WHAT IS AN IMAGE? #3 / essay by Giacomo Croci

An essay for DUST Magazine by Giacomo Croci

part three

The first attempt will then be to try and sort out the consequences of the given importance to the pertinence of the image to the object. In this perspective an image is a medium to be removed in order to achieve a clear understanding of something (in deep correlation with the acts of removing, unveiling, undressing). It is then obvious that an appearance is just something which seduces: it is the place where correspondence (a good pertinence to the object) and non-correspondence (a bad pertinence) fight with each other. The possibility of the good pertinence implies the bad one, which is the chance of things not working, of the loss of the object: this option appears to be necessary. We actually fear the chance of things not working and this fear is necessarily implied with the decision which makes an image a mere reproduction of a given original object. A good image implies necessarily a multitude of seducing false images which can come to life, at every moment: an hyperbolic production of illusions, the infinite reflection and refraction that throw away object and reality, imprisoning us in a cage of ghosts.

(The «Doppelgänger» cannot obviously be reduced to a literary theme related to our problems, though it seems to work well with them: what is actually going to happen if our reflection meets us and challenges us in our reality? What happens with a mirror?)

Furthermore: to assume that an individual could “truly perceive” a given object, how can we not immediately relate such conception to the “evil twin” deeply connected with it, to the chance of dream, mistake, confusion? The possibility of seduction comes as the most peculiar property of good pertinence, true perception and so on.

The point to be gained seems now to underline that such a conception of image (again: will of transparency, of availability of a clear and full object) implies necessarily the possibility of the loss or destruction of reality, of the world of objects: to despise image seems then to destroy reality, roughly. Which means to lose thrice: to lose image, then to lose reality, then to lose the problem. And to forget the problem is the worst part of it: our effort will be then to formulate a discourse which tries to keep together image and object, without losing the specificity of any of them.

part one | part two

Text © Giacomo Croci

Images © Andrea La Rocca