{"id":14119,"date":"2025-06-25T05:58:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T10:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=14119"},"modified":"2025-06-25T06:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T11:16:09","slug":"the-new-lives-of-images-readers-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/06\/25\/the-new-lives-of-images-readers-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Lives of Images: reader’s guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I created a (post-publication) \u201creader\u2019s guide<\/a>\u201d for my last monograph<\/a>, because it was really three (short) books in one and I didn\u2019t think all readers would be equally interested in all three of them, so I figured a road-map would be helpful. My new book, The New Lives of Images<\/a><\/em>, which Francesco Casetti rightly calls<\/a> \u201ctwo books in one,\u201d doesn\u2019t really need a reader\u2019s guide because the Preface provides that. But for those who want an even quicker overview, here it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book One (i.e., Part One) is theoretical and philosophical. It rethinks what \u201cimages\u201d and \u201cimagination\u201d are through a process-semiotic lens (more on that in a moment). It provides a loosely historical typology of images and how humans have related to them — from the very beginning of imaging to the world of digital media. And it examines what\u2019s at stake politically and ecologically with the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introducing the process-semiotic understanding of images and imagination takes some time, but here\u2019s the nutshell version. \u201cImagination\u201d is made of images by which we perceive and transform the world. And \u201cimages\u201d are events of meaning-making<\/em> mediated by things that bear some resemblance to — they look, sound, smell, taste, or feel like — other things that we have encountered before or elsewhere. Images, in other words, are not just those things that contain some depiction of something — photos, maps, sonic or musical gestures, and other kinds of objects. (And they also aren’t only visual.) They are the events<\/em> in which those things connect us to other things and, in doing that, create meaning. By connecting the present to the past or the not-present, images weave the worlds in which we, meaning-dwelling beings, live. Images are supplemented by words and language, but in crucial respects images are more primary, and are therefore more important for us to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Two is practical and empirical: it\u2019s a critical-interpretive journey through a set of compelling imageries or “imaginaries” — artistic works (visual, audio-visual, musical, literary) that embody specific kinds of image-relations — which have to do, respectively, with the relationships between humans and the Earth (the \u201cAnthroposcene\u201d), humans and other animals (the \u201cTherioscene\u201d), and humans and our divinities (the \u201cTheoscene\u201d). The publisher’s description<\/a> tells you some of the key artists I look at. They are chosen in order to highlight the creative edges of human thinking about these three “boundary zones.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upshot is that we live in the Mediocene, a time when images conveyed via digital media have become central to the ways we shape our world. The interpretive choices we make within that profusion of images will create the future that comes of it. If we don’t make appropriate choices — ones that recognize our embeddedness within an unstable and dynamic more-than-human world — our future prospects will be dim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review copies, comp teaching copies<\/a>, and pre-orders are available now. The book will be out in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I created a (post-publication) \u201creader\u2019s guide\u201d for my last monograph, because it was really three (short) books in one and I didn\u2019t think all readers would be equally interested in all three of them, so I figured a road-map would be helpful. My new book, The New Lives of Images, which Francesco Casetti rightly calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-3FJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9856,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/10\/09\/shadowing-the-anthropocene\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":0},"title":"Shadowing the Anthropocene","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times arrived in the mail today. It's published by punctum books, an open-access academic and para-academic publisher I've found to be a real delight to work with. Eileen Joy deserves a medal for her leadership of punctum, and\u00a0Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei's cover and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2018\/10\/180502shadowingtheanthropocene-cover-front-draft-647x1024-174x275.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9848,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/10\/13\/shadowing-the-anthropocene-a-readers-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":1},"title":"Shadowing the Anthropocene: a reader’s guide","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the \"reader's guide\" I promised for Shadowing the Anthropocene. It begins with a quick summary of the book's main contribution -- a kind of \"master key\" to what it tries to do. It then lays out a set of paths one can take through the book, which would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropocene"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropocene","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/anthropo_scene\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image result for klee angelus novus","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.fineartamerica.com\/images\/artworkimages\/mediumlarge\/1\/1-angelus-novus-paul-klee.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8017,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/02\/08\/ontology-across-the-disciplines-reading-group\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":2},"title":"“Ontology Across the Disciplines” reading group","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"February 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm participating in a reading group here at the University of Vermont entitled \"Ontology Across the Disciplines.\" (More than just participating... I've been gently arm-twisted by the organizers, anthropologists Parker Van Valkenberg and Ben Eastman, into chairing the discussions. Thanks, guys ;-) ) Since I know there are folks out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10136,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2019\/05\/01\/shadowing-unshadowed\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":3},"title":"Shadowing unshadowed","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"May 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As agreed to with my publisher (Punctum), the e-book version of Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times is now available for free download (or pay what you can). To celebrate this, I'm sharing a couple of snippets from the book here. As related in my Reader's Guide, the book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/geo_philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2019\/05\/twinpeaks-redroom.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14049,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2025\/04\/17\/forthcoming-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":4},"title":"Forthcoming books","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"April 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm happy to share the news that both The New Lives of Images and Terra Invicta are now available for pre-order. The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds is a theoretically and empirically rich study of images, imagination, and the digital. It's the fourth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-culture"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecoculture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14431,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2026\/01\/30\/beyond-species-solipsism-or-are-we-alone-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":14119,"position":5},"title":"Beyond species solipsism, or, Are we alone yet?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing a little fragment of The New Lives of Images: Digital Ecologies and Anthropocene Imaginaries in More-than-Human Worlds. This particular piece comes close to the beginning of the \"Theoscene\" chapter (reader's guide here), where I make the case for a broadened understanding of the \"more-than-human worlds\" of the book's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirit matter"","block_context":{"text":"Spirit matter","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/religion-spirituality\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2026\/01\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14119"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14130,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14119\/revisions\/14130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}