At the Threshold of the Image (Hardcover)

Andrea Pinotti

ISBN 10: 1945861029 / ISBN 13: 9781945861024

Published by Zone Books, New York, 2025

About this Item

Hardcover. An exploration of the impact of immersive experiences on visual practices from cave painting to virtual realityIn this groundbreaking book, philosopher Andrea Pinotti explores the impacts of a desire that has motivated human beings since prehistory: the desire to enter an image. He proposes that over the centuries, every culture has tried to realize this wish with whatever visual resources were available at the time, and todays virtual reality technologies seem close to fulfilling it. The image in VR becomes an immersive 360-degree environment and the frame that used to confine it to a world apart disappears. Even the physical medium in which the image materializes appears to be transparent. However, Pinotti insists that once the border between the real world and the iconic world becomes permeable, we are faced with a troubling two-way passage: we penetrate the world of the image, but the image floods into our world. The desire for being encompassed by the image, he shows, is accompanied by fear of this overflowing. In its analysis of this desire/fear, At the Threshold of the Image takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from the myths of Narcissus and Pygmalion to contemporary VR headsets, passing through the pictorial traditions of trompe loeil and living sculptures, the mirrors in Alice in Wonderland, illusionistic architecture, panoramas and phantasmagorias, and 3D cinema. "This book invites us to linger on the threshold that both separates and joins the real and the iconic world"-- Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781945861024

Bibliographic Details

• Title: At the Threshold of the Image (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Zone Books, New York
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1945861029
• ISBN 13: 9781945861024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

An exploration of the impact of immersive experiences on visual practices from cave painting to virtual reality

In this groundbreaking book, philosopher Andrea Pinotti explores the impacts of a desire that has motivated human beings since prehistory: the desire to enter an image. He proposes that over the centuries, every culture has tried to realize this wish with whatever visual resources were available at the time, and today’s virtual reality technologies seem close to fulfilling it. The image in VR becomes an immersive 360-degree environment and the frame that used to confine it to a world apart disappears. Even the physical medium in which the image materializes appears to be transparent. However, Pinotti insists that once the border between the real world and the iconic world becomes permeable, we are faced with a troubling two-way passage: we penetrate the world of the image, but the image floods into our world. The desire for being encompassed by the image, he shows, is accompanied by fear of this overflowing. In its analysis of this desire/fear, At the Threshold of the Image takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from the myths of Narcissus and Pygmalion to contemporary VR headsets, passing through the pictorial traditions of trompe l’oeil and living sculptures, the mirrors in Alice in Wonderland, illusionistic architecture, panoramas and phantasmagorias, and 3D cinema.

About the Author

Andrea Pinotti is Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Milan. He is author of Empathie: Histoire d’une idée de Platon au post-humain and Nonumento: Un paradosso della memoria.