thus these provide a diverse yet comprehensive manner for interpreting current notions of the soul and technology. Essentially, Gnosticism is based on various religious beliefs and principles that express a negative attitude towards earthly and material existence (Hoeller 2012). Animism, in turn, maintains that the lifeless has life, spirit and soul, and therefore provides characteristics of living things to inanimate things and events (Hornborg 2006:1). Finally, physicalism asserts that there is nothing more to the world than what can be scientifically and empirically observed (Pettit 1993:222). These three categories approaches to the soul and technology differ, but, as becomes evident in the analysis, these also overlap in parts, which means the analysis of the selected visual examples differ and overlap accordingly.