Para-images (n.)

1. everything else (besides or beyond the visible picture) that sustains the image surface and gives it meaning

Para-images: Cultural Ideas and Technical Apparatuses Beyond the Pictorial Surface is a combination of a theoretical text and a conceptual photography project. The text develops a post-representational image theory through seven stories of images of water splashes – from Da Vinci's drawing to water simulation. The conceptual artwork begins with the story of British physicist Arthur Worthington who studies the complex process of fluid flow before the invention of photography. The project simulates Worthington's well-documented experiment from his book ’Study of A Splash’ using 3D modeling software. The conflation of traditional photography and 3D rendering epitomizes the displacement of the human eye in knowledge production in the new era of simulation and computational images.

Full abstract

Full digital copy on request

Text and photo by Sheung Yiu
Design by Joosung Kang
Text edited by Sophie Wright
Printed with the help of Pia Parjanen-Aaltonen at Aalto University

The rights of the photographs of artworks referenced in the text are reserved to their rightful owners.

You can support the artist via Patreon or get the book. Email me.

P18: The term ‘intromission theory’ should be replaced with ‘extromission theory’

P72: The quote “we have to remember that it is not only image quality that distinguishes digital from analog, it is data, the code itself.” was wrongly attributed to Hito Steyerl. It should be attributed to Marisa Olson’s essay What’s In An Image? published on Aperture Magazine, where she referred to Steyerl’s essay In Defense of the Poor Image

The book is shortlisted for KASSEL DUMMY AWARD 2020.