Digitalising Surrealism: A Pathway to New Humanities

Abstract

The advent of digital technologies has revolutionized the way we engage with art, culture, and intellectual inquiry, creating new pathways for interdisciplinary exploration. This paper explores the intersection of surrealism and digitalization, proposing that the digitization of surrealist aesthetics, practices, and methodologies opens innovative avenues for understanding the human experience in the contemporary digital age. Surrealism, with its emphasis on the unconscious, irrationality, and the blurring of boundaries between dream and reality, is particularly suited to digital exploration. Through virtual environments, augmented realities, and generative art forms, digital tools facilitate the expansion of surrealist principles, enabling new forms of creativity and critical thinking. The paper examines how digital technologies, such as AI-driven art, virtual worlds, and immersive media, enable a reimagining of surrealist ideas, allowing them to evolve beyond traditional forms of expression. This digital reinvention not only revitalizes surrealist practices but also contributes to the development of a "New Humanities," one that embraces technological advancements while maintaining an emphasis on subjective, embodied experiences. By bridging the gaps between the surrealist tradition and the possibilities offered by digital media, the paper argues for the transformative potential of digital surrealism in reshaping cultural and intellectual discourses in the 21st century.