Image theory

Every image involves three things:

Scale of iconicity
 A selection of reality Analogy
 A configuration of elements 10 Photography
 An order of those elements (syntax) 0
90 Illustration
80 Schematic
------------ Time An
/ Space ----------
Image is always a selection of reality. drawing
70 Pictograms
 Level of Figuration: how reality is modeled
60 Diagram
 Level of Iconicity: how similar to reality the 50 Ideogram
image is 40 Word-image
30 Onomatopoeia
 Materiality: what is the nature of the image
20 Arbitrary word
(digital, photograph)
10 Abstract symbol
 Type of production: originals and copies 0 Tactic symbol
Iconicity: How
Abstraction
similar to reality or
Materiality: types of images abstract the image is.
There are many
Natural: images that the person sees around under normal conditions.
scales to define the
level of analogy or
Mental: those that a person sees in his/her head from a real reference.
Created: images created with a specific device or media.
Registered: images created with a device and a very high level of similarity
(iconicity) with reality.

 Figurative or Abstract: more or less similar to reality.

 Still or Moving: they can be monoscopic or stereoscopic images.
 Isolated or Sequential: they can be static or dynamic images

 Representative: When the image that replaces reality is analog,

there are no differences between one and the other.
 Symbolic: When there is a transfer of meaning between image and
reality. The image represents something about that reality.
 Conventional: When the image functions as a non-analog sign and
has no relationship with reality.
Theory of perception
- Gestalt Theory
- Psycho-Physical Perception
- Psycho-Analysis of Artistic Vision
- Cognitive Theory

Gestalt: psychology of pattern

- German
- Gestalt = pattern, configuration, whole, figure
- “The whole is greater than the sum of parts”

 Good figure: people use to organize different elements in a

unique figure
 Proximity: we see objects that are close to each other as more
related than objects that are far apart.
 Similarity: we see elements that share characteristics as more
related than those that don’t
 Continuity: we see elements that are on a line or curve as more
related that elements that aren’t
 Closure: we see a complex arrangement

Psycho-Physical Perception
- Perception is the study of the environment in which the individual is
immersed
- We do not perceive shapes and colors, but places objects, substances
and events
- 2 forms of vision: the visual world (what is there and surrounds us)
and the visual field (what is perceived).

Psycho-Analysis of Artistic Vision

- Rejection of Gestalt
- 2 kinds of perception: a “superficial” one (allow us to perceive simple
compact and precise shapes) and a “deep” one (inarticulate or gestalt-
free forms that come from the unconscious, ex. The lapse, the failed
act, etc.).
Cognitive Theory
- Perception is an active-constructive process (through
memory, imagination and intelligence) between
cognition and reality. We as kids draw houses.
- In visual perception there are three processes:
1. The reception of information: where the visual
sensation occurs.
2. The storage of information: where visual
memories occur.
3. Information processing: where visual thinking is
provoked.

Rudolf Arnhelm
- Vision is the primordial medium of thought since perception and
thought act reciprocally.
- There are 3 forms of observation:
1. To isolate object to perceive it in a pure state, that is, to synthetize its
idea/concept in its simplest terms.
2. the pictorial gaze, in which object and context are seen together.
3. analyze the object creatively, from multiple points of view and
possibilities, changings its meaning, looking for new uses and
possibilities of interpretation.

Iconography, Erwin Panofsky

- Iconology: the science that studies the images, emblems, allegories
and monuments with which artists have represented mythological,
religious or historical figures.
- Iconography: the discipline that describes images from a social and
historical Perspective (such as history, art history, aesthetics and
communication). When we write about images.
Panofsky´s iconological Method (1939)
 - The pre-iconographic: experience and empathy are used as an
interpretative tool, the motif of the work is studied, in its pure forms
as such, obtaining

Exercise class 2
I. 1. Proximity, good figure
2. Closure
3. Good figure, proximity, continuity, symmetry
4. Figure ground
5. Closure, figure ground
6. Proximity, similarity and symmetry
7. Figure Ground, closure
II. 1. Index
2. symbol
3. symbol
4. icon
5. index
6. symbol
7. index
8. index

A photo is an icon because is representing something real

Ionosphere
Sphere: images that surround us.
Iconosphere: “set of visual information that circulates in the universe of
mass media”. “It is a cultural ecosystem based on interactions between
different media and their audiences”
Relation humans has with images, how with we live and interact with these
images.
Cinema, television and photography
Digital iconosphere
How do we interact with images? Nowadays the authentic of images has
been lost, also we have
What image of reality and other do e have? We take images of something
and that reality
How do we know what is happening in the world using images?
Images ahs a bigger impact of people that use social media
How do we interact of social media, way of relating to them; interaction
with both still images (photography) and a moving image (video).
Benjamins “technical reproducibility”: images reproduced thousand of time
lose aura (their uniqueness of time and space)
The machines replace the singularity of existence with the plurality of the
copy.
The Cult value of the image becomes Exhibition value.
Social media has created a new kind of figure

An image can be reproduced thousand of time  the difference between the

time when Benjamin wrote the technical reproducibility and now.

According to Jose L. Brea (was a professor at UC3M) the different technical

forms create differential models of production, distribution and perception
od images.
- The material image: the symbolic interpretation of reality through
writing and other forms of visual and graphic representation.
- The filmic image: the image is massified through mechanical
reproduction, which alters the relationship between the image and
reality.
- The electronic image: simulation and manipulation of reality
through digital technologies. In this era, the image becomes a
simulacrum, a representation that is not based on tangible reality.

Something that you can do nowadays with electronic images and not filmic
images is that it can be alter. You can modify them through platforms,
turning it into something that is not real. A representation of reality but not
based on tangibles material reality.
The society of the Spectacle
Guy Debord (1967) proposes, from a Marxist perspective, that current
society has changed thanks and the notion of spectacle prevails. Mass
media has changed society; it has created a new kind of stage (spectacle
prevails or show).
Show is everywhere and this new conception organize the society in a
certain way. Marxism conception had a huge impact of the whole world.
The spectacle is a prevalent and dominant mode of social organization
characteristic of advanced capitalism.
It is a mode of social organization characterized by the dominance of
mediated representations, alienation, passivity, and social control.
- Mediated reality

Lesson 5
Visual culture: is an interdisciplinary area centreis un images and visual
represenrarion and how they shape and influence our understanding of the
worl, as well as how they reflect and participate in cultural, social, political
and historical contexts.
Visual studies: in an interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on the
analysis, interpretation, and critical examination of visual culture, including
images, objects and visual artifacts. It encompasses a wide range of visual
phenomena