Images in power: Flusser and the Timișoara fake

Authors

  • Francesco Restuccia Sapienza Università Roma

Abstract

This article is about Vilém Flusser’s theory of technical images in the light of the Romanian Revolution. In December 1989 some photos of corpses were broadcasted as a documentation of a huge massacre perpetrated by the political police of the regime of Ceaușescu in Timișoara, Romania. Those pictures had a deep effect on population and probably had a role in the increase in tension that lead to the violent end of the Revolution. It was later discovered that the corpses in the photos were not related to the police repression and that the carnage that occurred was not as huge as it was thought. Many media theorists immediately discussed what happened in Romania in several congresses and articles. Among them was Vilém Flusser, an important (and underrated) philosopher and communication theorist. This article will focus on his hypotheses and will only use the Romanian events as a background to retrace Flusser’s ideas on the “conditions of truth” of photography and video. In his late writings Flusser questions the objectivity of photography and the concept of document. Technical images are not subjective, but they have an emotional power on people and affect the circumstances they are supposed to catch objectively. One shouldn’t ask if a photo is true or false, but what its effects are: not what it is, but what it makes.

Author Biography

Francesco Restuccia, Sapienza Università Roma

Francesco Restuccia è dottorando in filosofia presso l'Università di Roma La Sapienza con un progetto su Vilém Flusser e l’idolatria nell’epoca dei nuovi media. Ha compiuto soggiorni di studio presso l’EHESS a Parigi, l’USP a São Paulo e l’UDK a Berlino. Si occupa di estetica e teoria dei media, con un particolare interesse per l’indice storico delle immagini. Ha pubblicato articoli sul pensiero di Flusser, di Benjamin, di Baudrillard e di Wiener, sull’opera di Farocki, sull’estetica del cinema e delle rovine, sulle prime immagini cristiane e sull’impatto estetico delle nuove tecnologie, apparsi in riviste come Elephant&CastleFlusser StudiesLo sguardoCarte semioticheNuova secondariaFilosofie e saperi. Collabora con il collettivo –ATI Suffix, con cui ha portato avanti diversi progetti artistici e ha partecipato ad alcune mostre in Italia e all’estero.

Published

01-11-2017

How to Cite

Restuccia, F. (2017). Images in power: Flusser and the Timișoara fake. Elephant & Castle, (17). Retrieved from https://elephantandcastle.unibg.it/index.php/eac/article/view/379

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