Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

What do images let us know? What information do they provide? Can we trust visual information and why do we give unargued credibility to (documentary) images? If we analyse an image, either an X-ray picture as a physician, or a photograph as a social scientist, questions will arise concerning information content, relation to reality, and reliability. For a long time, documentary images (e.g. photography), in a positivistic understanding were perceived to be a reproduction of reality. Promulgation through the mass media influencing our perception and our shaping of reality contrasted the constructivist view and showed that each image is involved in producing and constructing our reality. Examples of image manipulation, e.g. in war journalism (embedded journalism), should raise our awareness that the use of images has always been subject to processes of “objectification”, “institutionalization” and “legitimization”. Even the objectivised “medical image”, despite its unquestioned postulation of relation to reality, is exposed to these mechanisms. In our paper presentation, we will outline basic principles of computer based medical image analysis and will add perspectives of image theory to it. By using examples of image manipulation and misinterpretation, we would like to sharpen the awareness for a critical consideration of the reality content of images in Natural as well as in Human Sciences and will plea for promoting visual literacy on a meta-level in academia.