視覺化痕跡：論時延技術如何傳介當代攝影中的身體

Abstract

自1980年代以降，數位成像技術在擷取影像畫質、影像編修、半色調、校色、分色等技法上都有卓越的進步。面對數位技法對傳統攝影所造成的變革，以及攝影本真性在數位革命中所引發的疑慮，知名視覺理論家米契爾（William Mitchell）將這個時期稱之為「後攝影時代」。相異於米契爾的批判，本論文從傳統暗房攝影至攝影數位化的轉折點出發，並以人類感知和數位技術之間的媒合可能作為考察節點。本論文旨在探討當代攝影中的身體能否在數位技術介入之後產生擴延性的意義。本論文探討攝影作品中因為採用數位時延技術而有變形、失焦、抹除等身體表現，並指出此時身體不只作為實現技術視覺化的場域，也傳介了新的感官經驗。論文第一章概述攝影術的歷史，並專注於1980年代以降數位成像技術的逐漸普及，以及往後衍生出數位後製技法與攝影本真性的論辯。第二章從梅洛龐帝（Maurice Merleau-Ponty）的經驗身體與身體圖示等概念出發，並援引知名媒介理論學者漢森（Mark B. N. Hansen）將數位技術納入對梅氏身體的補述。第三章將聚焦在數位攝影作品中身體移動的痕跡作為身體疆界擴延的解讀。第四章探問對於採用數位時延技術下的攝影作品是否鬆動了攝影的時間性，並將羅蘭巴特（Roland Barthes）對於攝影「此曾在」的概念導向攝影的潛在「時態轉變」，進而揭示未來的可能。本文各篇章立論輔以當代攝影作品，分析包括張照堂、吳政璋、李浩、袁廣鳴、傑．馬克．強森（Jay Mark Johnson）、亞歷山大．阿爾馬拉斯（Alejandro Almaraz）、安地列斯．格費勒（Andreas Gefeller）等攝影創作，探討當代數位藝術中人類感知與數位技術相互形構的發展趨勢。

Ever since the 1980s, digital imaging technology has made significant progress in gaining better image quality, employing such techniques as retouch, halftone, color correction, and color separation. As one of the first scholars to question the authenticity of photography in the wake of digital imaging revolution, William Mitchell terms this historical moment the “post-photographic era” in response to the impact of digital techniques on the creative process of photography. In contrast to Mitchell’s critique, this study positions itself at the transition from traditional emulsion-based photography to photography’s digitization and argues for digitization’s capacity to expand the human perception. To better grasp unexplored and underdeveloped sensibilities brought about by digital durational techniques, this study will zoom in on the image of the human body in particular photographic artworks. That is, this thesis focuses on the transformation of the human body in photographic artworks -- including distortions, blurrings, and disappearances -- and examines how the human body in these cases not only becomes the “site” that embodies temporalities but also mediates the expanded perceptual experience. Chapter One will provide a brief account of the history of contemporary photography, centered on the 1980s onward, the time when digital imaging technology started to gain currency. I will contend that the technical manipulation of photography proffered by digital technologies does not mark a radical departure from analog photography in terms of the “truth claim” of photography. Chapter Two looks at Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s conceptualization of the lived body (corps vécu) and the body schema (schéma corporel), and also reviews media theorist Mark B. N. Hansen’s revision of Merleau-Ponty. Furthermore, building on Hansen’s work, this chapter discusses how the body becomes the fundamental access to its exteriority. Chapter Three will expound on the expanded meaning of the body in photographic artworks by analyzing the effects of the bodily trace. Chapter Four suggests that if the photographic medium can present a nonlinear temporal flux in the pictorial plain, then it should have a potential “shift-in-tense” in photography’s temporality, running counter to Roland Barthes’s classic notion of “that-has-been.” This “shift-in-tense” points to the shifting temporalities in the frame, and at the same time reveals a new experience of time on the part of the viewer; that is to say, it gestures toward other potential temporalities, within and without the photographic frame. Supported by close analysis of the artworks of contemporary photographers, including Chang Chao-Tang, Wu Zheng-Chang, Li Hao, Yuan Goang-Ming, Jay Mark Johnson, Alejandro Almaraz, and Andreas Gefeller, this thesis proposes a bilateral analytical framework and asserts that the body not only constitutes but is also constituted by the photographic techniques.