The digital image in photographic culture: algorithmic photography and the crisis of representation

Abstract

This chapter explores the transformation of the photographic image through differing conceptual and theoretical lenses including that of the algorithm, ‘technē’, continental philosophy and computer science. It contributes to debates in digital aesthetics, networked cultures and non-representational theory. Its innovation is in suggesting that the paradigm of representation, which was established during the European Renaissance, and through which a visual topography of the real world was kept in place, is now challenged by an image producing system based upon computation. The chapter was commissioned by Professor Martin Lister as part of the new edition of ‘The Photographic Image in Digital Culture’ (Routledge, 2013). Research for the work was partially supported by an AHRC network grant; some of the findings were also presented at an international conference, Photo-Media, Helsinki (2012).