Political and Ideological Boundaries in Visual Culture

U radu se ispituje vizualna kultura s obzirom na opreku prirodno/kulturno. Istraživanjem koje obuhvaća radove W. T. J. Mitchella, W. Benjamina, M. Foucaulta i J. Baudrillarda pokazuje se povijest uloge vizualnog i značenja koja ono može imati u širem društvenom kontekstu. Utvrđuje se nemogućnost da se vizualnost odredi samo kao prirodnu ljudsku zadanost te se stoga iznosi uloga koju u njoj imaju ideološki i politički mehanizmi. Sama ideologija prikaza se razotkriva kao uvijek prisutna, a naročito s tehnološkim razvitkom, a prije svega usponom fotografije, filma, televizije i Interneta. Ideologija prikaza tim razvitkom napreduje do ideologije vidljivoga kao stvarnoga, a u pozadini gubi referentnu točku u stvarnosti. Ipak, kako se viziji ne može u potpunosti odreći prirodnost, pokazuje se da vizualno treba promatrati u stalnoj interakciji prirodnog i kulturnog. Takva dvosmjernost odnosa pokazuje i (ne)skrivenu moć vizualnoga, ali i ne uvijek unaprijed zadanu ideološku moć slika. Statičnost isključivo prirodne ili ideološke paradigme vizualnosti se napušta, a produkti vizualnosti ne zauzimaju više samo unaprijed definiranu poziciju subjekta moći i time tvore granicu ideološkog i političkog u vizualnoj kulturi.In this paper, the dichotomy of natural and cultural is explored in terms of visual culture. The research that encompasses the works of W. T. J. Mitchell, W. Benjamin, M. Foucault and J. Baudrillard is used to show the historical role of the visual and the meaning it can have in a broader social context. The inability to define visuality as an exclusively natural human trait is determined and thus the role which ideological and political mechanisms have within it is laid out. The ideology of the image is uncovered as omnipresent, especially with the technological development and above all the rise of photography, film industry, television and the internet. With these developments, the ideology of the image advances toward the ideology of the visual as the real, while in the background it loses any reference point in reality. However, since the vision cannot be entirely devoid of the natural, it is shown that the visual should be observed in a continuous interaction of the natural and cultural. This two-way relationship also demonstrates the (un)hidden power of the visual, but also not always predetermined ideological power of images. The immobility of an exclusively natural or ideological paradigm of visuality is abandoned and products of visuality no longer occupy a predefined position of the subject of power and thus create the boundary of ideological and political in visual culture