Dead Or Alive

Beskrivelse

Dead or Alive explores the intriguing paradox of images that are made from lifeless materials yet seem to pulse with life. This collection dives into how images capture and animate frozen moments, challenging our understanding of what images truly are.

Discovering the mysterious life-like quality of images across history and cultures.

The book delves into the age-old tension between images as static objects and their uncanny ability to appear alive. For centuries, artists have depicted the living world through images that, while fixed in time, seem to breathe with vitality. Despite the rational mindset of Modernity, we continue to perceive images as partially living beings.

Dead or Alive! brings together twelve insightful chapters from experts in art history and visual culture, each revealing how the physical nature of images creates this compelling sense of animation. The book spans a vast array of artistic practices, including early Paleolithic stone engravings, medieval tomb sculptures, Renaissance death masks, Baroque paintings, modern fashion, park design, early cinema, robots, and bio art.

By examining these diverse examples, the book shows that the ontological paradox of images is not confined to any one era or type of image. Instead, this fascinating phenomenon appears throughout the entire history of images and across various cultures, highlighting the enduring power of images to captivate and move us.

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