In my perspective, the human is made of ‘symbols’. But this hermeneutic is too abstract. I hope to sort out my definition and perception of ‘symbols’ through this writing.
Firstly, Ernst Cassirer refers to man as a symbolic animal in his book, Theory of Man: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Culture. Specific symbols can represent a certain aspect of a person, as well as the fact that the human being is made up of many symbols. Many aspects of a person’s consciousness are also often expressed by specific symbols, e.g. the rainbow flag represents the LGBTQIA+ community. A symbol can be a word, an image, a sound or even a shaped concept. This semiotics goes to the interpretation of personality or identity. It originated in the post-World War II and post-colonial period, when mankind experienced savage wars and colonial rule by advanced countries. So ideas such as national identity and self-identity began to develop. Therefore, symbolism and identity are in a way related. But the concept of symbols has actually been around since the dawn of mankind. Language, dance, music, and graffiti in caves are all attempts to summarise or record a certain collection of experiences in an abstract way, rather than to elaborate stories.
The theme of my concern is: how to be in the digital age, that blurs the individual and is overly concerned with abstract symbols. How each individual can find his or her own unique symbol.
Such behaviour is a kind of confrontation with the hegemony of information and the hegemony of algorithms. Today, when AI is so advanced, everyone runs to the city and the digital world, forgetting all about what makes them unique. I’ve interviewed many patrons at past RAVE parties, ‘Why do you come here and what do you have in mind for your party?’ The feedback received was almost always, ‘Recommendation from a friend or a tweet from a streamer. The party in mind is the party that the streamer promotes.’ This led me to the realisation that people have been thinking very little about what I need or who I am. Streaming media or algorithms have helped most people think about what each person needs for their featured life, and humans just need to be ‘performers’ to do the tasks given by the algorithms.
Therefore, my research is orientated towards 1. finding differences in the mass of sameness through the study of digital ethnographies, 2. studying the logic of digital algorithms as well as discovering its imperfections, and 3. deconstructing symbols and encouraging everyone to create or define symbols on their own.
Here’s today’s reflection and summary.
Reference List：
Ernst Cassirer. ESSAY on MAN : An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture. S.L., Yale University Press, 2021.
Hjorth, Larissa, et al. The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. New York, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.
“自我认同.” 百度百科, 2025, baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%87%AA%E6%88%91%E8%AE%A4%E5%90%8C. Accessed 10 Mar. 2025.
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