Original, copie, simulacre : aspects du multiple

La théorie est théorique, hypothétique : elle devrait hésiter, douter, et non pas polémiquer. La polémique fait généralement appel aux oppositions et pose ces conditions-limites comme si elles étaient plus réelles qu’imaginaires. De telles fictions structurent le conflit idéologique, et offrent souvent un avantage stratégique. Cependant, en tant que constructions conceptuelles, les limites et les extrêmes ne mènent nulle part. Au cours des dernières décennies, les chercheurs qui ont étudié le..

Evaluation of Interceptor long-lasting insecticidal nets in eight communities in Liberia

BACKGROUND: By 2008, the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES) recommended five long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) for the prevention of malaria: Olyset((R)), PermaNet 2.0((R)), Netprotect((R)), Duranet((R)) and Interceptor((R)). Field information is available for both Olyset(R) and PermaNet((R)), with limited data on the newer LLINs. To address this gap, a field evaluation was carried out to determine the acceptability and durability of Interceptor((R)) LLINs. METHODS: A one-year prospective field study was conducted in eight rural returnee villages in Liberia. Households were randomized to receive Interceptor((R)) LLINs or conventionally treated nets (CTNs). Primary outcomes were levels of residual alpha-cypermethrin measured by HPLC and participant utilization/acceptability of the ITNs. RESULTS: A total of 398 nets were analysed for residual alpha-cypermethrin. The median baseline concentrations of insecticide were 175.5 mg/m2 for the Interceptor((R)) LLIN and 21.8 mg/m2 for the CTN. Chemical residue loss after a one year follow-up period was 22% and 93% respectively. Retention and utilization of nets remained high (94%) after one year, irrespective of type, while parasitaemia prevalence decreased from 29.7% at baseline to 13.6% during the follow up survey (p = < 0.001). Interview and survey data show perceived effectiveness of ITNs was just as important as other physical attributes in influencing net utilization. CONCLUSION: Interceptor((R)) LLINs are effective and desirable in rural communities in Liberia. Consideration for end user preferences should be incorporated into product development of all LLINs in the future, in order to achieve optimum retention and utilization

‘It doesn’t reveal itself’: erosion and collapse of the image in contemporary visual practice

The article explores the extent to which ‘pictorial art’ resists legibility, transparency and coherence. The analysis of three artistic case studies, Idris Khan, Maria Chevska and Jane and Louise Wilson, serves to investigate established hierarchies in our perception of visual referents. In the discussion, the article inquires the means of erosion, veiling and dissemblance as ways to critique assumption of the homogeneity of the image. All artists cast a view of the external world by diverting it, defacing it and distancing themselves from the external environment. However, the distancing is never disconnected from the everyday and never succumbs to abstraction. The article argues that the crisis of the image offers a productive framework that allows artists to draw attention to the absence of logical structure and the instability of the visual sign

Judd through Oldenburg

In his critical writing on Claes Oldenburg during the 1960s Donald Judd explained how emotional content might be conveyed through representational imagery, without the emotion depending on either the identity of the represented object or the subjective mood of the artist. Such art was neither representational, nor abstract, nor expressive in the usual understanding of these general terms. To establish the specificity of his position – through Oldenburg – Judd resorted to catachresis and syllepsis, rhetorical devices that operate where more familiar language fails

Blur and Fuzz: On Translating Representations of Low Resolution

Digital photography and other electronic sources of representation generate images of such uniformly high resolution that the eye detects little transformation between the appearance of physical objects and their projected surrogates. With familiar signs of representational process and rhetoric screened out by these technologies, we find ourselves re-experiencing the anxiety of the early atomic age when humanists believed they had lost their place within a moral debate over progress in science. The scientists and even some philosophers were communicating through unvoiced mathematical symbols, not common words. It seemed then, as it may seem now, that abstract thinking had been cut loose from any foundation in the material world of physical being and feeling. With the transference of imagery from the miniature scale of cell phones to the grand scale of commercial digital projection—accomplished without apparent change in resolution—we lose the tension between our perception of the image and the materiality involved in its production. Nineteenth-century painting developed an uncomfortable rift between meaning and feel, between the projected image and the materiality of its representational basis. Contemporary work in many media—photography, film, video, computer electronics—continues to investigate the cognitive play of conceptual meaning and physical feel, but certain forms of painting continue to be the most effective. Paintings reveal factors of blur and fuzz that provide the sense of scale missing from digital projection. Blur and fuzz are experiential reminders of the arbitrary cultural codes in operation for the assessment of degrees of realism or truth in representation.La photographie numérique et d’autres sources électroniques de représentation génèrent des images de haute définition tellement uniforme que l’œil ne détecte guère de transformation entre l’apparence d’objets physiques et leurs substituts projetés. Devant les signes familiers de procès représentatifs et la rhétorique filtrée par ces technologies, nous nous trouvons en train de re-expérimenter l’anxiété des débuts de l’âge atomique lorsque les humanistes pensaient avoir perdu leur place dans le débat moral sur le progrès scientifique. Les savants et même certains philosophes communiquaient par des symboles mathématiques tacites, non par le langage commun. Il semblait alors, et il peut sembler aujourd’hui, que la pensée abstraite avait été coupée de tout fondement dans le monde matériel de l’être et de la sensation physique. Une fois l’image transférée de l’échelle miniature des téléphones portables à l’échelle monumentale de la projection numérique commerciale — un transfert accompli sans changement apparent de définition —, nous perdons la tension entre notre perception de l’image et la matérialité mise en œuvre dans sa production. La peinture du 19e siècle a ouvert un dangereux fossé entre signification et sensation, entre l’image projetée et la matérialité de sa base représentative. L’œuvre contemporaine dans nombre de médias — la photo, le cinéma, la vidéo, l’imagerie informatique — continue à explorer le jeu cognitif entre la signification conceptuelle et la sensation physique, mais certaines formes de peinture demeurent toujours les plus efficaces. Des peintures révèlent des facteurs de flou et de vaporeux qui procurent le sentiment d’échelle absent de la projection numérique. L’expérience du flou et du vaporeux rappelle l’arbitraire des codes culturels à l’œuvre dans l’évaluation des degrés de réalisme ou de vérité dans la représentation

«II faut que les yeux soient émus» : impressionisme et symbolisme vers 1891

Shiff Richard, Bouniort Jeanne. «II faut que les yeux soient émus» : impressionisme et symbolisme vers 1891. In: Revue de l'Art, 1992, n°96. pp. 24-30