The Future of the Image My tide might la reader to acne some nw ody sey of the image, taking ws from the Aurorean ely of Lascasn’ paintings othe contemporary tight ofa reality devoured by tmolia images and an art doomed to monitors and synthetic images. But my intention is ellen By examining how a ‘ezrin ea of ate and certain idea ofthe image ae ed upin the apocalyptic discourses of todays cltera elimate, Would keto pose the following question: are we in Tact referring toa simple, nivel reality? Docs not the term “image” contain several functions whose problematic alignment precisely con les the labour of ar On this bare i wil perhaps be possible t reflect on what arc mages ate ahd conte porary changes in their status, more soundly. Let star a the begining. What is being spoken about, and what peeiely are we being told, when i i said that there it no fonger any reality, but ony images? Or, co versely, that thee are-no more images but only a reality incesanly representing ite to isl These two dincoures sem to be oppoted, Yet we know tht thy ae forever being Converted into one another i the name of a rudimentary fsrgument if there is no nothing hut images, thee i thing other than the image. And if there nothing other than the Image, the very a0ton of the image Becoraes devoid of content. Several contemporary authors thas eontast theImage, which refers to a Other, andthe Visual, which refers (© nothiog but ist ‘This simple line of argument already prompts a question “That the Same i the opposite ofthe Other is readily itll sible, Understanding what this Other ses strighiforvard Tithe frat plas, by what signs its presence or absence 1 be reeogsiad! What llows us to say that the Othe is there none ‘bl form ona screen bo nots anotber? That iis present Focexemple, ina shot fom dw hatard Balthazar and non ah episode of Questions pour champion” The reponse most Frequectly pven bY detractors of the ‘visual e thir the television image his no Other by virtue of i very nature In effec, tbs its ght intel, while the cinematic image Aerver it rom an external suse. This summarized by Repe Debray na book lle Viet mort dea: The mage ete has iti int (reves elf With it sour in elt ‘becomes in our ejes its vn case. Spins definition of God on substance” ‘The autlogy posited hee a the esence ofthe Visual is rmanifently noting bat the tautology ofthe discourse el ‘The later ipl ells w thatthe Same i same ad the Other ‘other Throwth the rhetorical play of telescoped dependent proposions,it pases aH off as more than 9 tautology by Sestying the general properties of uiversals wit the ch Actors of techni device, But the technical peonerte of the cathode tube are one thing and the aesthetic properties of he mages we see on the screen ate another Thy screen preciely lends itself to accommodating the reels both of ‘Queso: pour um champion and of Brewon's camera, 2 therefore cleat that iti these rests which are inherently erent The nature of the amusement television offers 8, and ofthe afet it produces in us, is independent ofthe ast “THe FUTURE OF THE MAGE 3 that che Nght drives from the apparatus, And the isin ature of Rireston's images remains unchanged, whether wes the ek projected in einema,othrough a cassette oF die oF four television sreen, ora vdeo projection, The Same ior oF ‘one sie, while the Ober ion the oer. The st with nb Tight andthe camera of Questions pour we champion place us before a feat of memory and presence of mind that isin elf foreign to ther, On the het hand, the il of he ils theatre forthe casete of Au hatord Balhazar viewed on out Seen show us images that refer to othing ee, which ate emselves the performance, THE ALTERITY OF IMAGES ‘These images ffr to nothing else This doesnot mean, is frequently ai. tat they ae transitive, Iemeas hat aeny enter into the very composition ofthe imager, but also tht ch akertyaaches to something other than the materia properties ofthe cinematic medivm. The images 2 Aasard Balthazar ae not primi manistations ofthe properties of {certain technical medium, but operations lations becween 4 whole and pari, between a visblty and a power of Sigiietion and affect stecated with i between expect ions and what happens to meet them, Let us look at the beginning ofthe Fim. The ply of ‘images has already begun when the sree is sl dark, with the cryin notes of & Schubert sonata Itcontnuet, hile the credit Nash by agaist ‘background conjuring up racky wal yall of dy-stone or boiled cardboard, when brajog bas replace the sonata. Thea the sonata resumes, overlaid next by 8 mise of small bei Which caries on into the ist shot ofthe fi ile donkey's head sucking at its mother's tetinclose-up. A very whit and4 "THE FUTURE OF THE IMAGE then descends along the dark neck of the ite donkey, while the camera aseends inthe apponte direction to show the Bile irl whose hand thsi, he brother and he father. dialogue Sccompanie this action (We mun have i Give it tous ‘Childen, that's impossible), without us ever secing the mouth that utters these words. The chilten address thee Tater with their hacks 10 us, tei Boies obscure hi ce ‘while he answers them. A. disse che ntoduces& shot that Some the opposite of thee words rom behind in wide ingle shot, the father and the children come back down leading the donkey. Another dssolve cats us over into ‘Oe donkey’s baptism ~ another close-p that allows us 10 see nothing bt the head ofthe animal, the atm oF the boy who fours the water, andthe chest ofthe Kile gi who holds candle Th these crits and eee shots we havea whole regime of imagenes ~ thai a epime of relations betwern elements and between funetons. Iti fre and foremost the opposition beeween the acurlty of the Black oF grey Seen and the sound, The melody that pursue its diet course in clear separated nots, and the braying which interopt it, steady ‘convey the tension ofthe story to come, This coma is caken ‘pb the vnul contrat beteesu wit and on an animale ‘ack coat and bythe separation between vies and faces, In turn, the later is extended by the link between verbal decision and its visual contradiction, between the tecnica procedure ofthe desl, which intense the continuity, and the counter effect that it shows reson’ image? are nota donkey, two children and an dull Nor are they simply the technique of else-ups and the camera movercnts or disolves that enlarge them. They are ‘operations that couple and uneauple the visible and itp {THE PUTURE OF THE MAGE s riication or spouch and it tect, which crete aad fustrate expectations, These operations do not derive fom the prope. tit of the cinematic medium. They even presuppose 4 3 tematic distance from is ordinary employment. A ‘norma! iretor would give vs tome sign, Rowever sight, of the fathers change of mind. And he would use a wider angle forthe baptism scene, have the camara ascend or ntoduee an ditional shot in order to show us the expression on the ‘children’ faces during the ceemony ‘Shall we say that Beston's fragmentation vouchsafes us, rather the narative sequence of thote who align cinema with the theatre or the novel the pare mages peciartochvar? But the cameras fring on te and that pours the water and the hand thatoldthecandleisnomotepeculartociemathan he Fixing of Doctor Rovarys gaze on Mademoiselle Emma's ails, for of Madame Rovary’s gaze on thot of the notary’ cer, peculiar to iterate. And the fragmentation doesnot simply break the narrative soquene, I perforins a double operation ith respect to By separating the hands from the faci ‘expression i reduces the arson 9 atessenoe a baptisiconsis sn wordsand had pouring water overa head By compressing the ation into sequence of pereptions and movements, and short-cvcuiting any explanation ofthe reasons, Brssn's cine sa doesnot seal peculiar essence of he cinema frm pat ofthe noveiscradition begun by Flauberé an ambive lence in which the seme procedures create and retract mening encore and undo the link between perepions, actions and Affects. The wordless mmetiacy of the isle doubtless radi Calizesits effet, but this radical taf works through the ‘operation ofthe power which separatescinema fom the plastic fart and makes st approuimate to lieratre: the power of fatcipatng an eet the better to displace or coneadict