Images at work : the material culture of enchantment

Advocates of the ideology of modern progress and rationalism are fond of regarding human beings as rational agents and the universe as a collection of inanimate things that obey laws and do not exhibit agency. Yet evidence of nonrational practices of enchantment abounds in every part of human life: people commonly regard things as capable of independent action and expect the universe to respond to their desire for magic, miracles, and action at a distance. Clearly, rationalism is not as pervasive or singularly influential as some would insist. Enchantment consists of the things we do and how we do them to make the world go our way. This book argues that enchantment is not simply an irrational, primitive impulse that needs to be curbed or eliminated, but should be understood as problem solving. Images are ways of working on the world to achieve what people need. __Images at Work__ explores how images operate, what their effects on viewers are, and how enchantment can be understood as visual dynamics that we need to take seriously. Enchantment is more than religion and is not identical with magic. And its effects are not fully discernible apart from its material culture because enchantment is about things and our engagement with them. "Images can be studied in many ways--as symbols, displays of artistic genius, adjuncts to texts, or naturally occurring phenomena like reflections and dreams. Each of these approaches is justified by the nature of the image in question as well as the way viewers engage with it. But images are often something more when they perform in ways that exhibit a capacity to act independent of human will. Images come alive--they move us to action, calm us, reveal the power of the divine, change the world around us. In these instances, we need an alternative model for exploring what is at work, one that recognizes the presence of images as objects that act on us. Building on his previous innovative work in visual and religious studies, David Morgan creates a new framework for understanding how the human mind can be enchanted by images in Images at Work. In carefully crafted arguments, Morgan proposes that images are special kinds of objects, fashioned and recognized by human beings for their capacity to engage us. From there, he demonstrates that enchantment, as described, is not a violation of cosmic order, but a very natural way that the mind animates the world around it. His groundbreaking study outlines the deeply embodied process by which humans create culture by endowing places, things, and images with power and agency. These various agents--human and non-human, material, geographic, and spiritual--become nodes in the web of relationships, thus giving meaning to images and to human life. Marrying network theory with cutting-edge work in visual studies, and connecting the visual and bodily technologies employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to secular icons like Che Guevara, Abraham Lincoln, and Mao, Images at Work will be transformative for those curious about why images seem to have a power of us in ways we can't always describe"--Provided by publisher Introduction -- 1. To Believe And Make-believe -- 2. How Images Work -- 3. Enchantment And Disenchantment -- 4. The Ecology Of Images -- 5. Icon And Aura -- 6. Chance And The Work Of Enchantment -- Conclusion. David Morgan. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web. AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: To Believe & Make-BelieveChapter 2: How Images WorkChapter 3: Enchantment & DisenchantmentChapter 4: The Ecology of ImagesChapter 5: Icon & AuraChapter 6: Chance & the Work of EnchantmentConclusionNotesSelect BibliographyIndex