Yearbook of Moving Image Studies (YoMIS) Series

One of the big myths and metaphors of the postmodern age is the Cyborg, which includes a large amount of different meanings. The Cyborg often expresses the transformation and extension of the body and exemplifies a postmodern range of technical determinism and human comprehension. In this perspective the Cyborg is no longer a concept of science fiction, technical apocalypse or cyberpunk, but more a construct that highlights the relation of modern media technologies within our every day culture; as well as the body and mind of spectators and users of these media systems. We are connected with a variety of poly-sensual media systems, and we use its potential for communication, multiplying knowledge, spatial and temporal orientation or aesthetic experience. Therefore we are a kind of Cyborgs, connected to media by complex multimodal interfaces. This volume monitors and discusses the relation of postmodern humans and media technologies and therefore refers to Cyborgs, interfaces and apparatuses within the perspective of an autonomous image science.

In the new media environment, how are bodies and images related? How can, in other words, the human body be integrated with and reformulated in relation to the sensory and perceptual dimension? In response to this question, Image Embodiment looks not just to images and surface appearences but addresses at a deeper level the media that act as the supports for aesthetics. To think about visual culture in the twenty-first century necessarily implies the thinking of the specific role of media technologies. A view to media not only teases out the technical infrastructure of images but brings with it the potential for addressing the different sense modalities and realities of the human body. Recent theories of the sensory turn are effectively highlighting innovative approaches for an autonomous image science and media theory in general. Image Embodiment provides one part of the discourse to synchronize the concepts of image and body, which is then able to connect the perspectives of philosophy of mind, perceptual theory and media as well as image science. This volume monitors and discusses the relation of media and the human body and refers to images, embodiment and the sensory turn within the perspective of an autonomous image science.

The history of images can be described as a history of technology and mediality. The development of images is deeply rooted in the potentials of media technologies and the numerous human inventions in the range of traditional craftsmanship, engineering science, computer science, and art and design. The factual embedding of images in the historical-technological processes constitutes a complex structure of an autonomous "image evolution" that must be highlighted, characterized and analyzed by the interdisciplinary academic discourses that are related to the functions and structures of visuality, pictoriality, and forms of multi-sensoric representations. The chosen term "evolution" is deliberately indicating structural laws that underlie historical events. These laws are intentional and logical processes of a historical and technological interdependency. In this interdependency, technology is evolving out of its inherent structures and additionally embedded in anthropological conditions and sociocultural dynamics. In this context, we should work with the concept of an "image evolution".

Common boundaries between the physical reality and rising digital media technologies are fading. The age of hyper-reality becomes an age of hyper-aesthetics. Immersive media as well as image technologies – like virtual reality – enable a completely novel form of interaction and corporeal relation to and with the virtual image structures. ›VR Images‹ contributes to the wide range of the hyper-aesthetic image discourse to connect the concept of dynamic virtual images with the approaches in modern media theory, philosophy, perceptual theory, aesthetics, computer graphics, art history and techno-art as well as the complex range of image science. Shared goal is a critical discussion of the specific epistemology of aesthetic and scientific approaches to VR. This volume discusses the relation of images and technological evolution in the context of virtual reality within the perspective of an autonomous image science.

Common boundaries between the physical reality and rising digital media technologies are fading. The age of hyper-reality becomes an age of hyper-aesthetics. Immersive media and image technologies – like augmented reality – enable a completely novel form of interaction and corporeal relation to and with the virtual image structures and the different screen technologies. »Augmented Images« contributes to the wide range of the hyper-aesthetic image discourse to connect the concept of dynamic augmented images with the approaches in modern media theory, philosophy, perceptual theory, aesthetics, computer graphics and art theory as well as the complex range of image science. This volume monitors and discusses the relation of images and technological evolution in the context of augmented reality within the perspective of an autonomous image science.

Media technology plays a significant role in addressing the different sense modalities of the recipient or user. This role seems to deeply influence our concepts of time and space: The more a media technology is becoming a trigger for sensory and perceptual experiences, the bigger is the influence on temporality and spatiality. Image Temporality could be one part of the temporality discourse to connect the concepts of static and dynamic images with the approaches in modern media theory, philosophy of mind, perceptual theory, aesthetics, and film studies as well as the complex range of image science.This volume monitors and discusses the relation of time, space and visual media within the perspective of an autonomous image science.