From error to meaning: the residual image as a form of visual thinking

Abstract

In a visual culture dominated by efficiency, sharpness, and predictability, this article proposes a critical reflection on the poetic, conceptual, and material value of what is usually left outside the frame or the final version of a work. Through a qualitative methodology, based on the intersection of critical image theory and the analysis of contemporary artistic practices, it examines cases where the residual becomes the generative core of the project. Found images, discarded fragments, technical errors, and intervened layers are analyzed as activators of new visual narratives, engaging in a dialogue between personal archives, the aesthetics of the unfinished, and digital-analog hybridization processes. The article argues that residual images should not be understood as failed elements, but rather as spaces of resistance and meaning, capable of expanding notions of authorship, temporality, and sense. In a present saturated with images, attending to visual residues emerges as a necessary gesture to redefine modes of production and reading in graphic and pictorial arts.