What Philosophy Wants From Images

164 Pages·2017·1.129 MB·English

by  D. N. Rodowick

What Philosophy Wants from Images

What Philosophy Wants from Images
D. N. Rodowick
The University of Chicago Press :: Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case
of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information,
contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL
60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 51305- 8 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 51319- 5 (paper)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 51322- 5 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226513225.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rodowick, David Norman, author.
Title: What philosophy wants from images / D. N. Rodowick.
Description: Chicago; London: The University of Chicago
Press, 2017. | Includes index.
Identifi ers: lccn 2017015713 | isbn 9780226513058
(cloth: alk. paper) | isbn 9780226513195 (pbk.: alk. paper) |
isbn 9780226513225 (e- book)
Subjects: lcsh: Motion pictures— Social aspects.
Classifi cation: lcc pn1995 .r6195 2017 | ddc 302.23/43—dc23
lc record  available at https:// lccn .loc .gov/ 2017015713
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
For Sarah, as she takes her fi rst steps into the wild . . .

Contents
Preface ix
1 The Memory of Cinema 1
2 The Queer Attractions of Perceptual Belief 24
3 A Virtual Presence in Space 46
4 Harun Farocki’s Liberated Consciousness 75
5 The Force of Small Gestures 103
Epilogue: Welcome to This Situation 137
Index 143

Preface
No one was more surprised than I by the appearance of
this book, which came into the world like an unexpected
child, though no less loved for that. And indeed the un-
anticipated pleasure of this book was echoed by other
signifi cant changes in my life and career over the past
eight years.
Finishing books is almost as great a pleasure as writ-
ing them. However, after The Virtual Life of Film was
published in 2007, I was completely preoccupied with the
manuscript that would become Elegy for Theory and Phi-
losophy’s Artful Conversation, which had been in devel-
opment on tracks parallel to Virtual Life. The last things
on my mind then were digital images or digital culture.
Yet I was suddenly the recipient of many gracious invita-
tions to speak on those very topics on which I felt my
imagination had been completely exhausted, or at least
overrun with new philosophical preoccupations.
This period also coincided with my tenure in the De-
partment of Visual and Environmental Studies and the
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard Uni-
versity. Among my greatest pleasures there was the close
daily contact with artists and the teaching of studio art,
which reinvigorated and deepened my interest in contem-
porary art. Another welcome consequence of teaching in
an art department was the unexpected return of my own