[-empyre-] a belated réponse to Murat

[lee mackinnon]

Many thanks for the discussion of the past week- I have wanted to reply to Murat but have been on my way to New York unexpectedly so trailed off somewhat! Apologies for this. Just to say that yes, there is a huge difference between the analogue and the digital image. One is certainly no less material than the other but that materiality is different. They record light differently and their constituent structure is different. Digital images (digital objects) also have a completely different context, system of circulation and articulation than a photograph that has been taken by a camera by recording light on a light-sensitive surface. In turn, methods of printing are also extremely different (digital prints are entirely different in their process and constituent parts than something that is produced in a darkroom, for example). It is interesting to see how the digital image has reignited an interest in the photograph as object due, in part, to the fact that the vast quantity of digital images stay in digital files. From my point of view (and some would argue this point) it would be erroneous to think that these digital files were not objects or lacked materiality. These differences are helping us to rewrite the history and theory of the photograph, which is very exciting! Thus, much writing explores the materiality and ontology of the photographic image today.  It is notable that the success of photographic practice in the west (being that the camera obscura originates with the Arabic scholar Ibn al-Haytham, and the Chinese scholar, Mozi) are very much due to its investment in Cartesian metaphysics (the camera obscura was a metaphor for the eye and the mind for Descartes!). This can be extended to the digital camera where CCD's that measure photons of light into a Cartesian grid that create pixels of intensity.... there is a great book on photography's link to Descartes and empirical observation (with special regard to the camera obscura) by Jonathan Crary called 'Techniques of the Observer'... I hope that is somehow useful! Thanks for all the great points, ideas and questions.




From: empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au <empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au> on behalf of Murat Nemet-Nejat <muratnn at gmail.com>
Sent: 05 July 2016 18:58
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] on the prominence of the semiotic
    
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