Calendar | Conference

La expresión por la imagen: la fenomenología y los nuevos medios

Congreso Sociedad Española de Fenomenología

Ciudad Real, 22 - 24 October 2018

CFP is closedOriginal Call for Papers

In a time in which it is spoken so much about the iconic turn which has replaced the linguistic turn; in a time in which semiotic studies, devoid of context, monopolize their analysis, it seems to be interesting to revisit the phenomenology of experience, especially the detailed investigations of Husserl about imagination, virtual reality and their significance in the “new media”, denomination including the more traditional ones based on the image and the new social networks proliferating everywhere. If modern media theory (McLuhan, School of Toronto, etc.) has demonstrated the interdependence between these media and thought, phenomenology can describe how do the new media influence the apprehension of the real and its expression. Conversely, it may also be useful to see how do virtuality, imagery and imagination determine the media and take form in them. With this in mind, it seems that in the 21st century it is still relevant to investigate and clarify some of the essential elements of phenomenological reflection in this regard. Some of them are formulated in the following questions:

  • What is the image for phenomenology?
  • What is the relationship between perception and imagination?
  • Is the neutrality-modification comparable to epojé?
  • Is the body schema an image of the body?
  • How does it work with the body of images?
  • Do social networks modify our body image?
  • What is the status of the image in phenomenological aesthetics and esthetics?
  • How do new technologies determine our capture of images?
  • New media: new links between matter and spirit?

Concepts are always embodied in philosophies that have been developed by particular philosophers; therefore, our questions can be inscribed in the topics that were opened by those who have preceded us. As the following example illustrate:

  • H. Bergson: The image as a material movement.
  • E. Husserl: Fantasy, imagination (Phantasie) and image consciousness (Bildbewusstsein).
  • W. Benjamin: Loss of the aura of the work of art at the age of its mechanical reproduction.
  • M. Heidegger: The era of the image of the world and the banalization of the pretension of objectivity.
  • J. P. Sartre: The imagination and the imaginary. M. Merleau-Ponty: imagination, perception, movement.
  • G. Deleuze: Image-movement versus image-time.

Phenomenological concepts in the field of the image and figures linked to the school of phenomenology, who made the image one of their central themes, will guide us in our own research. For this meeting we suggest the following lines:

  • The status of the image in phenomenology.
  • The imagination and the imaginary.
  • Imagination and emotions.
  • The treatment of the image in the new media.
  • Visual media and visibility.
  • Aesthetic and iconic turn.