Beyond Mona Lisa’s smile: A theoretical approach to the persuasion of likeness in the digital image

Abstract

In this article we discuss the digital image as a form of representation of likeness in the digital environment. The English word likeness entails the meaning of similarity that in the theory of rhetoric constitute persua-siveness. Likeness is an implicit and often taken for granted quality of the communicative performance of digital media. While the term image is a ty-pological classification, semiotic relations of the transfer of meaning can be described with the terms icon and simulacrum. We show their presence in the digital environment tracing their tradition of their function regarding the establishing of likeness to philosophical ideas. We exemplify with the case of the digital images as derivations from the portrait Mona Lisa that the appearance as an image of all what is displayed on the screen consti-tutes the specific likeness of digitality. The persuasiveness of digital images is in line with the theory of rhetoric in an exaggerated presence of the im-age as source of aesthetic perception with the sense of sight of the viewer.