Softimage: Towards a New Theory of the Digital Image

160 Pages·2015·3.228 MB·English

by  Ingrid Hoelzl, Remi Marie

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RÉMI MARIE
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Z INGRID HOELZL
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WITH TODAY’S DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY, ‘For a brilliant study of the destiny of the M
A
the image is no longer a stable image in contemporary digital culture R
I
representation of the world, but a (its operativity, algorithmic realities and E
programmable view of a database that is screen materializations, as well as its new
updated in real time. It no longer functions temporalities), Softimage is a must.’
as a political and iconic representation, Christine Ross, author of The Past is the
but plays a vital role in synchronic data-to- Present, It’s the Future Too: The Temporal
data relationships. It is not only part of a Turn in Contemporary Art (2012).
programme, but it contains its own ‘operating
code’: it is a programme in itself. Softimage ‘This is not an image. Hoelzl and Marie’s S
aims to account for that new reality, taking groundbreaking study reveals the new O
readers on a journey that gradually undoes condition of the image that is no longer the F
our unthinking reliance on the apparent craft (or technology) of representation but T
solidity of the photographic image and rather the coding of operativity. The authors I
M
building in its place an original and timely eloquently demonstrate how this radical shift
A
theorization of the digital image in all its brings the image into new “fields of function”
complexity, one that promises to spark that are at the center of the contemporary G
debate within the evolving fields of image experience. Here stillness (the static E
studies and software studies. image) is just a special state of incessant
process, what the British artist John Latham
INGRID HOELZL is Assistant Professor termed “event structure”. This universe of
in the School of Creative Media at City algorithmically enlivened imagery is just as
University of Hong Kong. She is the author much a necessary subject of aesthetic and
of a book on the theory of the photographic scientific enquiry as is the natural world, and
self-portrait (Der Autoporträtistische Pakt, that is where this book makes its invaluable
2008) and has published widely on the state contribution.’
of the image in contemporary art and digital Jeffrey Shaw, pioneer new media artist and
culture. RÉMI MARIE is an independent theorist, creator of Legible City (1989) and
writer who lives and works in Digne-les- PLACE-a users manual (2005).
Bains, France, and Hong Kong.
TOWARDS A NEW THEORY OF THE DIGITAL IMAGE
intellect | www.intellectbooks.com
Softimage
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Softimage
Towards a New Theory of the Digital Image
Ingrid Hoelzl and Rémi Marie
intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA
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First published in the UK in 2015 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2015 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2015 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Copy-editor: MPS Technologies
Cover idea and design: Ingrid Hoelzl & Rémi Marie
Cover image: Clement Valla (2010). From the Postcards from Google
Earth series. Website and Postcards. Courtesy Clement Valla. http://
www.postcards-from-google-earth.com
Production manager: Claire Organ
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-503-5
ePDF: 978-1-78320-504-2
ePUB: 978-1-78320-505-9
Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK
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Comme l’eau, comme le gaz, comme le courant électrique viennent de loin dans nos
demeures répondre à nos besoins moyennant un effort quasi nul, ainsi serons-nous
alimentés d’images visuelles ou auditives, naissant et s’évanouissant au moindre geste,
presque à un signe.
Paul Valéry, ‘La conquête de l’ubiquité’ (1928)
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Moving Stills (The Ken Burns Effect) 9
Chapter 2: Expanded Photography (The Desire for Endlessness) 27
Chapter 3: The Photographic Now (From Sign to Signal) 47
Chapter 4: In the Matrix (From Geometry to Algorithm) 61
Chapter 5: The Operative Image (Google Street View: The World as Database) 81
Chapter 6: In the Urban Data-Space (The Image as Moment of Network Access) 111
Conclusion: Softimage 131
Bibliography 133
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List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1: S teel engraving of the Kaiser-Panorama developed by August
Fuhrmann, published in Fuhrmann’s 1915 sales brochure, titled
Das Kaiser-Panorama und das Welt-Archiv polychromer Stereo-
Urkunden auf Glass. Berlin W. Passage. Courtesy German Museum
of Technology Berlin/Library. 13
Figure 1.2: Ken Burns filming a map of the Pacific pinned to a magnetic
board during the production of the film Lewis and Clark: The
Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997). Caption: Lewis & Clark.
Ken Burns shooting archives, American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia. Credit: Frank Margeson, American Philosophical
Society. Courtesy Florentine Films. 18
Figure 2.1: N ancy Davenport, Still from WORKERS (leaving the factory).
(Blast-off Animation) 2008. Multi-channel video installation.
Dimensions variable, DVD continuous loop. Edition of 6. Courtesy
of Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery and Nancy Davenport. 30
Figure 2.2: N ancy Davenport, Still from WORKERS (leaving the factory).
(Blast-off Animation) 2008. Multi-channel video installation.
Dimensions variable, DVD continuous loop. Edition of 6. Courtesy
of Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery and Nancy Davenport. 31
Figures 2.3–2.4: N ancy Davenport, Stills from WORKERS (leaving the factory).
(Blast-off Animation) 2008. Multi-channel video installation.
Dimensions variable, DVD continuous loop. Edition of 6. Courtesy
of Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery and Nancy Davenport. 33
Figure 2.5: D emonstration image of the Adobe Infinite Images software by
Kaneva, Biliana, Josef Sivic, Antonio Torralba, Shai Avidan, and
William T. Freeman (2010). Fig. 1 (p. 1391) in their co-authored
article, ‘Infinite Images: Creating and Exploring a Large
Photorealistic Virtual Space,’ Proceedings of the IEEE 98, 8:
1391–1407. Courtesy IEEE and the authors. 41
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