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Image Acts

A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency
  • Horst Bredekamp
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2021
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About this book

Heavily represented sections of contemporary philosophy subscribe to the notion of "embodiment". However promising this pragmatic turn of events may be, it remains limited in that it interprets the world as a projection of the cognizing "I". By contrast, Image Acts focuses on the counterforce of the form of images. The book subdivides this sphere into three parts: imitation, substitution, and the pure effect of the form. All three parts are contemplated with examples from antiquity through to the present and the iconoclastic controversies of our times. From this reconstruction of the image act springs the element of a new philosophy of affordance.

Author / Editor information

Horst Bredekamp, Humboldt University, Berlin.

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    I
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  • Publicly Available

    Table of Contents

    VII
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    Preface to the Second English Edition

    IX
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    Preface to the English Edition

    XI
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  • Introduction: The Problematic Centrality of the Image
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    1. Increasing Reflection of the Image

    1
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    2. Leonardo’s Invitation to Captivity

    3
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    3. The Energeia of the Image

    7
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  • I. Origins and Concepts
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    1. Defining the Image

    11
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    2. Plato, Heidegger, Lacan

    18
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    3. Speech Act and Image Act

    29
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  • II. Inherent Theory
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    1. Early Statements in the First Person Singular

    37
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    2. The Signature as Witness to the Self

    45
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    3. Works of Art that Speak

    63
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  • III. Schematic Image Acts: Animation of the Image
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    1. Living Images

    77
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    2. The Vitality of Mechanised Movement

    98
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    3. Liminal Bodies: From Beauty to Biofact

    112
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  • IV. Substitutive Image Acts: The Exchange of Body and Image
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    1. The Media of Substitution

    137
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    2. Forms of Substitution in a Social Context

    156
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    3. Dominion, Insurrection, War

    175
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  • V. Intrinsic Image Acts: Image as Form
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    1. The Image as Beholder

    193
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    2. The Dynamics of Formal Self-Transgression

    209
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    3. The Irresistibility of Form

    242
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  • VI. Conclusion: The Nature of the Image Act
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    1. Evolution and the Image Act

    265
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    2. The Play of Images in Nature

    273
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    3. Image-active Enlightenment

    279
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    Postscript: The Eye in Flight

    285
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    Acknowledgements

    289
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    Bibliography

    293
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    Index

    341
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    Picture Credits

    359
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 19, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9783110725827
Paperback published on:
April 19, 2021
Paperback ISBN:
9783110725698
Edition:
2nd edition
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
13
Main content:
361
Coloured Illustrations:
199
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110725827
eBook ISBN: 9783110725827
Paperback ISBN: 9783110725698
Keywords for this book
image act; visual studies; energeia
Audience(s) for this book
Academics (history of art, visual sciences, philosophy, cultural studies)
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