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February 08, 2006
When Images Offend
The psychological forces that lead people to be offended by an image are invisible and unpredictable. But when people set out to offend an image, to censure, denounce, or punish it, their behavior is out in the open where we can look at it. A kind of theatrical excess in the rituals of smearing, burning, mutilating, whitewashing, egg- and excrement-throwing turns the punishment of images into a spectacular image in its own right (the destruction of the World Trade Center being the most horrific example in our time).
A picture is less like a statement or speech act, then, than like a speaker capable of an infinite number of utterances. An image is not a text to be read, but a ventriloqiust's dummy into which we project our own voice. When we are offended by what an image "says," we are like the ventriloquist insulted by his own dummy.
-- W.J.T. Mitchell, "Offending Images," from What Do Pictures Want
An uncomfortably penetrating book to read in the middle of the Danish cartoon fiasco.
Art | By elissa | 04:11 PM
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Comments
Perhaps he is correct, that the psychological forces that lead one to be offended by an image are somewhat unknown, but with my Covenant training I have to believe that a person's worldview may lend some insight as to what motivates a person to be, or not to be, offended by an image. The interesting thing to me in this situation is not the Danish newspaper and its history of controvery, but the Muslim reaction and their history of chaos and aggression. And given the theological foundation of Islam, as John Piper noted today
, there is a predictable basis for the Muslim uproar.
Posted by: Luther at February 9, 2006 11:20 AM
Jason,
I was going to respond in the comments, but it turned into a post-length deal. Go here.
I definitely agree that a person's worldview contributes to what images she does or does not find offensive, but I also think that Mitchell is helpful when thinking about our own responsiblity and action when we look at pictures, the power that we give them, and the thoughtless ways that we respond to them.
Posted by: elissa at February 9, 2006 07:12 PM
