Title: To Lie and to Act: Potemkin's Villages, Cinema and Telepresence

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Tags: Article, 1995

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Side_images: to_lie_image_websize2.jpg

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Download_link: 08_article_1995.pdf

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Text: Abstract:

Representational technologies have served two main functions throughout human history: to deceive the viewer and to enable action, i.e., to allow the viewer to manipulate reality through representations. Fashion and make-up, paintings, dioramas, decoys and virtual reality fall into the first category. Maps, architectural drawings, x-rays, and Telepresence falls into the second. To deceive the viewer or to enable action: these are the two axes that structure the history of visual representations.

What are the new possibilities for deception and action offered by computer-based technologies such as computer imaging and Internet-based telepresence in contrast to older technologies of architecture, cinema, and video? If we are to construct a history that will connect all these technologies, where shall we locate key historical breaks? This essay will reflect on these questions.