Flusser and Magritte’s windows after all, what is a web video?

Abstract

The paper introduces and articulates the concept basis used in “Flusser and Magritte’s windows”, a multiple-video browsing prototype through one player, developed in a partnership between the GPAv – a research group on audiovisualities – and the Digital Communications Course (ComDig), from the Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos). It presents and contextualizes the founding points of the contemporary audiovisualities in their technical, discursive and cultural dimensions, related to the theories about the technical images, from Vilém Flusser, and the human condition as shown in the Surrealism in René Magritte’s work more specifically. It also presents and justifies the foundations (in construction) about the concept of Digital Communications, with special focus on mobile media formats. It presents in a critical sense the elaboration process of the prototype and the single video components and indicates some issues for this research field.