Visualising Technologies and the Ethics and Aesthetics of Screening Death

• Published in: Science as culture Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 333 - 353
• Main Author: Tait, Sue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.09.2009
• Subjects: cinematography; Coalitions; Conflict; Death; digital effects; Dying; ethics; Graphic violence; Internet; Iraq; Mass Media Images; Military Personnel; realism; Technological Innovations; war imagery
• ISSN: 0950-5431; 1470-1189
• DOI: 10.1080/09505430903123016

Technological innovations in the generation and circulation of images have altered both the way death looks to contemporary audiences and the access publics have to representations of death and dying. While Western mainstream news providers conceal the corpse from public view, entertainment media renders death and the dead body in increasingly spectacular fashion, and documentary imagery of death proliferates online. I interrogate the historical relationship between imagery of death within newsmaking and the emergence of Hollywood's ultraviolent aesthetic, and explore the recent technological advances which enable novel regimes of post-mortem representation and their dissemination. Contemplating the traffic between fictional and documentary images, I develop my analysis around imagery of the dead produced during the current conflict in Iraq. I frame this analysis around footage of fatalities within recent documentary films and digital images posted online by coalition soldiers. These regimes of representation present unique issues regarding the ethics of representing the dead, the way in which 'the real' is signified, and the proximity of viewing publics to horrific imagery.