数字时代的表征危机——“摄影终结论”的理论症候
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摘要
"摄影终结论"是20世纪80年代随着数字技术的兴起而出现的对摄影处境的一种判断。"摄影终结论"认为数字技术导致了摄影的终结和死亡,因为数码技术使得摄影真实性或客观再现这一摄影基本的属性受到了威胁。然而,从根本上说,支撑"摄影终结论"的所谓摄影真实性危机并非是数字技术造成的,而是摄影客观再现观念崩溃的结果以及后现代社会人文学科领域表征危机的反映。不可否认的是,数字技术的参与的确加速了表征危机的进程,使得非表征性的拟像生产变得异常容易。
The end of photography'theory is a judgment on the situation of photography with the emergence of digital technologies in the 1980 s.Some theorists believe that photography is coming to an end,the main reason being that digital technology has led to the disintegration of the nature of photography——objective truth or representation.But fundamentally,the crisis of photography representation is not caused by digital technology but is a result of the collapse of the concept of objective representation in photography and a reflection of the crisis in the whole area of the humanities in post-modern society.It is undeniable that digital technology has accelerated the process of the crisis,so that the non-representational simulacra production becomes very easy.
The end of photography'theory is a judgment on the situation of photography with the emergence of digital technologies in the 1980 s.Some theorists believe that photography is coming to an end,the main reason being that digital technology has led to the disintegration of the nature of photography——objective truth or representation.But fundamentally,the crisis of photography representation is not caused by digital technology but is a result of the collapse of the concept of objective representation in photography and a reflection of the crisis in the whole area of the humanities in post-modern society.It is undeniable that digital technology has accelerated the process of the crisis,so that the non-representational simulacra production becomes very easy.
引文
[1]Kendall L Walton.Transparent Pictures:On the Nature of Photographic Realism[M]//Scott Walden,ed.Photography and Philosophy:Essays on the Pencil of Nature.Malden:Blackwell Publishing Ltd.2010:22.
[2]Martha Rosler.Image Simulation,Computer Manipulations:Some Considerations[M]//Hubertus v.Amelunxen,ed.Photography After Photography:Memory and Representation in the Digital Age.New York:Distributed Art Publishers,1996:36.
[3]马丁·李斯特.电子影像时代的摄影[M]//上帝的眼睛——摄影的哲学.北京:中国人民大学出版社,2005.
[4]William J Michell.The Reconfigured Eye:Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Era[M].Cambridge:MIT,1992:16.
[5]Lev Manovich.The Paradoxes of Digital Photography[M]//Liz Wells.The Photography Reader.New York:Routledge,2003.
[6]居伊·德波.景观社会[M].王昭凤,译.南京:南京大学出版社,2007:3.
[7]马歇尔·麦克卢汉.理解媒介——论人的延伸[M].何道宽,译.北京:商务印书馆,2000:249.
[8]让·波德里亚.拟像先行[M]//布莱恩·沃利斯.现代主义之后的艺术:对表现的反思.宋晓霞,译.北京:北京大学出版社,2012:289.
[9]Victor Burgin.The Image in Pieces:Digital Photography and the Location of Cultural Experience[M]//Hubertus v.Amelunxen,ed.Photography After Photography:Memory and Representation in the Digital Age.New York:Distributed Art Publishers,1996:29.
[10]Steve Edward.Photography.A Very Short Introduction[M].Oxford:Oxford University Press,2006:129.
[11]约斯·德·穆尔.后现代艺术与哲学的浪漫之欲[M].徐骆,译.武汉:武汉大学出版社,2010:274.
[12]Michael Rush.New Media in Late 20th-Century Art[M].London:Thames&Hudson,1999:170.
[13]Jonathan Cary.Techniques of the Observer:On Vision and Modernity in the 19thCentury[M].Cambridge:MIT,1993:1.
1韦尔斯在《数码化与名存实亡的摄影》(Digitisation and the Living Death of Photography,1990)一文中,就已经意识到数码化给摄影带来的危机。后来,威廉·米切尔在《重塑的目光:后摄影时代的视觉真实》(The Reconfigured Eye:Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Era,1992)一书中使用“后摄影时代”(post-photograph era)这一术语来指称摄影终结后的时代。米尔佐夫在《视觉文化导论》一书中甚至准确地将摄影死亡的时间确定在1982年,因为这一年卢卡斯电影特技公司曾宣称他们的工作已经使作为物证的摄影终结了。
2表征和再现在西文中对应的是同一个词(在英语中是representation,在法语中是represéntation,在德语中是Darstellung)。根据雷蒙德·威廉斯在《关键词》一书中的考证,represent的基本含义是一物替代另一物的“再次-呈现”之意。后来所谓“代议制民主政治”(representative democracy)的用法即是由此衍生而来。一般来说,在汉语语境中,当指事物呈现于心灵上的时候,翻译为“表象”;当指事物呈现于眼前时,翻译为“再现”。之所以翻译为“表征”是为了和传统以相似为基础的精确再现相区别。在文化研究中representation已经有了新的内涵,它强调的是符号和话语系统在替代现实时候的建构性特征。
[2]Martha Rosler.Image Simulation,Computer Manipulations:Some Considerations[M]//Hubertus v.Amelunxen,ed.Photography After Photography:Memory and Representation in the Digital Age.New York:Distributed Art Publishers,1996:36.
[3]马丁·李斯特.电子影像时代的摄影[M]//上帝的眼睛——摄影的哲学.北京:中国人民大学出版社,2005.
[4]William J Michell.The Reconfigured Eye:Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Era[M].Cambridge:MIT,1992:16.
[5]Lev Manovich.The Paradoxes of Digital Photography[M]//Liz Wells.The Photography Reader.New York:Routledge,2003.
[6]居伊·德波.景观社会[M].王昭凤,译.南京:南京大学出版社,2007:3.
[7]马歇尔·麦克卢汉.理解媒介——论人的延伸[M].何道宽,译.北京:商务印书馆,2000:249.
[8]让·波德里亚.拟像先行[M]//布莱恩·沃利斯.现代主义之后的艺术:对表现的反思.宋晓霞,译.北京:北京大学出版社,2012:289.
[9]Victor Burgin.The Image in Pieces:Digital Photography and the Location of Cultural Experience[M]//Hubertus v.Amelunxen,ed.Photography After Photography:Memory and Representation in the Digital Age.New York:Distributed Art Publishers,1996:29.
[10]Steve Edward.Photography.A Very Short Introduction[M].Oxford:Oxford University Press,2006:129.
[11]约斯·德·穆尔.后现代艺术与哲学的浪漫之欲[M].徐骆,译.武汉:武汉大学出版社,2010:274.
[12]Michael Rush.New Media in Late 20th-Century Art[M].London:Thames&Hudson,1999:170.
[13]Jonathan Cary.Techniques of the Observer:On Vision and Modernity in the 19thCentury[M].Cambridge:MIT,1993:1.
1韦尔斯在《数码化与名存实亡的摄影》(Digitisation and the Living Death of Photography,1990)一文中,就已经意识到数码化给摄影带来的危机。后来,威廉·米切尔在《重塑的目光:后摄影时代的视觉真实》(The Reconfigured Eye:Visual Truth in the Post Photographic Era,1992)一书中使用“后摄影时代”(post-photograph era)这一术语来指称摄影终结后的时代。米尔佐夫在《视觉文化导论》一书中甚至准确地将摄影死亡的时间确定在1982年,因为这一年卢卡斯电影特技公司曾宣称他们的工作已经使作为物证的摄影终结了。
2表征和再现在西文中对应的是同一个词(在英语中是representation,在法语中是represéntation,在德语中是Darstellung)。根据雷蒙德·威廉斯在《关键词》一书中的考证,represent的基本含义是一物替代另一物的“再次-呈现”之意。后来所谓“代议制民主政治”(representative democracy)的用法即是由此衍生而来。一般来说,在汉语语境中,当指事物呈现于心灵上的时候,翻译为“表象”;当指事物呈现于眼前时,翻译为“再现”。之所以翻译为“表征”是为了和传统以相似为基础的精确再现相区别。在文化研究中representation已经有了新的内涵,它强调的是符号和话语系统在替代现实时候的建构性特征。