Week 02- What is an Image?
Objectives
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General understanding of the questions related to the definition of images
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our relation to them
The thesis of this class.
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What is an image?
Representation
“APPLE”
Michel Focault:
(the word)…” is a secret that carries within itself, though near the surface, the decipherable signs of what it is trying to say” (35, THE ORDER OF THINGS)
What would be the characteristics of images? What is their function? What do they do?
2. Where does the image exist?
Philosophy
Mental imagery (varieties of which are sometimes colloquially referred to as “visualizing,” “seeing in the mind’s eye,” “hearing in the head,” “imagining the feel of,” etc.) is quasi-perceptual experience; it resembles perceptual experience, but occurs in the absence of the appropriate external stimuli.
Manifest vs Scientific: (…) the major problem confronting philosophy today (,,,) is the “clash” between “the ‘manifest’ image of man-in-the-world” and “the scientific image.”
Memory as the image of an image/experience- How to convey an experience?/ A concept? / A feeling/ Something we cannot fully comprehend?
Poetry
Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. Despite “image” being a synonym for “picture”, images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd
Petals on a wet, black bough
Breton:
“I believe in the future transmutation of those two seemingly contradictory states, dream and reality, into a sort of absolute reality, of surreality, so to speak. I am looking forward to its consummation, certain that I shall never share in it, but death would matter little to me could I but taste the joy it will yield ultimately”
Why do we create images? What is our relation to images?
Technical Images– human civilization has seen two fundamental turning points since its beginnings. The first occurred approximately during the second half of the second millennium, B.C., and may be defined as “the invention of linear writing”. The second — we are witnessing it — may be called “the invention of technical images.”
Different modes of representation implicitly refer to particular ways of seeing the world
In class: What is an image?
Digital image-
Homework:
The representation of “something”–AKA “A”– for example, in this lecture the “something” was an “apple”, is actually focusing on the concept of this “apple” in all its extremities, and the representation– therefore the “B” is the concentrated abstraction or depiction of one side/phase/aspect of the “apple” concept. What “B” is, depends entirely on the individual experiences of the artist– how they’ve experienced this concept throughout their life, or how they’ve observed this concept being experienced in the environment or society the artist finds themselves in.
Is “A” real or imagined? In my opinion it is never one or the other, it is somewhere in between. The “real” behind “A” must be traced back to nature or the natural in order for it to be “real” although “reality” is also a manifestation of our mind, and how it controls our perception of the world around us– but that could be another conversation entirely on its own. The imagined aspect of “A” is anything we have created around this “natural” thing. The “nature/natural” component must be rooted from/a product of the planet/land we live on, that which we can never truly control, that which we can only observe and learn, as it is a force of life in and of itself–existent before us and will continue to exist after us.
I believe in order to reach a deep and intricate emotional reaction from an audience as an artist, the artist must be fully comfortable and aware of the fact that nothing around us is “real” as we visually perceive it, the world is not at all how we think it is, yet in order to create something that can reach the audience one must find a balance– to be able to use the tools we have within our perceived “reality” and also be able to reach beyond this perception, reach beyond these limits, go beyond just the things our eyes tell our brain we are seeing, and create a new language to be able to communicate the extremities of our feelings. This is why I believe abstraction is so effective in doing this.
I found Week 2’s class discussion on “What is an image?” very interesting. It was interesting to consider all of the different things that an image can be and can represent. At first, we only want to think of an image as something you can hold in your hands or something that can be displayed on your computer screen. However, as per our class discussion, an image can also be manifested mentally, such as the images that are brought to mind when reading a particularly descriptive poem.
It was also interesting to consider the use of images in displaying some sort of “reality” versus something surreal. When photography was first introduced, images were intended to directly reflect the “real”. However, as technology progresses, it seems that we can do more to alter images until they portray a new kind of reality, and the possibilities are really endless. Whether they portray “real” content or imagined, images can represent objects, feelings, memories, thoughts, places, and much more.
Ultimately, our discussion focused on images as means of communication. While it makes sense that images could act as such, I do not think that we immediately think of images as being a language. However, it is very clear that images are a way of communicating with others today. Social media websites are flooded with images acting as stand-alone comments. Memes and gifs are able to communicate a message to viewers with a very short verbal caption, or perhaps no caption at all. Because of this and many other examples, it is clear that images are a language – and one that is particularly important in the ultra-connected world that exists today.