Techniek in meervoud. Waarnemen en weergeven: negentiende-eeuws naturalisme en techniek

Abstract

Multiple technics. Observing and showing nineteenth-century natualism and technics. To study the effects of mediation, the paper advocates to consider not so much isolated instruments, as well interactions between technologies. The notion of complementary technologies is introduced in case such interactions articulate a theoretical problem. In the nineteenth century interactions between the phenakistiscope and photography highlight a sharp and fundamental distinction between the subjective visual experience and objective registration. A number ofimages are discussed, which, in the nineteenth century, led to fundamental misunderstandings, fierce debates, or philosophical inquiries. The concept of complementary technologies acknowledges that new media may produce new theoretical problems, and warns for hasty conclusions from (generalised) characteristics of re-presentations (of one medium) to human experience.