Class 1: What is an image?

Image of Alice Neel paintings courtesy SeeThink Films


We discuss what it means to step forward and inhabit an artistic practice as Bob Dylan adopts persona in a duel with Donovan in DA Pennebaker's Don't Look Back; Hartley Neel asks "Why does anyone make an image--of anything?" in Andrew Neel's Alice Neel; and we question: What is an image? From the brain receiving messages from the eye's response to visual cues, to the expectation and interpretation of the viewer as a story unfolds, we brainstorm an answer to this difficult definition (which we will return to at the end of Spring semester):

WHAT IS AN IMAGE?

• An image tells a story
• An image is the eye's response to visual cues sending messages to the brain
• Perception is key to defining the image - what jumps out to the eye and the brain, what remains in the memory of an image?
• Does context change one's definition of image? What about expectations and interpretation of the viewer?
• Relationship of the image: the idea verses the reception of an image produces multitudes of variation
• Between the physical world and the mental world there is a vast space inhabited by imagination
• PAY ATTENTION: a space of attention is critical to receiving an image
• What about "blind images"? What images exist in the mind's eye that are generated by touch, not sight?
• The negative space, the space in-between forms and that slippery space in-between seeing and recognizing what you see
• Receiving/looking at an image involves a "selection" or editing process - the eye will pick up on and remember or prioritize certain details over others
• An image is a sign, it stands in for something else
  

Assignment 1: Email instructor Mary Simpson an image you find compelling, along with a few notes on why you are drawn to it; this could be an image you desire or one you detest, and either a still image or a link to moving images: due Tuesday January 24.