Quaderni di Venezia Arti

Poor Power Images in the Work of Hito Steyerl

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Abstract

In 2009 German video artist, documentary filmmaker and essayist Hito Steyerl releases her essay In Defense of the Poor Image. Her definition of the ‘poor’ image as “a copy in motion” can be transferred to contemporary mostly digital images in general. But with the new image technologies the artist diagnoses a replacement of poor images by power images, in the multiple meanings of the word ‘power’. In contrast to the proclaimed shift from poor images to power images the author rather speaks about poor power images. Instead of a replacement of poor images by power images one can observe poor images unfolding their powers while power images show various shades of poorness.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 17 Settembre 2023 | Accettato: 30 Ottobre 2023 | Pubblicato 22 Dicembre 2023 | Lingua: en

Keywords Poor power images • Post-representation • Post-Representation • Materialism • Poor power Images • New media installation art • Image theory • New Media Installation Art

Copyright © 2023 Jolanda Wessel. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-771-5/013


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