Images – produced images – have not and never will simply exist, i.e. “be there”. Rather, they emerge, appear, “come into existence”, and develop. Images thus have a history, especially an early history. This project explores the genesis of images, as well as their contexts and conditions.
But how do images appear or rather “emerge”? Which properties, structural formations, and developmental tendencies can be observed in early graphic expressions? Are early images products or processes? Are early pictorial properties universal, contingent upon their context of production, or individual? What do early pictorial knowledge and aesthetics consist of? Which general, universal aspects of early symbolic behaviour do early images refer to? Which general pictorial rules does pictorial genesis refer to?
Subproject 1: 1999–2001
Subproject 2: 2002–2004
Subproject 3: 2005–2007