The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds

Adrian J. Ivakhiv

Book

The New Lives of Images

Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds

Adrian J. Ivakhiv

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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About this book

In this ambitious new work, eco-philosopher and cultural theorist Adrian Ivakhiv presents an incisive new way of thinking about images and imagination. Drawing upon an immense range of materials, Ivakhiv reassesses the place of imagination in cultural life, analyzing how people have interacted with images in the past and the ways that digital media are profoundly altering these relationships today. The book contributes powerfully to the study of visual culture and digital media, and provides provocative interpretations of a range of important artists and media movements: from the work of photographer Edward Burtynsky, the ambitious multi-screen installations of John Akomfrah, the abstract art of Swedish spiritualist Hilma af Klint, and the Afrofuturism of jazz musicians like Sun Ra and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs, to the ever-expanding universe of animal videos on YouTube. Along the way, the book delves into animacy and religious imagery, iconophilia and iconoclasm, divination and prophecy, "truthiness" and "enchantment networks," online communities and artificial intelligence, the political and affective economies of digital media, and the role of utopian futurism in the present "climate-colonial Anthropocene" predicament. The result is a vital contribution toward a more empowering conception of the creative imagination and its possibilities in today's emerging digital ecology.

Author / Editor information

Adrian J. Ivakhiv is J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities, Simon Fraser University and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Thought and Culture, University of Vermont. His most recent book is Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times (2018).

Reviews

"With grace and ease, The New Lives of Images delivers an important and original work for students of visual culture and environmental humanities." —Seán Cubitt, University of Melbourne --- "No recent book has such ambition, nor such breadth. The New Lives of Images is two books in one: a novel typology of images inspired by Peirce and Whitehead, and an expanded critical discussion of the current iconosphere, inspired by the digital turn." —Francesco Casetti, Yale University

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Frontmatter
i

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CONTENTS
v

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Acknowledgments
vii

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Preface
xi

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PART I Images and Ecologies: From the Beginning to the Digital
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One THE IMAGE
1

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Two FIVE IMAGE REGIMES
31

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Three THE DIGITAL IMAGE-WORLD
71

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Four THE PLAY OF IMAGINARIES
92

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PART II We Are Not Alone: (Post-) Human Becomings in the Image-World
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Introduction
129

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Five ANTHROPOSCENE
139

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Six THERIOSCENE
185

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Seven THEOSCENE
237

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Afterimage. Animisms in the Mediocene
313

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Notes
327

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Index
385

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Series pages
415

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

September 12, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781503643994

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

436

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503643994

eBook ISBN: 9781503643994

Keywords for this book

Visual studies; digital media; imagology; semiotics; philosophy of imagination; Anthropocene; animal studies; enchantment; visuality and religion

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

The New Lives of Images

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

One THE IMAGE

Two FIVE IMAGE REGIMES

Three THE DIGITAL IMAGE-WORLD

Four THE PLAY OF IMAGINARIES

Introduction

Five ANTHROPOSCENE

Six THERIOSCENE

Seven THEOSCENE

Afterimage. Animisms in the Mediocene

Notes

Index

Series pages

Bibliographic data