Abstract

This paper discusses two films by Harun Farocki – Ein Bild and Nicht löschbares Feuer – and relates them to the theoretical arguments of Mirzoeff’s counterhistory of visuality and Rancière’s emancipated spectator. The main thesis is that experimental, semantically unclear or incomplete image can be of purpose to the spectator in an epistemological sense. The paper suggests the use of notions capital image and capillary image for the purpose of understanding similarities and differences between historically divergent forms of image production. The research concludes by reiterating the possibility of spectatorial emancipation from the dominant image in strategies of showing the structure of production of the image on the screen. The work seen in the image becomes the work of the spectator in trying to demystify the homogeneity of its semantic codes.