Image – reality

(Crang P. in Cloke P.,Crang P.,Goodwin M., 1999: Introducing Human Geograhies, Arnold, London, 368
s.)



Geographers work with images, but they call them charts, graphs, and even, maps.



´Good´and ´bad´images

´Symbolic´opposes to ´real´



Image is taken to imply the opposite of real in a series of binary pairs (circuit)



Geographers have studied ´mental maps´ to see how these diverge from ´reality´ as   a subjective
representation.



How images refract, reflect and alter the the world , how they shape action of the people.



Relationship of image and reality is rather more complex.



Images go into forming the ideas and understanding of the world, based on which people make choices
and act.



Geographers produce images of the world, so we need to re-evaluate what role images play in
geographical knowledge.



We select and filter what we see and what we make of it.



Perception is grounded in frailties and adaptations of the body.



Our orientation also plays an important part in ordering experience.



We understand ourselves spatially, as we recall the world in mental maps to situate ourselves.



Our consciousness is always consciousness of something  (E.Relph), it is not free floating.



Our images of distant places may be on own experiences or they may be memories  of images produced
by others.



Images of the world are not simply own but are derived from social sources > different cultures
have different ways of seeing the world and representing it.



M.Heidegger: crucial shift in how Western people experienced the world was when it become conceived
as a picture.



The world became seen as separate and detached from the viewer  (camera obscura…images producing)



Images express changing experiences of space and time.



The great cities, modern communications and transport created a fragmented experience not a
coherent world.



Geographies  of images :

Hollywood, Bollywood, Hongkong, global news corporations and media events, circulation of images.



Multinational business, global transmission, images of power and control.



Tourist snapshots….what is photogenic?

Brouchers and postcards.



How images shape reality?

U.Eco: hyperreality – copies are more important and realistic, than their original.

Going a step further: J. Baudrillard – simulacra = copies for which there is no original.



Images do not just reflect reality but shape actions, experiences and beliefs.



Metaphores : a phrase which describes one thing by stating another thing which can be compared ( as
in the roses in her cheeks) without using the words ‘ as’ or ‘ like’

/ simile – if we use ‘ as’ or ‘ like’ = comparison in the imagination between two things, e.g. ‘ as
white as snow’ /



Models and images….