The Digital Cell

An Analysis of the Digital Media Environment

Abstract

Digital media, serving as the dominant cultural voice in our contemporary climate, has raised questions of truth; compositing techniques of computer-generated imagery have accelerated the era of post-truth; fluctuating digital images that unfold in source-independent simulations are accentuated by sensations and stimuli. The users of the digital media not only immerse themselves in digital culture but also participate in processes that highlight subjective experience. In an ever-expanding digital environment, how can design thinking function as a creative lens to review the interactive mechanisms of the human experience across digital media? To examine our consciousness in the age of interactive digital media, this essay creates a speculative design and a speculative narrative of how we came to have the montage-like perception. The Digital Cell, an interactive virtual design manifesting the concept of the montage-like perception, the work aims to configure a critical lens to evaluate our aesthetic and synthetic experience in the digital age.