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The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices
In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1977) recounts the ancient Greek parable of the contest between the Zeuxis and Parrhasios, two artists competing to paint the most convincing trompe l'oeil painting. In the first instance, Zeuxis painted...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Michaelis School of Fine Art
2024
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| _version_ | 1867614173573152768 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Tanner, Nicolas |
| author2 | Brundrit, Jean |
| author_browse | Brundrit, Jean Tanner, Nicolas |
| author_facet | Brundrit, Jean Tanner, Nicolas |
| author_sort | Tanner, Nicolas |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1977) recounts the ancient Greek parable of the contest between the Zeuxis and Parrhasios, two artists competing to paint the most convincing trompe l'oeil painting. In the first instance, Zeuxis painted grapes so perfectly that birds flew down from the sky to peck on them. Satisfied with his undertaking, he then turns to Parrhasios and asks him to lift the veil to see the painting behind it – failing to realise that the veil itself is the lifelike painting. Naturally, Parrhasios won the competition. This is not due to any superior technical mastery, but because his painting reveals an interesting conception relating to the very nature of human perception. That is to say, perception is never ‘neutral', we never simply see reality ‘as it is' – there is always an underlying psychic economy of (unconscious) hopes, fears, and desires which structures our very perception of reality itself. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39235 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:47:50.293Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| publisherStr | Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/39235 The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices Tanner, Nicolas Brundrit, Jean Inggs, Stephen Fine Arts In The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, Seminar XI, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1977) recounts the ancient Greek parable of the contest between the Zeuxis and Parrhasios, two artists competing to paint the most convincing trompe l'oeil painting. In the first instance, Zeuxis painted grapes so perfectly that birds flew down from the sky to peck on them. Satisfied with his undertaking, he then turns to Parrhasios and asks him to lift the veil to see the painting behind it – failing to realise that the veil itself is the lifelike painting. Naturally, Parrhasios won the competition. This is not due to any superior technical mastery, but because his painting reveals an interesting conception relating to the very nature of human perception. That is to say, perception is never ‘neutral', we never simply see reality ‘as it is' – there is always an underlying psychic economy of (unconscious) hopes, fears, and desires which structures our very perception of reality itself. 2024-03-11T13:30:10Z 2024-03-11T13:30:10Z 2020 2024-03-11T12:21:51Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39235 eng application/pdf Michaelis School of Fine Art Faculty of Humanities |
| spellingShingle | Fine Arts Tanner, Nicolas The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| title_full | The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| title_fullStr | The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| title_short | The Emblematic Divide: Contemplating Reality, the Imaginary and Perception in Photographic Practices |
| title_sort | emblematic divide contemplating reality the imaginary and perception in photographic practices |
| topic | Fine Arts |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/39235 |
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