A Metareferential Turn and Mediatization of Reality

Abstract

The qualitative leap in self-reflection of contemporary culture, which questions the permeability of the boundaries between reality and fictional worlds, accelerated by the development of digital art media in the 21st century, is labeled in theory as a ‘metareferential turn’. It is primarily a shift away from hetero-referential focus on attempts to present objective reality and from its understanding towards self-realization that is possible only by looking at the whole: the non-human world as well as human artifacts, including media that portray and create a new, mediatized reality. Metareferences as a transmedial concept cognitively link narratives of different types of ‘realities’ by activating the process of metaization - moving from a referential or communicative level of consciousness to a higher, self-reflexive one. That makes the audience mentally participate in the creation of the metaleptogenic universe.