Zidong Qiu

Zidong Qiu

May 05, 2026

Sora, World model, Artificial intelligence, Media archaeology.

With the advent of Sora, an AI video generation model, the representational capacity of image media has reached an unprecedented height. This study, grounded in the perspective of media archaeology, explores the historical evolutionary logic shifting from traditional optical media to modern digital media—represented by Sora technology—and reveals the profound transformation of human perception and the concept of "reality" underlying these technological shifts. Employing both media archaeology and phenomenological analysis, this paper systematically outlines the developmental trajectory from 19th-century camera obscura and the birth of photography to the film industry, digital technology, and ultimately generative artificial intelligence. Throughout this process, the evolution of media has undergone a transition from the "mental reconstruction of reality" to the "mechanical reproduction of reality", and finally to the "digital simulation of reality." Photography and early visual devices, such as the diorama, initiated the mediatization of reality by severing the necessary link between space and physical entities, while digital technology further quantified bodily perception into data, allowing signs and simulacra to begin replacing direct experience. The emergence of Sora marks a qualitative leap in media evolution: it is no longer merely an imitation or "representation" of reality, but a further abstraction and reconstruction of representation itself based on digital logic, creating a virtual reality layer independent of the material world. This process deepens the prophecies of Debord’s "Society of the Spectacle" and Baudrillard’s "Hyperreality," touching upon the metaphysical core of "what is real." The history from the camera obscura to Sora is not only a history of technological progress but a history of the construction of reality—how it is mediatized, symbolized, and eventually superseded—providing an essential philosophical framework for understanding existential experience in the age of artificial intelligence.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license