I recently chaired and presented on a panel at the annual conference of the Society for Literature, Science and Art in Portland, ME, November 4-7, 2007.
Our panel investigated the theoretical potential of Norbert Wiener's concept of the "operative image" as a linking structure in philosophy, material science, and art. Wiener proposes this puzzling category of image in his God and Golem, Inc (1964) in relationship to his broad concerns with machine learning, machine reproduction and the place of machines in society. His meditations appearing in God and Golem, Inc (1964) have religious and ethical sweep and hint at a number of techologically mediated roles for the image in thought and world-making.
My visually illustrated presentation analyzed this problematic convergence of the operative image and disordered time and draws implications for the field of visual studies. I concluded by advocating the continued relevance of visual studies to computer culture on the basis of operative image-language machines.
1 comment:
Do you have copies of the papers from this panel? I was at SLSA and would love to take a second look at what was discussed in your panel that day...
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