Contexts

Mieke Bal - Image Thinking

Mieke Bal, a distinguished cultural theorist and art historian, has made a noteworthy contribution to the discipline of visual studies by introducing the notion of "image-thinking." I was first introduced to this theory through her book, “Image-Thinking: Artmaking as Cultural Analysis.” The concept of image-thinking pertains to a critical approach to analysing and interpreting images, which emphasises their dynamic and active nature. This approach views images not as static representations, but rather as intricate systems of meaning and agency. What I am particularly interested in engaging with the phenomenon of perceptual effects that suggests that images have the potential to exert a direct impact on our perception of the surrounding environment and interactions with the world. Bal asserts that images possess an inherent bias and play an active role in moulding our sensory perceptions and emotional reactions. I am particularly interested in investigating the methodologies of image-thinking that entails an invitation to viewers to transcend mere passive consumption of images and instead, actively engage in critical analysis and interpretation. Bal highlights the significance of images as dynamic entities that contribute to the formation of our comprehension of the world. Furthermore, the author advocates for a comprehensive and situational comprehension of the impact of images.

Within my own work, I intend to engage the space of the viewer to contend the passivity of viewing images. The impact of ideology on images is significant as they are not simply passive reflections of reality, but rather play an active role in the creation and dissemination of ideologies. Bal contends that images possess the capability to construct and strengthen social, cultural, and political norms, while also having the potential to question and undermine them. Bal highlights the intertextual character of images, contending that they are shaped by and allude to other images, texts, and cultural objects. Visual representations have the ability to elicit recollections, stimulate connections, and interact with other visual and written components, thereby augmenting their significance and impact. The temporal effects of “image-thinking” are indicative of the dynamic nature of images, which undergo changes and transformations through time. Bal emphasises the temporal aspect of images, positing that their meaning, significance, and interpretation can be subject to alteration based on changes in historical, cultural, and contextual factors. The process of recontextualizing, reappropriating, or reinterpreting images has the potential to create novel opportunities for engagement and comprehension.

Laura U Marks - Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media

Through Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media, Laura Marks unpicks her concept of "haptic visuality" or "haptic touch," which delves into the multifaceted nature of sensory perception when interpreting works of art. It is essentially a theoretical framework that elucidates the ways in which visual images can be perceived, sensed, and experienced on a corporeal level. Marks defines haptic visuality as a perceptual mode that involves the engagement of both the visual and tactile senses. The statement contests the traditional notion of vision as an exclusively optical phenomenon and advocates for a more corporeal and sensorial interaction with visual representations and communication networks. Mark's examples illustrate that the importance of haptic visuality in visual art resides in its prioritisation of the artwork's materiality and sensory attributes. The conventional form of visual art typically favours the sense of sight as the primary mode of perception. However, the concept of haptic visuality broadens the range of sensory experiences, thereby enabling a more profound and all-encompassing encounter with the artwork. The utilisation of haptic touch facilitates a comprehension of the artwork by stimulating multiple senses, thereby promoting a profound association between the viewer and the piece.

By incorporating Marks' concept into my artistic practise, I aim to facilitate haptic engagement, which encourages the viewer to actively participate in the artistic experience. This approach fosters a more visceral and embodied encounter with the artwork, while also promoting a critical distance in our perception of media images. Marks' theory of haptic visuality has had a significant impact on my artistic practise through this unit, by emphasising the importance of engaging the viewer as an active participant in the artistic experience. This approach enables a more visceral and embodied encounter with the artwork, while also encouraging critical reflection on our perception of media images. By integrating tactile components, such as framing devices, objects, and interactive interfaces, into the artwork, it is anticipated that the haptic characteristics can be augmented and allow a more visceral engagement.

M. J. T. Mitchell - What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images

Through its exploration of topics as diverse as metapictures, cloned sheep, and fetishism, W.J.T. Mitchell's What Do Pictures Want? has done nothing less than create an apparatus for understanding our relationship to images. The second chapter of the book (which was initially published in a condensed form titled "What Do Pictures Really Want?" in October magazine) outlines Mitchell's substantial ideas by giving images human-like qualities of desire. In this work, he traces the ways in which "primitive" beliefs in the mystical power of images have persisted in contemporary fetishism theories, from Freud's erotically invested objects to Marx's theories on the rising autonomy of commodities. On both counts, he draws attention to issues that are central to the hyper-transgressive, hyper-commercialized world of contemporary art; his scrutiny has been crucial in guiding my decision-making as I've developed works that shift between historical medium and superfluous commercial merchandise, taking care that they don't fall back on exhausted old frameworks of perpetual  aesthetic models while simultaneously refraining from the concepts of subversion and the central discourses in appropriation art, which only help to maintain the current paradigms of the cultural sector and the homogeneity of commodities dependent on the aesthetic reserves of innovation.

At the outset, Mitchell states that his book is an integrated view of the subject, with each of its three parts delving into one of what he calls "images," "objects," and "media" as the three essential components of visual representation. The tripartite approach exemplifies the three major tenets on which my practise rests and which merit close examination. Mitchell's inquiry into the ways in which humans regard photographs as if they were alive is, however, not truly sustained over the duration of What Do Pictures Want? Mitchell's theoretical perspective on visual culture is in large part responsible for the book's flaying nature as he states, "If visual culture is to mean anything," he ascertains, "it has to be generalized as the study of all the social practices of human visuality" (Mitchell, 2005, pg. 349) This, however, represents a whole sensibility towards images that caused me to reflect on the ways in which an image's permeability travels via bodily experience even as its function evolves in response to cultural and social shifts. This is an exciting and open-ended enquiry because it anthropomorphizes images as living organisms, and this has inspired me to think of images with the haptic qualities that Laura Marks theorises. Mitchell's all-encompassing, theory-heavy critique provides a framework of "visual culture" that carries the prestige of transcending limited questions of taste in order to make sweeping, philosophical declarations about current socioeconomic conditions at large - not to mention that Mitchell seeks to uncover the mysterious undercurrents of our purportedly blasé modern attitudes towards art by exploring the ways in which we attribute human feelings and desires to visual culture. What he makes clear is that pictures are continuously evolving and transpire, there is no still images, and as such no such picture can ever be singular. As he states, “pictures, including world pictures, have always been with us, and there is no getting beyond pictures, to a more authentic relationship with Being, with the Real, or with the World.” (Mitchel, 2005, pg. xiv)

References:

Mitchell, W. J. T., 2005. What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.