Imagen, imaginación y montaje

Esta sesión condensa los siguientes temas:

2.1. El acto fotográfico como parteaguas en la representación y el tránsito a la imagen en movimiento

2.2. La imaginación técnica como renovación de las posibilidades el montaje

2.3. Entre la representación teatral, la figuración literaria y el lenguaje cinematográfico 

(Rob Spence) 

Kino Glaz

De Niepce a Fontcuberta

Renoir, Mujer con sombrilla en jardín

Fotografía XIX

Alexander Rodchenko

Vilem Flusser. 

CITAS DE TOWARDS A THEORY OF TECHNO-IMAGINATION: 

Technical images assume the status of symptoms in the sense of being signs caused by their meaning. The photograph is the result of a complex of processes that are, amongst other things, optical, chemical and mechanical: sunrays are reflected by a scene, accumulated inside a lens and trigger chemical reactions. The signs that appear in a photograph are bound to the scene it signifies by means of a closed yet complex chain of causation: a chain like the one linking footprints in the snow to the feet of a dog, fingerprints to a finger or a rash to the illness that caused it. They are, precisely, symptoms. One does not need to decipher photographs in order to receive their message. They harbour no hidden ‘intention’ but are ‘faithful reproductions’ of that which they intend and are supposed to be objective images of the scenes they depict. One can only doubt their ‘truthfulness’ in the same way that one might say, ‘I can’t believe my own eyes’. (Flusser, 196). 

The camera apparatus is, indeed, a kind of tool, but of a type in which the relation between human and tool is revolutionarily inverted. This kind of tool is called ‘machine’: machines are tools that, like all tools in general, simulate human organs in order to facilitate or enhance their function. However, unlike traditional tools, the simulation of organs in machines has been filtered through scientific understanding. They are ‘technical’ tools in the sense in which ‘technics’ is applied science. In this way, machines become tools whose function is obscure for the human who is using them. He no longer makes use of them but he serves them. In principle, the industrial revolution is nothing but this revolutionary inversion of the relationship between human and tool. The camera, however, is a special kind of machine. Machines and traditional tools alike generally serve the purpose of ‘work’, which means: they are supposed to change the world. However, in special instances, machines might not serve the purpose of changing the world but of changing the meaning of the world. Such symbolizing machines are called Apparate/apparatus . In general, they simulate sensory organs. Optical apparatuses such as the Fotoapparat/camera, for instance, simulate the eye. Because the symbolic function of sensory organs is not as evident as their perceptive function (because it is not immediately apparent that the eye gives sense to the world rather than merely perceiving it), the function of apparatuses is often misunderstood. On the one hand, the camera is seen as a traditional tool and photographing is described as ‘work’. On the other hand, it is seen as a sensory organ and taking photographs is described as Aufnahmen/exposure.1 In fact, giving-sense (Sinngebung) is the most important function of apparatuses. This is true for all apparatuses: for administrative or party apparatuses, as well as the telephone or television. This is why a lack in understanding of the function of apparatuses presents such extraordinary danger in a situation where the life of the individual, as well as that of society, is increasingly guided by apparatuses. And it is for this reason that the examination of photography is remarkably informative.(Flusser, 197)

Both traditional and techno-images are signs of scenes. This is how they differ from linear texts: they are signs of processes. The messages of images (be those traditional or technical) are deciphered by means of a gaze sweeping across a surface. (Flusser, 198)

Optical, chemical and other texts empty into the camera; they virtually freeze within it and enable photographing, which means: to signify scenes. History empties into the apparatus, freezes there and enables the apparatus to programme scenes. The apparatus is history frozen, a retaining dam for processes, which is precisely why it can programme scenes or stage programmes. The apparatus is history fulfilled (the fullness of time): it is post-history. And techno-imagination is the ability to see through this in general terms, as well as in each particular instance. It is the ability to live consciously in a post-historical world. A theory of techno-imagination would be a theory of post-historical consciousness. (Flusser, 200)

Blade Runner 2049

Traffic. 

Heli

La libertad del diablo. 

"Porque está muy ligada al dolor, porque yo le he estado dando vueltas sobre qué es lo que nos provoca empatía al oír un testimonio de esta naturaleza siendo espectador:  ¿Si es sólo el testimonio o el rostro? Y lo que quería probar es cómo nos conectaba a través de la mirada. Una de las preocupaciones que yo tenía, cuando decidí enmascarar a mis personajes, era sostener la capacidad empática en el público. Por eso se hizo un juego de espejos en donde la mirada es franca, ellos me ven en un espejo a 45 grados, y se ven a ellos mismos en el espejo; pero esa mirada va directo al lente de la cámara. Yo estaba en frente, pero detrás de una cortina, ellos ven un reflejo; ese ángulo hace que los personajes te miren a ti a los ojos, a espectador.  Lo que quería era eliminar todo el gesto del rostro. (...) Si se da al final, todos tienen una expresión propia y el material de la máscara permite que se modifique también. El material es elástico; se mueve y se humedece, se transforma. (...) Ese fue el juego, esta máscara los integra a todos, los pone en el mismo nivel. El discurso es un poco eso: que todos vamos por el mundo con una máscara. Quisiéramos hacer una proyección con máscaras, llenar una sala completa de público con máscaras. (...) Yo sí hablé con todos y el montaje fue el que determinó quién quedaba y quien no. Pretendemos hacer un libro con los testimonios que quedaron fuera de la película; mas bien queremos recuperar todos los testimonios, porque el valor que tienen sus voces es muy importante, vale la pena mantenerlos, y lograr que la gente lo lea." Everardo González en entrevista.