SOFT ICONOCLASM

The entirety of the para-cinematic network, that is, the public, the industry, DVD’s, amateur filmmaking software, academic & pop criticism, youtube and television, etc… is actively engaged in the practice of image-demystification – in latourian terminology, these elemental forces are working hard and overtime at denying that the fetish object they do/don’t worship, is in fact, a god. The god of cinema once had only two places to hide – in the material of the celluloid made of images that, themselves, remembered prior images, or in the mis-memory or dream of the audience. This Bergsonian metaphysic of the mnemonic (the image-remembrance) gave the cinema much of its power. Now, with its oneiric qualities outsourced and diluted to the ends of the electronic earth, can any art survive such a ruthless demystification?