On pandemics, interventions, and their representations: A semiotic approach to intertextuality between Matthias Grünewald's 'Isemheim Altarpiece' (1512) and the video game Siphon Filter (1999), from the transdisciplinary perspective of visual studies.

Abstract

Based on the transdisciplinary proposals of Visual Studies, in this text we aspire to carry out an intertextual semiotic exploration between the artistic work entitled "Isemheim Altarpiece" by Matthias Grünewald, painted approximately between 1512 and 1516 (Travieso, 2010) and its appearance within one of the navigable digital spaces within the 1999 Siphon Filter video game. We will approach both works as texts, that is, as a logical, causal and sequential chain of signs (González-Vidal & Ávila-González, 2019). To carry out our approach we will resort to the semiotic positions of Roland Barthes regarding intertextuality.We will make use of a particular austere non-modeling cartography for the intertextual semiotic approach for images, derived from the theories of Roland Barthes and John Berger; this approach implies a causal process of the identification and interpretation of the meanings that our object of study can transmit. We will present an intertextual relationship between the video game and Grünewald's polyptych, pointing out that both works contain narrative elements about the disease and the attempts to alleviate it. We will end with a reflection on intertextuality, hyperreality and "attention management" based on the postulates of Barthes, Baudrillard and Fisher, respectively.