La cultura visual contemporánea y la cuestión de la materialidad. Imágenes, mediaciones, figuralidad

Abstract

Contemporary transformations of image affect forms of memory, value, and knowledge. Images can be considered as mediations of themselves. These changes in the field of visuality are often linked to the idea that contemporary images and visuality are immaterial. The article points out the insufficiency of such an approach, whereby the dualistic logic that separates mind and body is reintroduced. Contemporary visuality implies new relations between the material, the visual, and the virtual. The materiality of image has to do with concepts such as the figurality. The material dimensions of image emphasize the impossibility of reducing the visual to the linguistic, textual, or historical. Image is linked to those areas but they are at the same time beyond their scope.