Instant and Duration : the photograph and Bergsonism

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Other Title
  • 瞬間と持続 : 写真とベルクソニスム
  • シュンカン ト ジゾク : シャシン ト ベルクソニスム

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Abstract

Henri Bergson states that "duration", which cannot be fragmented into instants, has reality, and that the instants themselves are unreal. Herein lies the difficulty of discussing the photograph from a Bergsonist viewpoint. To solve this problem, this paper proposes that Bergson treats the "any-instant-whatever" as a kind of duration, but one which is without memory, and is therefore extremely expanded. In contrast, subjective human perception is a condensing of myriads of instants via the memory, and is therefore a contracted duration. Without memory, the any-instant-whatevers return to themselves, and become objective. This paper proposes that the camera, being only physical matter without human memory, reveals the any-instant-whatever that had become indistinguishable in the contracting memory. From this viewpoint, the photograph is objective in its instantaneity, revealing instantaneous "differences" that are "useless" for human beings; Bergson recognizes that "revelation" is a function of art. Thus, the "optical unconscious" revealed instantaneously by the photograph, refers not to psychological reality, but to the objective (material) world.

Journal

  • Aesthetics

    Aesthetics 64 (1), 35-46, 2013

    The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

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