The Invention of the Visible: The Image in Light of the Arts (Reinventing Critical Theory)

We live in a mediatized society, a society one could call a society of images. Working at the intersection of aesthetics and politics, Patrick Vauday challenges the dominant assumptions of this society and its disposition towards images. This challenge does not advocate repudiating images altogether, but rather entreats us to see them in a different light. This new way of thinking of images affords a glimpse into what images do and produce, rather than viewing them as copies or mere representations. Images are dynamic agents that are active in our world rather than simply empty reflections of it. Rethinking the concept of the image in this fashion opens up new ways of interpreting and engaging with works of art. This reconsideration of the role of images in society is the starting point for a new politics that considers the multiple and complex efficacies by which images act, circulate and are created. The Invention of the Visible Contents Preface to the English Edition Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The Image in the Mirror of Ontology Plato: The Image or the Understudy of Being Sartre: The Image or the Negation of Being 2 Aesthetics: What Images Do The Process-Image Painting Outside of Itself Photographic Prose The Impurity of Cinema 3 Poetics: Making Images Manet: Painting and New Images Photography: The Passage of the New Cinema, Discovery 4 Politics: Unmaking and Remaking Images The Contemporary Iconoclasm Regimes of the Image Counter-Image Extraction versus Abstraction The Politics of the Pictorial Space From One Space to Another: Courbet and Gauguin Conclusion: Towards a Civilization of Images Bibliography Index Working at the margins of aesthetics and politics, Patrick Vauday challenges the dominant assumptions of our mediatized society and its disposition towards images. This challenge does not advocate eliminating images altogether, but rather entreats us to see them in a different light