A difficult history of light. About metaphysical ideas of “light writing” formulated before the birth of photography

The reflections presented in this article are devoted to Junko Theresa Mikuriya’s book, A History of Light. The Idea of Photography. It is a unique view on the search for pre-photographic origins of photography in the field of philosophical writings ranging from Plato, through the neoplatonic philosopher Jamblich’s enquiry, to the texts by Philotheus of Batos and by an early Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino. When thinking about metaphysics present in (moving and still) images, one should not forget about the metaphysics of the image itself. The idea of photography – regardless of whether we are witnessing a fundamental change in an ontological transition from an analogue to a digital form of image recording – obliges us to discuss the “history of light”, as this is what Mikuriya does. While locating the discussed concepts in the context of the history and theory of photography, as well as the archaeology of media, the author of this essay engages in a dialogue with Mikuriya and polemically discusses many of her hypotheses. Key concepts such as chalepon, photagogia, triton genos, phôteinographeisthai are analysed in order to indicate inspiring moments in the Mikuriya’s reflections, but also a kind of interpretive abuse in the process of reading and analysing philosophical texts addressing the issues of light.The reflections presented in this article are devoted to Junko Theresa Mikuriya’s book, A History of Light. The Idea of Photography. It is a unique view on the search for pre-photographic origins of photography in the field of philosophical writings ranging from Plato, through the neoplatonic philosopher Jamblich’s enquiry, to the texts by Philotheus of Batos and by an early Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino. When thinking about metaphysics present in (moving and still) images, one should not forget about the metaphysics of the image itself. The idea of photography – regardless of whether we are witnessing a fundamental change in an ontological transition from an analogue to a digital form of image recording – obliges us to discuss the “history of light”, as this is what Mikuriya does. While locating the discussed concepts in the context of the history and theory of photography, as well as the archaeology of media, the author of this essay engages in a dialogue with Mikuriya and polemically discusses many of her hypotheses. Key concepts such as chalepon, photagogia, triton genos, phôteinographeisthai are analysed in order to indicate inspiring moments in the Mikuriya’s reflections, but also a kind of interpretive abuse in the process of reading and analysing philosophical texts addressing the issues of light

Ja - w kilku osobach/kilka osób we mnie: dziennikarz, krytyk sztuki, naukowiec : perspektywa autobiograficzna

The author, in his autobiographic perspective, underlines a variety of professions, and roles in which he appears or used to appear. These are an editor, academic, art critic, reviewer and essay writer. Changing roles, the author also changes forms of expression and differently illuminates widely‑understood media. In one role he comments, reviews and interprets while in the other he examines or describes. He performs the role of a subjective journalist and objective academic. This changeability in the attitude towards the media is seen by the author in transmediality and media convergence. The researcher underlines that it is the features of the new media that project various research, methodological, formal and interpretative strategies

Ponowoczesny anarchizm poznawczy a badanie kultury audiowizualnej

"Erwin Schródinger zauważył niegdyś, iż stagnacja w badaniach naukowych sprzyja ucieczce w metodologię. Czy dziś jesteśmy świadkami takiej spektakularnej ucieczki? Jeszcze kilkanaście lat temu Janusz Sławiński pisał o procesie niesłychanego rozwoju zainteresowań metodologicznych w humanistyce, które prowadzić miały do emancypacji i autonomizacji metodologii, dyskursów metateoretycznych, rozwijania ponad wszelką miarę metod i narzędzi badawczych nie służących w efekcie do praktycznego zastosowania. Nadprodukcją konkurencyjnych modeli metateoretycznych miało rządzić Parkinsonowskie prawo zwłoki. „Oddając się z lubością roztrząsaniu metod, odsuwamy w nieokreśloną przyszłość moment, w którym należałoby się nimi posłużyć” — konstatował Sławiński w eseju zatytułowanym Zwłoki metodologiczne." (fragm.

Od sztuki mediów (audiowizualnych) do sztuki postmediów (hybrydycznych). Perspektywa teoretyczna (przez praktykę weryfikowana)

Tradycyjne media audiowizualne (film, wideo analogowe) zbudowały fundament myślenia o polimedialnych środkach artystycznej kreacji. Dopiero jednak media cyfrowe umożliwiły przejście do świata hybrydyczności rozumianej jako nowa formuła integracji rozmaitych składowych (części), które tworzą obiekty (całości) w ramach bazowej struktury cyfrowego kodowania. Programy i programowalność to rodzaj języka teraźniejszości; tym językiem posługują się artyści, a teoretycy nie tylko powinni się go uczyć – powinni go zrozumieć i traktować jako narzędzie kreacji dzieł nowomedialnych. By jednak tak się stało, konieczna jest wymiana myśli, ale też zbadanie nowego modelu kooperacji, w którym relację mistrz – uczeń zastąpimy relacją uczeń – uczeń, czy też formułą: uczmy się nawzajem i pracujmy razem, co bliskie jest idei DIWO (Do It With Others).Ingrid Hoelzl, Rémi Marie, Softimage. Towards a New Theory of the Digital Image. Intellect. Bristol, Chicago 2015.Ingrid Hoelzl, Rémi Marie, From Softimage to Postimage. „Leonardo” 2017, vol. 50, nr 1.Sarah Kember, Joanna Zylinska, Life After New Media. Mediation As a Vital Process. MIT Press. Cambridge MA, London 2012.W.J.T. Mitchell, Four Fundamentals Concepts of Image Science. W: Visual Literacy. Red. James Elkins. Routledge. New York, London 2007.W.J.T. Mitchell, Image Science. Iconology, Visual Culture, and Media Aesthetics. University of Chicago Press. Chicago 2015.Anna Nacher, Media lokacyjne. Ukryte życie obrazów. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Kraków 2016.James Remes, Motion(less) Picture. The Cinema of Stasis. Columbia University Press. New York 2015.Ewa Wójtowicz, Sztuka w kulturze postmedialnej. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Katedra. Gdańsk 2016.Piotr Zawojski, Cyberkultura. Syntopia sztuki, nauki i technologii. Wydanie II poprawione. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Katowice 2018.Piotr Zawojski, Sztuka obrazu i obrazowania w epoce nowych mediów. Oficyna Naukowa. Warszawa 2012.Piotr Zawojski (red.), Klasyczne dzieła sztuki owych mediów. Instytucja Kultury Katowice – Miasto Ogrodów. Katowice 2015.Piotr Zawojski, Bio-techno-logiczny świat. Bio art oraz sztuka technonaukowa w czasach posthumanizmu i transhumanizmu. 13muz. Szczecin 2015.Piotr Zawojski, Technokultura i jej manifestacje artystyczne. Medialny świat hybryd i hybrydyzacji. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Katowice 2016.Siegfried Zielinski, [… After the Media]. News from Slow-Fading Twentieth Century. Univocal. Minneapolis 2013

Od obrazów (audiowizualnych) do postobrazów (hybrydycznych). Perspektywa teoretyczna

The postmedia era forces us to rethink the status of a new generation of images and new postdigital imaging. Referring, inter alia, to the proposals of Ingrid Hoelzl and Rémi Marie, the article sketches a proposal for a theoretical approach to postimages as hybrid visual representations that arise as a result of the application of algorithmic procedures during their production. Postimages can be treated as a manifestation of a new paradigm of image culture in postantropocentric times, in which nonrepresentationalist approaches to digital image theory point to its ontogenetic methods of producing by “digital machines of vision.” Postimages become important reference points for the formation of a posthumanist order in which the symbiosis of man and machine becomes the foundation for the creation of a new pictorial paradigm based on algorithmic procedures that follows the photographic paradigm

Nomad s trvalym bydlistem - Lech Majewski

If the figure of a pointlessly wandering flneur is agreed to be recognized as an emblem of postmodemity, or — in other words — if the wandering itself is its own goal, then the figure epitomizing postmodemity is that of a nomad. Such a concept, obviously opposite to the views of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, finds its foundations in Zygmunt Bauman’s thought. The sociologist observed that the nomads never choose their route at random; they do not plan it anew every day. The common characteristic shared both by nomads and by pilgrims (which makes representatives of both groups prominently different from the postmodern man) is the unalterability of the course once taken. Lech Majewski is a nomad in a double sense of the word. Firstly, he endlessly wanders in the space between the media he uses for the sake of his peregrinations. Poetry, prose, essay, painting, film, music, theater, opera — all represent the rich inventory of means the artist employs to exercise fully authorial expression. Secondly, Majewski has worked (and still works) in various locations, including Poland, England, America, Brasil, Germany, and Lithuania. These creative rovings could possibly be offered as the most powerful proof of his nomadism, or perhaps of his lack of rootedness in one place functioning as some “personal center of Universe” of paramount importance. Yet, paradoxically, such reasoning could lead one astray: Majewski’s recent work — especially the film and stage versions of his autobiographical opera Pokój saren [The Room of the Does] and two film productions, WOjaCZEK and Angelus — clearly disprove the “nomadic” intepretations of the artist and his work. The central locus of the artist, who is perfectly capable of successful functioning in a variety of geographical and artistic contexts, is the city of Katowice, the city of his birth, which, in the year 1953 (when Majewski was born) was called Stalinogród. The present article strives to synthetically present the (to-date) artistic achievement of Lech Majewski, one of the most versatile of contemporary Polish artists, who has proven to be successful in creating art of universal dimensions, and yet art tinged with the uniqueness of his own “little province”

Wiesław Dymny : wszystko ma dobry koniec, czyli śmierć

The author presents the profile and the artistic activity of Wiesław Dymny - a painter, a poet, a writer, an actor, and a screenplay writer. He discusses mainly his work as a scenarist - the most valuable part of his output - and his cooperation with the film director Henryk Kluba. Two films are analyzed in detail in the paper, the ones which have been created as a result of the common work of the two artists: Skinny and Others (Chudy i inni) and The Sun Rises Once a Day (Słońce wschodzi raz na dzień). The two films gave rise to the school called „the third cinema” in the Polish cinematography of the 1960s and the innovative screenplays written by Dymny played a decisive role in their success

Historie awangardy filmowej na nowo (o)pisane [recenzja]

Omawiany tom – Historie filmu awangardowego. Od dadaizmu do postinternetu (2020) pod redakcją Łukasza Rondudy i Gabrieli Sitek – jest efektem projektu edukacyjnego „Akademia filmu awangardowego” realizowanego przez Fundację Okonakino i Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w latach 2019-2020. Autor zwraca uwagę na próbę rewizji dotychczasowych ustaleń dotyczących awangardy filmowej wyrażającą się przede wszystkim w dowartościowaniu twórczości artystek dotąd często pomijanych lub niedocenianych. Tematyczno-chronologiczna kompozycja całości jest rozpięta między tradycją kina awangardowego od jego początków w XX w. do najnowszych realizacji wykorzystujących wideo oraz nowe media, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem optyki feministycznej, queer - owej, klasowej i postkolonialnej, oraz badaniem związków filmu dokumentalnego i awangardowego. Reinterpretacja wcześniejszych odczytań filmu awangardowego i prezentacja mało znanych fenomenów zarówno historycznych, jak i współczesnych stanowi o atrakcyjności publikacji

Thomas Bernhard i fotografia. Wokół "Wymazywania" i nie tylko

Thomas Bernhard was not an expert in photography, its history and especially theory. He never dealt with the discursive description of her phenomenon. However, in his last great novel, Extinction (1986), he made several photos a kind of memory trigger and a center for building a story. The article deals with the issue of a special, extremely critical, not to say iconoclastic, assessment of the role of photography as a medium of stupefying people who succumb to its seductive power. The analysis of the fragments of photography appearing in the novel is just a starting point for deeper reflection on the impossibility of erasing photography as a medium of memory, it is a fundamental polemic with the thesis of the novel narrator, which the author identifies with the author himself. Here, Thomas Bernhard’s Extinction is an excuse to reflect on how photography and photographing can be considered a disease of our time, as the Austrian writer anticipated in his novel in the eighties of the last century