När bilder berör. En studie av Alfredo Jaars verk Shadows, 2014.

Abstract

This study focuses on the work Shadows, 2014, by the artist Alfredo Jaar and his intent to convey the feeling and suffering from an image to the viewer. It examines how the experience of his work could be understood through touch with the application of a haptic and affective perspective. The installation has been studied through the application of Laura U. Mark’s theory of haptic visuality and Roland Barthes’ theory of the photographic punctum. The two theories emphasize the role of the body, memory, and emotions in engaging and involving the viewer in the meaning-making of images. The study shows that the artist use of architecture and light to a higher degree could incline a viewer to perceive them through haptic looking. Yet the study shows that these physiological experiences do not necessarily provoke an affective wound in a viewer in the way Barthes describes with punctum. Still the work could be seen as a dynamic reenactment of the intense effect that a photograph can have on the viewer as described by Barthes as punctum.