Cinematic Perception and the Image by Proxy

Abstract

This paper describes a research project that aims to contribute to the further development of a new tenet in the taxonomy of the image. Driven by the appearance of (the role of) images generated by new ideo-technological developments – set against an emerging awareness of the implications of the agency of the Anthropocene - this research will build upon the existing classifications of the image. This new type of image has qualities that do not fit into the current understanding of (or any classification) of the image, yet it is operating on our awareness daily. However, the goal is not to forefront the taxonomy as main mode of output, rather the emphasis should be on the interplay between the image and its setting that produces and is produced by its relational qualities. In order to understand the role and significance of this type of image in ‘the making of reality’ - with bifurcations into technology, ideology, inclusivity, empowerment and factuality - they need to be studied and classified in order for scholars and students to further their understanding of the agency arising from what is now provisional named: The “Image by Proxy”. A crucial key to develop an understanding of the workings of the Image by Proxy, is to instrumentalize our knowledge of the construction of cinema and extrapolate its premises to a level of population thinking. On this level, cinematographing perception implies that the creation of a reality includes both actualized and non-actualized components, that constantly act, intertwine, disrupt and otherwise modulate each other’s existence. This paper will examine how this construction of reality is produced in the imagescape, in which the journey to create the scape itself has bifurcations in both enlightened and mundane acts of codification, situation, commodification and signification, whilst its affects call for an expansion of our existing taxonomy of the image.