Abstract

The goal of this article is to bring together two methodological approaches to the study of images. The first was developed by Aby Warburg, around his work for the Mnemosyne Atlas. The second was created by researchers establishing the framework for a software entitled Lignes de Temps. I will try to demonstrate that a new methodology in the understanding of images works toward a ‘pedagogy of imagination’. I will also try to show how, from my point of view, this innovative methodology, which redefines the roles of the audience and its relationships to pictures, was already active within the research of Warburg. The spectator-researcher does not need a pre-established hypothesis. He or she can trust his own practice with the images to spark a new string of thoughts. From that potential of imagination and creation, a whole new field of singular and personal images may spring.