| Visual Epic Poetry: How Digital Technology Destabilized The Image. | |
|
We must abandon the traditional conception of an art world populated by stable, enduring, finished works and replace it with one that recognizes continual mutation and proliferation of variants -- much as with oral epic poetry. - William J Mitchell (The Reconfigured Eye, pg 52) |
|
| Part 1: Sturken & Cartwright, Ch 4: Reproduction & Visual Technologies | |
|
Mini-Summary
Sturken & Cartwright's chapter on Reproduction and Visual Technologies outlines the history of the visual image and imaging technologies. They invoke Walter Benjamin in considering mechanical reproduction of images, but largely abandon him when it comes to digital imaging, turning instead to the phenomenology of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. In particular, they examine the phenomenological differences between various visual media and the way these differences influence the way we assign value to images within those media. |
|
| Recap: Walter Benjamin & Mechanical Reproduction | |
According to Benjamin,
|
Critique...
|
A changing model for value
|
|
| Themes | Ask Me About My Meta Rubric |
Examples of phenomenological differences between mediums:
|
|
| Part 2: Mitchell: The Reconfigured Eye | |
|
Mini Summary In The Reconfigured Eye , Mitchell takes up many of the same themes as Sturken & Cartwright, and also provides a lengthy but dated overview of digital imaging technology, 2D editing, and 3D rendering. His principle interest, however, is in the end of the "false innocence" of photographic truth, due to the rise of digital imaging. Mitchell also spends a substantial amount of time on the variety of ethical and legal issues that digital imaging raises, ranging from falsification to copyright infringement. |
|
| Photographic truth | Other issues raised by Mitchell |
For Mitchell, the basis of photographic truth is the "adherence of the referent."
Photo-free Example: John Locke painting Counterexample: Digital Photo Challenge Guidelines |
from http://www.debevec.org/ReflectionMapping/ |
| Complications & Discussion Topics | |
|
Example: Lighting Assignment
And one more example, which I am prepared to show at great personal expense. |