Image degree zero: from the empirical image to image as capacity
Image degree zero: from the empirical image to image as capacity
We worry about the power of the image, and invest in getting the right image, while news reports will warn we may find some of its images disturbing. These are all instances of what, for the purposes of this essay, are considered the 'empirical' image. I.e. images that we can point to, distribute, and analyze. The main problem of the empirical image is that, in the end, it leaves us with very little to go on. Pushing the logic a little further, we may contend there is no such thing as 'the' image. This essay puts forward a skepticism of ‘the’ image, and instead seeks to understand Image with a capital ‘I’, as a virtual site/sight; to argue from the empirical image to Image as 'capacity'. In its form, the essay inhabits Roland Barthes' well-known essay 'From Work to Text', to offer an account of the Image as beyond its empirical manifestations. In doing so it draws upon Aristotle's writings on 'dynamis' and also connects with contemporary ideas in neurobiology and theoretical physics. In setting out various problematics (and letting them impinge upon one another) the essay sets out possible avenues for future research, so contributing a new 'perspective' and theoretical base for current philosophical debates of the image.
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
December 2019
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
Manghani, Sunil
(2019)
Image degree zero: from the empirical image to image as capacity.
In,
Alloa, Emmanuel and Cappelletto, Chiara
(eds.)
Dynamis of the Image : Moving Images in a Global World.
(Contact Zone, 5)
Berlin.
De Gruyter.
Record type:
Book Section
Abstract
We worry about the power of the image, and invest in getting the right image, while news reports will warn we may find some of its images disturbing. These are all instances of what, for the purposes of this essay, are considered the 'empirical' image. I.e. images that we can point to, distribute, and analyze. The main problem of the empirical image is that, in the end, it leaves us with very little to go on. Pushing the logic a little further, we may contend there is no such thing as 'the' image. This essay puts forward a skepticism of ‘the’ image, and instead seeks to understand Image with a capital ‘I’, as a virtual site/sight; to argue from the empirical image to Image as 'capacity'. In its form, the essay inhabits Roland Barthes' well-known essay 'From Work to Text', to offer an account of the Image as beyond its empirical manifestations. In doing so it draws upon Aristotle's writings on 'dynamis' and also connects with contemporary ideas in neurobiology and theoretical physics. In setting out various problematics (and letting them impinge upon one another) the essay sets out possible avenues for future research, so contributing a new 'perspective' and theoretical base for current philosophical debates of the image.
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Published date: December 2019
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Local EPrints ID: 433880
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/433880
PURE UUID: 57bed2d1-5886-488b-9c9b-6d1a78c5340e
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Date deposited: 05 Sep 2019 16:30
Last modified: 13 Dec 2021 03:10
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Contributors
Editor:
Emmanuel Alloa
Editor:
Chiara Cappelletto
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