生物政治、动画、拟像、情感与自我

Levitt 探讨了当代媒体如何改变我们对生命、存在和感知的理解。她不局限于传统的本体论问题，而提出了“动画装置”的概念，强调在媒体环境中外观、变形和情感的作用。她将这一点放在生物政治的框架下，借鉴福柯关于权力从对生死的主权控制到对人口的生物政治管理的转变分析。正如阿甘本和克拉考尔所说，电影创造了一种幽灵般的生命形式，使得人体和时间超越了自然的尺度。 从电影美学到动画美学的转变，打破了图像与现实之间的传统联系。Levitt 在鲍德里亚的拟像理论和德勒兹的非本体论的基础上进一步论证，认为数字动画并非现实的复制，而是一个独立且不断变化的世界。在动画中，变形是无限的，没有本质的存在，只有持续的转变。 本书探讨了媒体如何在塑造主体性和欲望方面发挥作用。她借鉴了乔纳森·贝勒和神经电影学的理论，认为注意力本身已经变成了生物政治的商品，助长了资本主义对感知的控制。德勒兹、马苏米和沙维罗等人提到的情感在意识层面之下运作，塑造着我们无法直接表述的体验。 哈拉威的《赛博格宣言》，该宣言认为技术既是父权结构的产物，也是反抗的场所。人文主义叙事中的儿童形象强化了意识形态的构建，而数字动画则解构了本质主义的范畴。 最后，Levitt 探讨了动画如何反映并塑造当代主体性。在一个自我认同越来越通过身体改造和生物网络控制来定义的时代，动画的无限可能性揭示了固定身份的虚伪。像《无知》（押井守）和爵士动画等作品，探讨了这种流动性，展现了一个人类与机器永远交织在一起的感知空间。 总的来说，在动画时代，生命本身变成了一种美学和技术的构造，挑战了传统的现实、身份和体现的范畴。 生物政治与动画装置 生物政治的重点已从控制生死转向管理和优化生命本身，正如福柯所描述的那样。电影在这一转变中起到了关键作用，作为一种技术性的“眼睛”，将人类感知延伸至自然极限之外。早期电影技术，如马雷的动态研究，试图可视化生命的隐秘功能，使电影与生命活力紧密相连。 电影不仅仅是现实的再现，而是对现实的重构。克拉考尔认为电影通过“脐带”连接着生命，索布查克则将其比作整形手术，能够保存和操控时间与外观。鲍德里亚更进一步，认为媒介已取代现实，创造出不再指向任何真实事物的拟像。 动画式转向 随着数字动画的发展，影像与现实之间的联系变得更加薄弱。与真人电影不同，动画不受索引性的约束（即不必直接对应现实），它创造的是全新的现实，强调变形和流动的身份。Donna Haraway的《Cyborg Manifesto》认为，这为边缘群体提供了一种抵抗主流文化结构的机会，而德勒兹则将其视为向全新美学秩序的转变。 乔纳森·贝勒提出的注意力生物权力概念表明，媒体消费本身已成为一种劳动，为资本主义提供养分。神经电影学甚至研究电影如何影响大脑活动，使电影创作者能够更精准地控制观众的感知。 拟像、情感与自我 情感理论（Massumi, Shaviro）认为，情绪源自身体对刺激的无意识反应。电影和动画正是在这种情感层面上运作，在意义被赋予之前就已塑造了感知。动画电影不受物理定律的约束，因此能够探索这些流动的状态。 关于自我的文化叙事越来越围绕着身体展开。从健身、美容手术到性别转换，身体成为自我实验的场域。青春期尤为关键，因为这一阶段的身体与感知变化最为剧烈，使其成为动画的重要主题。 最终，动画和电影不再仅仅反映现实，而是生成新的存在模式，深刻塑造着我们的感知、身份与权力结构。 原书评： Levitt explores how contemporary media shifts our understanding of life, being, and perception. Moving beyond traditional ontological questions, she introduces the concept of the animatic apparatus, emphasizing appearance, metamorphosis, and affect in media environments. She situates this within biopolitics, drawing on Foucault’s analysis of power’s evolution from sovereign control over life and death to the biopolitical management of populations. Cinema, as described by Agamben and Kracauer, produces a form of spectral life, where the human body and time are transformed beyond natural scales. The transition from cinematic to animatic aesthetics disrupts the traditional indexical link between image and reality. Levitt builds on Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra and Deleuze’s an-ontology, arguing that digital animation is not a copy of reality but an entirely separate, mutable world. In animation, where metamorphosis is unlimited, there is no essential being, only transformation. Levitt also examines media’s role in shaping subjectivity and desire. Drawing on Jonathan Beller and neurocinematics, she argues that attention itself has become a biopolitical commodity, feeding into capitalism’s control over perception. Affect, as described by Deleuze, Massumi, and Shaviro, operates beneath consciousness, shaping experience in ways that evade direct representation. The doll theme connects animation to historical automata and cyborg theory, particularly Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, which sees technology as both a product of patriarchal structures and a site of resistance. The figure of the child in humanist narratives reinforces ideological constructs, whereas digital animation dismantles essentialist categories. Finally, Levitt examines how animation reflects and shapes contemporary subjectivity. In a world where selfhood is increasingly defined through bodily modification and biocybernetic control, animation’s limitless possibilities expose the artificiality of fixed identities. Works like Innocence (Oshii) and jazz animation explore this fluidity, illustrating a perceptual space where the human is always intertwined with the machinic. Overall, Levitt argues that in the animatic age, life itself becomes an aesthetic and technological construct, challenging established categories of reality, identity, and embodiment. Biopolitics and the Animatic Apparatus Biopolitics has shifted from controlling life and death to managing and optimizing life itself, as Foucault describes. Cinema plays a crucial role in this transformation, acting as a technological "eye" that extends human perception beyond natural limits. Early cinematic techniques, such as Marey's motion studies, sought to visualize life’s hidden functions, linking film to vitality. Cinema does not merely represent reality; it shapes and restructures it. Kracauer describes film as connected to life via an "umbilical cord," while Sobchack likens it to cosmetic surgery, preserving and manipulating time and appearance. Baudrillard argues that media has replaced reality with simulacra—images that no longer refer to anything real. The Animatic Turn With digital animation, the link between image and reality weakens. Animation, unlike live-action cinema, is not bound to indexicality (a direct reference to reality). Instead, it creates new realities, embracing metamorphosis and fluid identity. Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto sees this as an opportunity for marginalized identities to resist dominant cultural structures, while Deleuze views it as a shift toward an entirely new aesthetic order. Jonathan Beller’s concept of attentional biopower suggests that media consumption itself has become a form of labor, feeding into capitalism. Neurocinematics even studies how films affect brain activity, allowing filmmakers to refine their control over audience perception. Simulacra, Affect, and Selfhood Affect theory (Massumi, Shaviro) suggests that emotions emerge from unconscious bodily responses to stimuli. Cinema and animation work at this affective level, directly shaping sensation before meaning is even assigned. Animated films, unconstrained by physical laws, explore these fluid states. Cultural narratives of selfhood increasingly revolve around the body. From fitness and surgery to gender transformation, the body becomes a site for self-experimentation (Rose). Adolescence, in particular, is a period of intense bodily and perceptual transformation, making it a key focus in animation. Ultimately, animation and cinema no longer simply reflect reality—they generate new modes of existence, shaping perception, identity, and power in profound ways.