W.J.T. Mitchell's Image Theory: Living Pictures (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)

W.J.T. Mitchell – one of the founders of visual studies – has been at the forefront of many disciplines such as iconology, art history and media studies. His concept of the pictorial turn is known worldwide for having set new philosophical paradigms in dealing with our vernacular visual world. This book will help both students and seasoned scholars to understand key terms in visual studies – pictorial turn, metapictures, literary iconology, image/text, biopictures or living pictures, among many others – while systematically presenting the work of Mitchell as one of the discipline's founders and most prominent figures. As a special feature, the book includes three comprehensive, authoritative and theoretically relevant interviews with Mitchell that focus on different stages of development of visual studies and critical iconology. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Notes Part I Toward a Critical Iconology 1 The Changing Patterns of Iconology: Seven Questions to Mitchell from the Twentieth Century I II III Notes 2 What is an Image?: W.J.T. Mitchell’s Picturing Theory The Image at the Crossroads between Semiotics and Aesthetics Mitchell’s “Pictured Theory” of the Signs and the Senses The Aesthetic of Images at the Threshold between Nature and Culture Toward an Animism of Images, or How Images Become “Alive” Notes 3 Poststructuralist Iconology: The Genealogical and Historical Concerns of Mitchell’s Image Science Setting a Path toward a New Iconology Nelson Goodman and the Image/Word Taxonomy The Genesis of Mitchell’s Image/Word Theory Belting and Mitchell on the Ideology of Art History Toward the “iconology of cultural representations” Notes 4 Iconology as Cultural Symptomatology: Dinosaurs, Clones and the Golden Calf in Mitchell’s Image Theory The Dinosaur as a Symbolic Animal of the Pictorial Turn Dolly the Sheep: From Living Clone to Living Picture The Golden Calf as a Metapicture of Image Theory Notes 5 Words and Pictures in the Age of the Image: An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell Part II (Post)Disciplinary Context 6 From Image/Text to Biopictures: Key Concepts in W.J.T. Mitchell’s Image Theory The Origins of Visual Culture: Definition and Scope The Question of Turns: Texts and Images Visual Literacy: Beyond an Ontology of Images Prolegomena to an Image Science: Living Pictures Notes 7 The Birth of the Discipline: W.J.T. Mitchell and the Chicago School of Visual Studies Visual Studies as a De-discipline of Disavowal Toward a Postmodern Nominalism Media Hybridity or the Radical Media Critique Antifoundationalism, or What Do Images Want? A Concluding Assessment: Are All Images Created Equal? Notes 8 What Discipline?: On Mitchell’s “Interdisciplinarity” and German Medienwissenschaft Mitchell’s Concept of the “Indiscipline” Media Studies in Germany On the History of Medienwissenschaft and Its Self-description Medienwissenschaft: Internal Structure, Institutionality and Mediality Notes 9 Mitchell and Boehm – a Dialogue: Image Science in the European Context Notes 10 Images and their Incarnations: An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell Notes Part III Interpretive Readings 11 What Do Photographs Want?: Mitchell’s Theory of Photography from the Camera Obscura to the Networked Lens The Camera Obscura as Metaphor and Medium Digital Photography, Realism and Anachronism Conclusion: Circulation, Rematerialization and the Networked Lens Notes 12 The Eyes Have Ears: Sound in W.J.T. Mitchell’s Pictures from Paragone to Occupy Wall Street Eye and Ear: Intensifying the Effect of an Image The Listening Eye: A Dialectical Evolution Making the Invisible Visible A City of Music: Toward Sonic Images Notes 13 Living Pictures of Democracy: W.J.T. Mitchell’s Iconology as Political Philosophy Populism Revisited: An Iconological Account The Empty Signifier and the Golden Calf: Two Metapictures A Matter of Knowledge: Deconstruction of a Founding Picture Populism and Totemism: New Visions Notes 14 Showing Showing: Reading Mitchell’s “Queer” Metapictures Notes 15 After the Pictorial Turn: An Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell Notes Resources Books Authored or Edited by W.J.T. Mitchell Special Issues of Critical Inquiry Edited by W.J.T. Mitchell Other Special Issues of Critical Inquiry Essays by W.J.T. Mitchell List of Contributors Index W.J.T. Mitchell has been at the forefront of many disciplines such as iconology, art history and media studies. His concept of the pictorial turn is known worldwide for having set new philosophical paradigms in dealing with our vernacular visual world. This book will help both students and seasoned scholars to understand key terms in visual studies - pictorial turn, metapictures, literary iconology, image/text, biopictures or living pictures, among many others - while systematically presenting the work of Thomas Mitchell as one of the discipline's founders and most prominent figures. As a special feature, the book includes three comprehensive, authoritative and theoretically relevant interviews with Mitchell that focus on different stages of development of visual studies and critical iconology