Preliminary communication
Towards an iconology of the (post)human. From romanticism to Blade Runner 2049
Mirela Ramljak Purgar
; The Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek
Abstract
In the article we propose a specific iconology of the (post)human based on the motif of a tree. We question this typological determinant through different media and epochs, considering that its contextualization refers to the specificities of time and space in particular images, that is, to the inter/non/disciplinary connection of cultural paradigms from the period of romanticism to the film Blade Runner 2049. We propose a hypothesis that all these paradigms share the principles of imagination, alienation and striking visuality. Referring to the texts of theorists of the posthuman condition Žarko Paić, Rosa Braidotti and Donna Harraway, we argue that the space of imagination, according to the philosopher Ludger Schwarte, is the key concept for the understanding of the (post)human. The article begins with an analysis of the film Blade Runner 2049, which is then juxtaposed with the romantic painting of Caspar David Friedrich and, next, with a drawing by Adolf Waldinger, a Croatian artist of the transition from romanticism to realism. This is followed by the expressionist works of two “filmic painters”, who created the scenography for the film Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari, Walter Reimann and Hermann Warm, and then Tomislav Krizman's conceptual design for the first Croatian Spring Salon catalog in 1916. Next, we point to the tree element in Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. In all presented works, we analyze the aspects of space and the notion of “authentically human” together with the conceptual pair of imagination/intuition. Also, we analyze the specificity and changes of cultural paradigms, that is, the aspects that would connect all the works, starting with romanticism, with concerns about the continuity of modernity and its characteristic aporias. With this, we propose a dynamic iconology able to create new ideas about the (post)human in the image.
Keywords
(post)human; imagination; intuition, iconology; tree; image science; visual studies
Hrčak ID:
304960
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2023.
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