Images at Work

Images at Work

by David Morgan
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 02/01/2018

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Images can be studied in many ways--as symbols, displays of artistic genius, adjuncts to texts, or naturally occurring phenomena like reflections and dreams. Each of these approaches is justified by the nature of the image in question as well as the way viewers engage with it. But images are often something more when they perform in ways that exhibit a capacity to act independent of human will. Images come alive--they move us to action, calm us, reveal the power of the divine, change the world around us. In these instances, we need an alternative model for exploring what is at work, one that recognizes the presence of images as objects that act on us. Building on his previous innovative work in visual and religious studies, David Morgan creates a new framework for understanding how the human mind can be enchanted by images in Images at Work. In carefully crafted arguments, Morgan proposes that images are special kinds of objects, fashioned and recognized by human beings for their capacity to engage us. From there, he demonstrates that enchantment, as described, is not a violation of cosmic order, but a very natural way that the mind animates the world around it. His groundbreaking study outlines the deeply embodied process by which humans create culture by endowing places, things, and images with power and agency. These various agents--human and non-human, material, geographic, and spiritual--become nodes in the web of relationships, thus giving meaning to images and to human life. Marrying network theory with cutting-edge work in visual studies, and connecting the visual and bodily technologies employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to secular icons like Che Guevara, Abraham Lincoln, and Mao, Images at Work will be transformative for those curious about why images seem to have a power of us in ways we can't always describe.

ISBN:
9780190272135
9780190272135
Category:
The arts: general issues
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
02-01-2018
Language:
English
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
David Morgan

Dave Morgan was born in Melbourne in 1948. He, his twin Don, older brother Gerald and sister Sybil (Patsy) were raised single-handedly by their mother, Sybella, widowed when husband Gerald (Gus) died suddenly during her pregnancy with the twins. With a childhood filled with many moves due to Sybella’s ill heath and her need to find work, Dave found adventure and a taste for travelling. He joined the Citizens Military Force in his sub-senior year and took private flying lessons, eventually joining the Army at the end of the school year.

On 1 January 1969, he left his family in Brisbane for Vietnam as part of the 104 Signal Squadron. During his term, he served at several fire support bases and dealt with attacks by the Viet Cong. During one of those attacks, his pit hole engulfed him, and after he returned to an unsympathetic Australia, he started reliving that experience night after night.

He hid it well from all but his family – wife Deb and children David and Michelle. They moved around Queensland for Dave’s job as a Technical Officer (Weather Observer) for the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, but his desire for isolation led him to expeditions at Macquarie Island and Davis Station. A few hours after he arrived at Casey Station for his next expedition, he slipped on blue ice and his severe head and neck injury forced a medivac back to the mainland.

Now retired, Dave is seeking treatment for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which Antarctica finally made him acknowledge he had it.

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