Dissolution de toute altérité

Le morphing comme figure absolue de la continuité

Abstract

During the last twenty years, the presence of computers has emerged in the visual arts and media to the point of literally overturn the paradigm of the image and the relation it previously maintained with the individual. If we take the cinematographic image as our object of study, techniques and technologies work now together up to enrich the cinematographic grammar of new filmic forms yet unprecedented. One thinks especially about morphing which becomes the epitome of the figurative evolution and of continuity. Besides its specific action on the image, it directly addresses the integrity of bodies and settings that are represented. This new transitional form reframes representation stabilities previously steadfast, opening the image on simulation. It seems essential to understand the use of morphing and its impact on the viewer. We will identify two main roles, when the morphing is visible and invisible. In the first case, it is important to understand how, in operating a visible transformation, it updates the myth of the metamorphosis and questions the human finitude. In the second case, we propose some thoughts on the way it melts in the thickness of the image to update its consequences on otherness and image stability. Finally, we will question the widespread hybridization of images and its impact on the sign status.