The Algorithmic Aesthetic: Psychopower, Attention, and the Crisis of the Public Sphere

This article argues that the contemporary crisis of the public sphere is fundamentally aesthetic. Beyond disinformation or declining trust, the transformation of publicity in digital capitalism involves a reorganisation of the sensible that reshapes how communication is felt, perceived, and shared. Drawing on John Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics and Byung-Chul Han’s critique of psychopower, the analysis interprets algorithmic mediation as an aesthetic regime that converts attention and affect into value, fragmenting the experiential basis of democratic life. The article conceptualises this process as aesthetic colonisation – the absorption of perception into metrics of visibility – and proposes an alternative model of reflective publicity grounded in Dewey’s notion of aesthetic experience as shared meaning and Han’s defence of negativity as a space for reflection. Through this dialogue, the article develops a critical framework for understanding how digital environments transform the formation of publics and argues that democratic regeneration requires an aesthetics of formation . This entails fostering communicative practices that sustain continuity, empathy, and deliberation within the algorithmic public sphere.