Rediscovering “wonder” through i-docs

Abstract

From the invention of geometrical perspective onwards images have, in a Western context, been characterised by a specific politics and epistemological ambition. Solidified by the invention of the camera, “our” images have separated the observer from the observed, the mind from the body, allowing for what has been considered a “neutral” observation. “New images” (i.e. images produced with emerging digital visual technologies) are today posing a challenge to such conventions. Relational, material, haptic and immersive by nature,such images go hand in hand with new image-making practices characterised by nonlinearity, interactivity, participativity and immersivity. The present article explores this emerging terrain in the context of the documentary form. Moving back and forth in space and time, hence comparing image-making practices that belong to different cultures and epochs, the article engages with the key political and epistemological challenges of the documentary image in the contemporary digital habitats.