Images in the heat of the moment or the reborn Phoenix of the documental image

Abstract

Despite the frequent discussion, either in the academic environment or the media, concerning the documental image, in the context of the so-called crisis in the documental culture as a whole, there is no denial of the proliferation of images and the increasing of a production with this proposal in the universe of communicative relations, be it printed or digital. If, in the realm of art, the hegemonic contemporaneous action consists of the figurative destabilization of the images, on the massive production media side, there is the affirmation of its stability as a basic condition to the action of documenting. Therefore we are not dealing here with defining the meaning of documental, since we base ourselves on the presupposition that this aspect is presented as the result of figurative-enunciative, plastic and tensive strategies, responsible for the multiple sense regimes. From these choices and organizations derive interactive modalities, based on the mediate or immediate nature of the comprehensive process, in a value system limiting the communicative action which makes evident the practical, cognitive, emotional or fiduciary functions (based on supposed systems of belief) of the symbolic mediations. The more general issue which guides this proposal is to investigate how the different media operate with these images and what types of communicative implications they provoke.