MA thesis: Negative form/In-form：a study of image and Bildung (formation) based on the congenital blind

Abstract: This article bases on the fact Gombrich said that the power of the imageryincluded in the realistic representational art was obscured by the visual objects ofdevaluation and flooding in daily life, and observes the special significance of thecongenital blind in rediscovering the hallucination of vision.

In the previous part, the positive and negative relationship between the sightedand the congenital blind at the image level is seen as a clue. First of all, it touches onthe dual nature of the screen. It is precisely because the transparency of the screen is notpossible for the blind, they can firmly grasp the materiality of the screen for us toreflect on how we see through the screen. Secondly, on the basis of this plane-screen,the person who recovered from congenital blindness take us traversing perspectives,distances, outlines, and overlapping , which are visal framing“setups”;through“thefirst gaze” for the world, this great visionary engineering is “visualized”. Then, throughthe generalization of the image,the specificity of te human imaging experience ispositioned in the “fixing”, and the dilemma of the extremely ambiguous imageconsciousness that accompanied the externalization of the image is outlined. Focusingon analyzing one of the imaging modalities in which we are deeply located-the lensstyle, the analysis of the imaging experience is pushed from the optical projection to thesymbol level. Separating the different levels of perception and comprehension containedin the relationship of seeing and unable to see , the author propose that language is thecondition of the construction of the positive and negative relations between the sightedand the congenital blind at the image level, and this relationship at the image level arepenetrated by the deep forming of language, visual studies cannot be separated fromlanguage studies.

In the second part, the clue becomes the words that contain the visual gene. Theconcept of Bildung is brought about by Helen Keller’s “naming moment”,through wordsand things, the world is formed,and through symbolic behaviors ,things are named, thesymbolic behaviors contain an inherent difference . The overall texture of the words andthings of the congenital blind is hidden things, plausible language.Things become morehidden and unrealized , the congenital blind increasingly rely on the literal cues of  language to form. Those words that contain visual genes are“comprehended”in anetwork of language. What is the meaning of this “comprehension” still keeps unknown.

In the end the author stays in the darkness and confusion of the conversation,tentatively using it as a perceptual material for the formative ability of language in thevisual study, which can be used by other colleagues to analyze and find a way to reachthe deep forming.

Keywords: Congenital blind, Screen, Image, Bildung, Formation

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