Deepfake in Visual Storytelling and Cinema: New Horizons in Digital Aesthetics

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact of deepfake technology on cinema and visual storytelling, focusing on its aesthetic, ethical, and theoretical dimensions. Once linked to digital deception, deepfakes now serve as creative tools in art, education, and media. Yet, they also raise concerns about visual trust, authenticity, and identity manipulation. By redefining concepts like performance, originality, and spectatorship, deepfakes enable the digital resurrection of actors, scene recreation, and simulated narratives. Through notions like digital twins and algorithmic acting, cinema becomes a site of epistemological production. The chapter draws on theories from Benjamin, Baudrillard, Deleuze, and Rancière to argue that deepfake aesthetics signal a paradigm shift—cinema is no longer just about telling stories but about engineering new realities.