Paper short abstract:

The present paper offers a re-thinking of the meaning of images in a digital habitat. It addresses questions of inscription, magic and materiality.

Paper long abstract:

Incorporated into ruling discourses on "virtualization" and "sublimation", digital images have for long been looked upon as signs of the progressive detachment of those human being living in the digitized environments of the world from the materiality and sociability of everyday life. With the help of a selective overview of some contemporary digital imaging technologies and practices this paper will aim at confuting this notion. In a dialogue between anthropology, visual culture and arts history the present paper will suggest that contemporary digital images seem to remand us back to the politics of pre-photographic image-making practices. They are objects imbibed with those magical qualities that can be probably better found in the past or in non-western societies. Discussing also questions of immersivity, materiality and efficacy the paper will address the tension between technological determinism and human-centred approaches to image-making.