Construction of “PUNCTUM" Image

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Abstract

In the book “La Chambre Claire,” where the author Roland Barthes discusses the aesthetics value of photography, he defines photography in two different terms—“STUDIUM” and “PUNCTUM.” The author defined the Latin word “STUDIUM” as photographs with an unconcerned desire requiring “the rational intermediary of an ethical and political culture” (Barthes 1982, 27); “PUNCTUM,” also a Latin word, contains the meaning of “sting, little hole,” representing an accidental, sensitive partial picture, which has an ability to pierce through the image during the audiences’ observation process independently. This theory enables us to classify the emotions when examining photographs by clarifying the duality of photography. Nowadays, because of the rapid progress of media, it is getting difficult for images that containing “PUNCTUM” to step into the sight of public aesthetic, given the fact that its creation is contingent and disruptive instability. However, it is necessary to discuss “PUNCTUM” when analyzing the narrative function and the social memory of the images. The short documentary “Metro,” artists attempt to seek for the possibility of constructing “PUNCTUM” in images by interdisciplinary methods. Firstly, “PUNCTUM” expands the content of the image from mere individual reference to an art-formed text. The art-formed text and anthropological research are mutually interpreted and give the image a meaning of social practice. Secondly, by using its extended power, “PUNCTUM” can guide the audiences to break the stereotype of simply considering the image as a signifier, and further think outside of the image contexts. Thirdly, through participating in the “blank in the text” of a dialogue between viewer and the image, “PUNCTUM” constructs its governor theoretical atmosphere of “Metro.” Moreover, by the selection of details and using the “threshold” of space switching vividly, “PUNCTUM” has also given the audience a reflection of the collective memory of urban civilization, cultural cognition and the identity consciousness of thinking in an emotional sense.