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image theory


Modes of meaning in Images
(only one of the four can be experienced in a reproduction)


1. Image -
what is depicted, represented, the subject, the forms, within the image, the window, in the frame. works as a parallel to a thought - or awareness. container metaphor is active; things are either in or out of the image. establishes a environment of relative values.
  • pictorial (ocular)
  • analogical (a set of parallel relations)


2. index-
the history of the thing - how was it made, what evidences does it indicate, what traces. what recordings does it contain. what does it conjure that is not present.
  • activates narrative imagination and thoughts across time


3. material - substance- plastic-
the material itself carries value of references to other contexts of use, and in terms of one’s experience of the thing - texture - color - surface quality (shiny, slick, smoothe, matt, transparent, translucent, opaque) plastic, metal, glass, dirt, wood, silk, wool. . . .
  • activates actual experience and imaginations of all of the ways that one might interact with it with ones body. It has to do with touch and feeling (in two ways) so it can be powerfully emotional.


4. context of presentation

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