Eleventh International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Taking images and objects of ambiguous purpose and meaning as its focus, this paper considers the style and type of discourse employed to understand “troublesome” images. That is, images and objects whose meaning(s) defy definite knowledge of meaning, intent and usage. It considers the interrelation between discourses of image ontology, intersubjective aesthetics and other-than-human agency in the analysis of such ambiguous material culture, and the limits (or boundaries) of what can and cannot be comfortably be proposed — within a contemporary academic framework — as reasonable interpretation. An overarching concern is the way that discursive forms of academic argument limit a scholars’ ability to present a range of potential interpretations concurrently. What are the possibilities available when the interpretation of an image does not ‘fit’ within any of the interpretative categories available within dominant discourse? How can we step outside that discourse with elegance and expertise? How do we juggle the multiple narratives and multiple identities that images and material culture elicit? Case studies are drawn from “magical” tents and objects from Late-Antiquity and contemporary art.