Visual culture is said to have replaced reality itself. Forexample, pictures from outer space are visualizations in whichcertain colors and spaces represent radio frequencies. To theaverage viewer, are these pictures reality?
Answer
One of the most persistent themes inthe history of visual representation is the tension between what weperceive as reality and what we conceive as virtual. That is,between the material world and the non-material, illusionistrepresentation. Plato’s myth of the cave that narrates the story ofthe chained prisoners who were caught within the perceptualimpossibility to tell what is real and what is illusion speaksprecisely about this. Similarly, Pliny’s account
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