Transformation of farcical representations in the absence of physical space and a specific location.

Morgunov Georgii Borisovich Postgraduate student, Department of Cultural Studies, Gitr 143006, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Odintsovo, ul. Belorusskaya, 11 morgunov.juri@yandex.ru

The art of visual representation (demonstration, display) originated in antiquity, and as a rule, the maximum attention of the audience was in those places where it would be convenient for a large number of viewers to watch what was happening at the same time, for example in amphitheaters.

Discussing the issue of farcical representations occurring within, for example, a city square, it is necessary to correlate this fact with the mythological thinking of citizens, which is projected onto the understanding and reception of the urban space itself, its architecture, the mutual location of the center and periphery, as a kind of cosmic order, for the historical period of the existence and life of the city in comparison with mythological and cosmological representations. It seems appropriate to explain the meaning of the word "mythological" when it is applied to the word "thinking", understanding the myth as the result of narration, which means productive practice of converting the experience into words and has the character of direct experience ^[1].  The farcical culture was also an attempt by people to interpret the processes of the universe for themselves, a way to pull out the mechanisms by which the universe functions for a superficial view. The farcical art of showing, as a rule, has always been correlated with the space in which it is realized, acquiring its features into its structure. For example, the functioning of the carnival at the fair.  In Russia, the fair was an element of the holiday, respectively, and the farce is within its limits one of the forms of festive communication. There was also such a concept – "to visit the mountains" synonymous with this – "to visit the booths". It is not just about the structures and sheds in which performances were given, but about the skating ice mountains constructed on city squares during Christmas and Shrovetide. These very man–made mountains are found in the description of the game - "taking a snow town" ^[2]. Where the snowy town personified the hall of winter, and its capture is the end of frosts and the onset of the long-awaited spring. The fortified point of such a town had large walls and gates made of snow doused with water. Booths were an element of mass festivities under the mountains, to visit booths meant to join in all the entertainment that took place in certain suitable spaces for this, for example, on the Champ de Mars.  Thus, the farcical performance was not considered separately from the rest of the actions on the festive square, from the general spirit of fun. Such a traditional form of a farce, when it is tied to a certain space in which it functions, characterizes its sacred significance in the eyes of all its viewers, but over time, farcical performances disappeared from squares and streets, moving into a virtual space in which the main spectator's attention is now concentrated, being within its limits they are not tied to any certain locations, however, retain a cheerful and funny form. Let's analyze how this will affect the essence of farcical representations, their previously sacred essence, the flow of their existence from a clear spatial framework into a spaceless virtual environment. Of course, the very concept of "farce", when it is used in the context of thinking about visual, demonstrative art, has been observed in historical terms since the Middle Ages, but earlier demonstrative arts of display having similar intentions with medieval farces, as will be seen from the further course of the study, were already observed in ancient times. Such interpretations of ancient demonstrative arts as farcical performances are mentioned as some rituals that visually embody the laws of nature, the universe ^[3]. For example, circular processions of the sun are carried out in squares in the form of swings, round dances, gyrations and somersaults on the head. Also here you can quote the Iliad, where the circular movements of the luminaries are repeated by the jumpers dancing head over heels in the middle of the square: "... two of their head walkers in the middle of the circle, Singing in harmony, are wonderfully spinning in the middle. Such demonstrative arts are called a pre-theatrical farce, a pre-religious temple ^[3].

         Nowadays, the most accessible and convenient platform for universal individual and public attention is video hosting in the Internet space and the most popular of them is Youtube. For a long time, the most popular of the visual arts of the show was the farce, it is natural to assume that even today it does not lose its status of relevance, but the space of its existence has moved from squares and amphitheaters to the Internet environment. In a sense, it can be argued that the outer street areas themselves, relatively speaking, amphitheaters and squares, any suitable exteriors, have themselves become a scenic space convenient for the consumption and distribution of any information video content. The urban street environment is divided into several communication spaces connecting producers of video content with viewers ^[4]. For example, the environmental-landscape type of communication, assuming the presence of cinema screens broadcasting information on street billboards, house walls and, in principle, street spaces, and in addition to this communication, for a more stereoscopic understanding of the situation, we will mention the reverse aspect of the first - cultural and regulatory communication, assuming a single working cinema screen in a room with the lights off and maximum absence other distractions are the cinema hall. Let's try to figure out how the art of the show — the farce - developed and changed during the time of its existence.

           The farce was a very popular spectacle among the population ^[5]. The meaning of its relevance can be clearly identified by analyzing the functioning of a special type of buffoon named Petrushka in the domestic farce. The main function of the buffoons was moral relaxation, which led the population to some kind of spiritual calm, by creating a simulation of the triumph of justice in the real world, which was enough to make the audience feel their superiority over their everyday oppressors. People were pleased to see how Petrushka beats up and expels government officials, policemen, bosses, etc. Oppressing ordinary people in real life, the governing class receives a full rebuff within the framework of a farcical performance, which significantly reduces the internal degree of discontent of citizens. Many comedians, including Charlie Chaplin, resorted to such a technique of laughing culture. For example, in the movie "The Kid", there Chaplin's character "the tramp" moonlights as a glazier-conman with an accomplice who is his little adopted son, in one of the scenes of the film the tramp runs away from the policeman and at this moment a frame with glass falls from his back, which the policeman stumbles over, thanks to which the main character manages to hide. Such visual display art works as a sedative, or “opium" for the people. It is obvious that such visual representations are very beneficial to state structures, which is why farcical spectacles could reasonably receive various kinds of support from the ruling structure of the state. One of the functions of the farce is the "rehabilitation" of everyday life, giving it an optimistic look by destroying the usual norms of behavior and giving them a chaotic character, it is important to overturn the hierarchy ^[5]. These factors, in turn, achieve reconciliation of a person with difficult living conditions outside of festive performances, and the content of the booths is subordinated to this very task. 

         In the ancient period, the semantic purpose of theatrical art was to influence the spirituality and morality of the audience, through deep experiences and, as a consequence, catharsis, people stabilized and brought their psychological state to a rational denominator, perceiving the tragedy played out in front of them on stage as a very real action. Later, already within the Roman Empire, the theater in some cases existed in the format of an entertainment spectacle.

         In the same ancient times, demonstrative art is actively developing, in which the emphasis is on showing actions, which in the future will be referred to as a farce. The theater is an offshoot of farcical performances based on the art of showing, but operates with the art of storytelling, that is, it has a literary, plot basis, and as the art of representation develops and changes, the farce has a more stagnant structure. The farce is the most elementary form of theater ^[6]. Its meaning is to show a significant for the collective, and therefore a sacred phenomenon.

         If we consider the traditional Orthodox Russian culture, or ancient Greek, then both there and there you can find an excessive love for holidays and revelry, for example, in Russia, there were about 150 holidays a year. But this did not mean at all that individuals of these ethnicities had only an optimistic worldview, otherwise where does the Greek tragedy grow from the same Greeks, who, although they positioned themselves as free, still realized that they were under the power of fate. And in the Orthodox civilization, the festive season seems to be overcoming the daily oppression of rigid dependence on the same fate, called God's providence.  There were many different games in Russia: wedding games, Maslenitsa games, etc. A certain gambling calendar was established, by examining which it can be determined that the greatest gambling activity is characteristic of transitional events of the year or turning points in the life of society ^[7].

         Here we can draw an analogy with the concepts of the Dionysian and Apollonian cultures ^[8]. Dionysus reveals the truth, having learned which, it is preferable for a person to choose inaction in life as a principled and rational position, because nothing in this world can be changed for the better. In turn, Apollo creates a kind of illusory veil that gives hope and motivates a person to act further. The booth itself can function as such an illusory, cheerful and debauched blanket.

         However, not only Apollonian art is close in spirit to the farce, Dionysian motifs can also be found in it. Proceeding from the fact that the spirit of music is the basis of the Dionysian tragedy, further arguments should be made. Music encourages symbolic contemplation of the Dionysian universality, that is, music is a certain image of the will, the core of the essence of all things, this is explained by the fact that it opposes a metaphysical foundation to every physical foundation. That is, visual phenomena are only an external shell, detached from concepts, and music is the embodiment of the image of the concept itself, the idea. And when any visual images are perceived under the music, they acquire the highest significance for the viewer thanks to it.

         Hence we conclude that music is capable of generating a myth, that is, music is the carrier of a metaphysical, autonomous principle, bearing its autonomous knowledge. And in this Dionysian art is similar to a farce, which is characterized by a mythological structure. Myth is a direct form of the cognitive process ^[3]. The myth is also imaginative in its content, it is formed in realistic categories on the occasion of schematic spatial impressions, that is, it is tied to real spaces, territories. Mythological history has a realistic morphology, which is why it is mistaken for a historical or semi-historical story. Since farcical representations, as well as mythological stories, are characterized by interpretations and, in general, the sphere of existence in the field of eternal and fundamental laws of being, it is possible to attribute farcical representations to the category of Dionysian art.

         Carnival culture.

         M. Bakhtin introduced the concept of "carnival culture", and gave it the following definition: "... carnival–type areal celebrations, individual laughing rituals and cultures, buffoons and fools, giants, dwarfs and freaks, buffoons of various kinds and ranks, a huge variety of parody literature and much more – all of them, these forms, possess they are parts and particles of a single and integral folk-laughing, carnival culture" ^[9]. Thus, laughter, based on Bakhtin's theory of carnival culture, becomes the direction of carnivalization of social and psychosomatic problems, through which the process of purification takes place, the removal of mental stress and tension, "Ridiculing the prohibitions of the church", through which psychological relaxation and the removal of some tension created by social attitudes. 

         We systematize the basic information on farcical representations.

         1. As a rule, a farce is in most cases fun and revelry. But these elements should not be understood in a vulgar and materialistic sense. In every traditional culture there is a relationship between Eros and Tonatos, laughter and crying, etc. But the specifics of these relationships are different, because different kinds of internal, social and moral attitudes of people from many non-identical ethnic groups differ.  The farce is one of the forms of traditional culture associated with the mentality of the people.

         2. The farce assumes such an organization of the text, which is based on a non-plot type of construction, since it has a mythological structure. In the farce, not linear, but cyclic type of time prevails.

         3. The farce assumes such an organization of the text, which is connected not so much with the plot as with the myth actualized in various phenomena of the historical process. One of the significant features of this system is a special way of interaction of texts with extra-textual reality, where the former are unimaginable without the symbolic space in which they function. This implies the need for a visual broadcast of the booth in the city square, associated with the thinking of citizens, extending to the perception of the city itself as a cosmos.

         4. The farce is one of the forms of festive communication. It is a specific form of thinking or a system of communication, which is the oldest language of art, untranslatable into modern language forms.

         In essence, farcical performances are very close, as can be seen from the above provisions, to carnival culture, in particular, both provide for area festivals with the participation of giants, freaks, buffoons, etc. The following can be added about the similar meaning of carnival culture in its comparison with urban space, the city at a certain moment turns into a stage where art and reality intertwine and become inseparable, political discourse is performed there in a carnival rhythm ^{[10, p. 159]}. Naturally, as well as the carnival, which is revived every time in a more modern form of broadcasting visual culture ^[6] and finds its place in the Internet space in the form of special video content, carnival culture is reflected in the same way in the general form of interaction within the network.

         A parallel can be drawn between carnival and the Internet environment: "... is it possible, by analogy with carnival, to say that chat is "life itself, but decorated in a special playful way" ^[11]?

         And indeed, not only the kind of visual art of showing a farce, but also the general carnival form of communication, migrated to the Internet environment. Similarly, as in carnival festivities, prohibitions were lifted and individuals were depersonalized by putting on masks. The mask put on the face and hiding it exposed previously hidden human desires and hidden character traits. Since the responsibility for the actions committed within the carnival event was not tied to the individual. Similarly, in the Internet space, a person puts on a mask in the form of a photo, an avatar, or without having it at all, can communicate, speak out on any topic, as well as put all kinds of materials on public display, being in a global interactive and anonymous environment, practically without fear of being responsible for their actions in real space. But if the carnival provides for a very tight relationship in which all bodies are included, then in the network the bodies are on the contrary dissolved, disembodied. 

         Thanks to the use of burlesque and grotesque comparisons, there is an active inclusion of all kinds of elements of two worlds, complemented by a high percentage of irony, which sometimes excludes any compromise. Together, these elements create a special influence that introduces additional value judgments into the dialogue between the stage and the audience, similar to those that could be traced during the street performance of buffoons. A special use of the effect of the surrounding space, the desire for freedom from any social attitudes limiting in action. The open space greatly contributes to the process of successful communication between people, erasing the national framework of the owners of the corresponding mental tradition. However, despite this, artists still resort to the use of screens, thereby limiting the specialized technical space.

         Carnival culture is also a popular, class expression of individuals. Having curbed and properly formed which, the government can exert a strong influence on its subjects. That is, the carnival can be used as a political tool. Political actors can turn into keepers of tradition and, thus, implement ideological "hegemony" based on their own established concept ^{[12, p. 139]}.

         The problem of transformation of the areal, bodily culture of display into a screen one is very relevant today for modern cultural studies and philosophy. On the one hand, the specificity of the screen spectacle allows to revive a large number of elements of archaic culture, and on the other hand fundamentally modernizes the ways of communication of the viewer with the spectacle itself. From here we can draw several following conclusions:

1. By creating so-called "desire machines", this concept determines the productive nature of needs, determined by psychological and social suppression, the television spectacle changes the understanding of physicality ^{[13, p. 19]}. The media construct a situation of "dispersion of power", while power now comes not from one subject, but is distributed among all in such a way that the system itself, together with its parts, become both objects of power and its subjects. Consumer society, together with capitalism, create machines that are opposed by "bodies without organs", this concept is deciphered as the non-attachment of desires to the subjective intentions of the individual.

2. But television also makes up for the lack of communication and personal communication among individuals. Television is also characterized by a rhizome structure, which is very much in demand for the modern recipient of visual images, constantly surrounded by a continuous information flow.

3. Every spectacle broadcast from the TV screen has a simulation basis, since on the screen we are dealing with hyperreality, nurturing consumer perception of the world ^[14]. By producing simulacra in screen works, the media environment neutralizes the framework that separates pseudo-reality and reality.

4. The general situation with the virtualization of a person, and with him and his emotions and feelings, respectively, creates a suitable ground for the growth of such a concept as "mixed reality". That is, a combination of virtuality and reality, or a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality, where the user can move around the real world using virtual objects ^[15]. All this certainly has an impact on the laughing culture as a whole. Laughter itself acquires some kind of virtualized form of existence, since the reaction to funny video content in the Internet environment is now expressed in the form of "emoticons". Similarly, all emotional manifestations and reactions of a person acquire an unnatural form of existence, but symbolically symbolic, and this also affects the ways of behavior and the principle of human existence.

         The poetics of early cinema is extremely close to the poetics of the farce. One of the first film theorists, who bore the pseudonym Gainim, drew a parallel between them, as well as between the idol of the crowd of cinema lovers M. Linder and the plots presented in the 30s of the XIX century in the French grassroots theater "Funanbul" Harlequinade ^[6]. The theorist associates the popularity of Max Linder on the screen with the functioning of cinema according to the laws of mass spectacle or a farce. The crowd needs a rope dancer, a fist fighter and a magician, but not an actor demonstrating a complex psychological game.

         The author emphasizes the obvious extinction of the farce in its usual form and the revival in a new, technically developed one. Relatively speaking, the farce, dying, is reborn in a more complex modern form.

        Revival of farcical performances.

            So, it is obvious that the aesthetics of the farce flow into the screen reality, also at this time stage the audience of screen viewers naturally increases, which entails the attenuation of literary culture, which is aggravated by the transformation of the reader into the viewer. Previously, the viewer remained a reader, even if he was a frequent visitor to cinemas, but in the cinema era, more and more readers become viewers – reading guided by visual installations. This is a regression in the development of culture, the reader of the literary stage has structured a personality modeled by the actual stage of history. The literary stage cultivated a personality type that under a totalitarian regime could not survive under any circumstances. The special power and concreteness of visual images inevitably reduce the independence and individuality of information perception. The reader of a purely literary period of the history of culture, studying the book, by the efforts of mental abilities, modeled visual images encoded in words, doing serious mental work, and when watching a movie, the construction of visual images is in the hands of filmmakers, laying a single visual image in the understanding of their viewers. The viewer's perception of visual art is divided into 2 opposite poles - entertainment and concentration ^[16]. When concentrating, the viewer focuses his attention on the object of art, whether it is movie images or static paintings. He penetrates into the image, analyzing all the details, linking them into separate meanings and giving rise to certain conclusions in his thoughts. Conversely, entertaining viewers place the art object in themselves, guided by general stereotypical concepts.

            Contemporary art is art without transgression ^[17]. According to Western researchers, the artist and, in principle, the creator of visual art objects is considered a producer and repeater of globalized images. A modern artist is a researcher of already achieved discoveries and phenomena in art. Postmodern creators are in a situation of an overabundance of visual images as a result of the development of technology and mass production. Artists, by republishing something already created earlier and broadcasting it, albeit with the imprint of their creative opinion, are capable of resurrecting art in some way. The most ancient art of man was the word, but in our time words are already dead, and language is like a cemetery. The words were previously felt by those who perceive them, the person analyzed their meaning. Now the word is not read, but recognized. It seems to become an ugly sign, against the background of similar ones ^[18]. The artist of the word had to resort to a technique that would have renewed its meaning in the eyes of readers, would have made it readable, felt. Epithets were used, they revive an unnoticed imagery, for example: the sun is clear, a dashing fighter, white light, red heat. Similarly, the creators of screen images are able to update some techniques in the cinematic sphere. For example, you can take a scene from the movie "American Beauty". There, the soloist of the cheerleaders, played by Mina Suvari, performs individual elements of her dance, at the moment when the rest of the cheerleaders make way. After a series of tempting movements, she unbuttons her blouse, pushing 2 of its parts in different directions with her hands, but reaching the border of intimate zones, the phase of the movement of the jacket returns several stages back, and in the future this episode is repeated in a looped motion about 5-6 times, giving rise to a strong desire in the viewer to see what is under the fabric. The principle of looping a small intense action allows you to feel the full force and brightness of the moment being demonstrated.

            Let's go back for a while to the moment when the aesthetics of the farce began to flow into screen culture. In the early 30s, the trend stated by vulgar thinkers was fixed, according to which the cinema is the highest category of communicative means, that is, cultural regression is mistakenly given here as a cultural norm. Researchers who adhere to this position motivated her as follows: "The film unloads the brain from the "menial work" that is inevitable when understanding and comprehending the book, in addition, it tones the viewer with a change of impressions, the dynamics of the show, rhythm and aesthetic power" ^{[6, p. 537]}.

         It is obvious that such statements could belong to researchers who carry out a state order for similar provisions. And in their own way, they are right. Firstly, a person is relieved of the obligation to think and analyze independently, taking the simulated images for the truth. Further, the phenomenon of scattered attention is clearly traced, in which the viewer, from the habit of perceiving rapidly changing frames, loses the opportunity to explore a separate visual image for a long time, "Cinema is a direct tool for training scattered perception, which is becoming more and more noticeable in all areas of art and is a symptom of a deep transformation of perception"^[16].

         By spending time watching movies, the viewer is freed from the complex mental activity of constructing his own images, which deprives him of the opportunity to develop and enrich his imagination. Films are more tangible, visual, they are easier to remember for ordinary viewers who, after a hard day's work, will prefer a long reading of a book, relaxing viewing of movie images ^[19].

                        Farcical performances in the Internet space.

            The farce was supposed to be revived in the field of Internet video content, as an ever-relevant spectacle. The most common centers of farcical performances have their focus on the Youtube platform. The farcical performance has a conservative form of existence, it is characterized by the art of pantomime, as well as all possible spectacular interpretations of the elements of space and chaos by special participants of the farcical performance - buffoons. Gradually, the sacred meaning of the farcical performances came to naught, and moreover, if in the old days, all the processes taking place inside the farcical were in the context of any events, then in the videos of certain Youtube channels, bright actions of an attractive nature are performed solely for their own sake without connection with any special sacred meaning. Interestingly, the demand for such material is very high, the views under each video are off the scale for 3-4 million. As a good example, you can take the material from the Russian-language channel RED21.

            In one of the videos, the blogger-presenter, together with his friends, breeds a lot of sour sweets in a bottle of vodka, in order to increase the acidity of taste sensations accordingly. Then they all drink it together and choke, showing the audience how bad and disgusting they are to drink the resulting drink. In the next issue, the same blogger and his friend are trying to eat live maggots, while they are very nervous, trying to chew them, during which they both begin to vomit into plastic bags placed next to the table in advance. Here, all visual events occur regardless of the deep meaning or binding to any referent.

            Channel "Team A".

            As an example, we can consider one of the most rated videos of this resource. The plot lies in the fact that a group of people organize certain circumstances inside the urban space, in which the main character of the so-called "prank", dressed only in swimming shorts, is put in an inflatable pool equipped with a water heating system, it should be borne in mind that everything happens in winter. They install a swimming pool on a car trailer and drive it through the streets of the capital, filming a guy splashing in warm water and the reaction of the surrounding people. There is no sacred component to this act, there is no underlying interpretation of the forces of nature or the cosmos. Here the spectacle is organized only in order to evoke vivid emotions in the audience, effects for the thrill of those who will see them.

            Channel "Matt Stonie".

            A foreign channel, the host of which shoots attraction videos in which he eats a huge amount of food for a while. As a rule, in the foreground in the frame there is a large table filled with dozens of burgers and similar fast food, which a young guy named Matt swallows in a matter of minutes. Millions of views at such an unprecedented sight, it would seem. Despite the fact that there is no semantic load in this visual act, except for a bright attraction component that stimulates viewers to receive vivid emotions. From the point of view of concepts such as concentration and entertainment, which Benjamin wrote about, perhaps there are no factors that make it possible for the viewer to concentrate at all, entertainment completely dominates here.

                   A very large number of channels exist with content similar in intentions, where the spectacle exists within the framework of a visual attraction divorced from any meaning.

         If at the time of the advent of cinema, as mentioned above, viewers preferred farcical performances to the complex psychological game of an actor in a professional theater due to the lack of a complex plot structure that provides ease of perception, now video demonstrations of individual contextual bright visual attractions are preferred to complex cinema with a literary and scenic basis. The performer who is on the other side of the screen relative to the viewer has no serious differences from his audience. At one time, Euripides, trying to avoid excessive solemnity in the behavior of the characters on the stage, introduces the audience to its expanses, now it was possible to observe not a great and meaningful image, but an ordinary painstaking individual looking for easy solutions and adapting to everything ^[8]. The public liked it both in the archaic period and now.  The farce has reincarnated in the Youtube space, but here it is no longer based on an attempt to interpret the forces of nature, the universe, as well as all kinds of deities with the possibilities of visual art, but on the feelings of the audience: laughter, passion, fear, etc. It exists for the sake of developing various emotions in the audience with the help of the art of showing.

         The permanent audience of such content is usually consumer society. If earlier needs were connected with individuals by certain relationships through consumer products, now the code controls and forces them to make certain purchases ^[20]. Individuals acquire certain goods or devote time to this or that kind of visual art, because they are symbols of prestige, power, etc. Symbolic exchange does not imply a direct exchange of goods, the interaction of the exchanging is not limited by anything, it is more destructive to the former social relations and the main destroyer is the control of the signification code, which is controlled by the media. Symbols having an expression in the code become absolutely indeterminate, the connection between symbols and reality is destroyed and dies, according to Baudrillard, truth and reality cease to exist at this stage.

         Summing up the above research, we can conclude that the farce has reincarnated in the Internet space as a kind of special entertainment video content, its main relations with the audience on the principle of scene-viewer have been preserved. In turn, carnival has reincarnated as a way of communication within the Internet environment, people interact with each other online with the only difference that the virtual body, unlike the baroque carnival, is disembodied and dissolved in the virtual environment. As mentioned earlier, farcical art also continues to have the function of moral discharge of the audience. The existence of a booth in a virtual space deprives it of its sacred meaning for the viewer, due to the loss of a real and meaningful space, as well as the main goal - the vivid emotions of the crowd.