AFTER REALITY: ONTOLOGICAL SHIFTS AND THE MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF THE REAL

Abstract

This research article presents a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the evolution of the concept of the “reality effect” in art — from its classical formulation by Roland Barthes within the structuralist paradigm to contemporary artistic practices that radically break with the paradigm of representation. Barthes' original thesis, which posits that the realistic effect is achieved through purely semiotic means, namely by introducing redundant, non-functional details (such as the barometer on the wall in Flaubert's work) that serve as signs pointing to the "real," is considered fundamental but having exhausted its explanatory potential in the context of the contemporary artistic landscape. The authors consistently argue that the intellectual and artistic shift driven by the development of poststructuralist thought, speculative realism, object-oriented ontology (OOO), and new materialisms has fundamentally changed the epistemological focus. The key question has transformed from “how do we represent the real?” to “what specific realities do we co-create and what relationships with non-human actors do we enter into?”. In this new ontological paradigm, art operates not with signs and symbols, but with entire regimes of veracity and material presences, actively producing new ontologies rather than passively reflecting a pre-existing reality. As a result, Barthes' classical semiotic toolkit proves fundamentally inadequate for describing and analyzing artistic practices in which the real is not denoted indirectly through a sign but is manifested through direct material presence (an animal on stage, melting ice, the physical fatigue and sweat of an actor's body) or is constituted in real time through performative or cybernetic interaction with the viewer. As a methodological solution to this problem, the development and testing of a new synthetic analytical model, “Gesture – the Real — The Quadruple Object” (GRQO), is proposed, designed to provide the missing comprehensive ontological framework. This multi-level model integrates three key and complementary theoretical approaches: first, Vilém Flusser's theory of gestures, where a gesture is understood as a fundamental act of freedom aimed at producing meaning and reality through a clash with the resistance of the material; second, Jacques Lacan's concept of the Real, interpreted as a traumatic core that radically resists full symbolization and integration into the symbolic order; and third, the apparatus of Graham Harman's object-oriented ontology (OOO), which provides a rigorous conceptual toolkit for describing a work of art as a “quadruple object,” split into its real (unknowable) and sensual (given in experience) components. The productivity and analytical power of the GRQO model is demonstrated through its application and detailed examination of five representative and illustrative case studies from contemporary art, each articulating a unique and distinct type of produced "reality effect": the effect of co-presence of another actor (Romeo Castellucci, “Tragedia Endogonidia”), the effect of processuality and duration (Krystian Lupa, “Factory”), the effect of bodily materiality and limits (Boris Charmatz, “50 ans de danse”), the effect of material substance and environment (Sergey Shutov, “Dust of the Brain”), and finally, the effect of cybernetic interaction and feedback (Random International, “Rain Room”). The article's final conclusion is that contemporary art has firmly established itself in its new key role—that of a laboratory for the active production of worlds, not their representation. “Reality effects” are now understood not as mimetic or rhetorical devices within a sign system, but as full-fledged conфsфtiеtuкtтivыe рaеctаsл tьhнaоt гgоenerate multiple, situational, fragile, and hybrid ontologies through complex co-creation and interaction between human and non-human actors (animals, elements, substances, machines, algorithms). The proposed synthetic GRQO model is offered by the author as an effective and powerful analytical tool for mapping this new complex ontological landscape and for analyzing the mechanisms of reality production in current art.