Data di Pubblicazione:
2019
Abstract:
In this paper, a particular case of deceptive use of images – namely, misattributions - will be
taken in consideration. An explicitly wrong attribution (“This is a picture of the event X”, this not
being the case) is obviously a lie or a mistaken description. But there are less straightforward and
more insidious cases in which a false attribution is held to be acceptable, in particular when pictures
are also used in their exemplary, general meaning, opposed to their indexical function in referring to
a specific event. In fact, the boundary between referential use and symbolic-exemplificative use is
not always clear-cut, and it often becomes the subject of ideological dispute.
The main point that this paper would like to do is that in some circumstances there is a deepseated
belief that images that are clearly misattributed could still be legitimately used to refer to the
fact, even if this is not the case. This twisted epistemological stance, that I will summarize under the
oxymoronic concept of “emblematic evidence”, is both the product of political and tribal
polarization in the ideological debate, and the result of a shift in our understanding of what
photographic images should do.
taken in consideration. An explicitly wrong attribution (“This is a picture of the event X”, this not
being the case) is obviously a lie or a mistaken description. But there are less straightforward and
more insidious cases in which a false attribution is held to be acceptable, in particular when pictures
are also used in their exemplary, general meaning, opposed to their indexical function in referring to
a specific event. In fact, the boundary between referential use and symbolic-exemplificative use is
not always clear-cut, and it often becomes the subject of ideological dispute.
The main point that this paper would like to do is that in some circumstances there is a deepseated
belief that images that are clearly misattributed could still be legitimately used to refer to the
fact, even if this is not the case. This twisted epistemological stance, that I will summarize under the
oxymoronic concept of “emblematic evidence”, is both the product of political and tribal
polarization in the ideological debate, and the result of a shift in our understanding of what
photographic images should do.
Tipologia CRIS:
2.1 Contributo in Volume(Capitolo,Saggio)
Elenco autori:
Arielli, Emanuele
Link alla scheda completa:
Titolo del libro:
Politics and Image