Article:
Bildtransfers. Der Einsatz visueller Medien in der Indianermission Neufrankreichs

Author(s): Reitinger, Franz

Abstract

This historical essay focuses on the implementation and the effect of images, charts and maps on the Native American during the Christianizing campaigns of the Jesuit mission in the 17th century. The detailed mission reports allow us to describe the introduction of the mimetic image in an indigene culture as a technological transfer which made the acculturative process work. Images captured and refracted current tensions, and set off feelings of curiosity and anxiety. Particularly frightening was their presence in an environment foreign to the American mind and in the context of a rigid installation, which urged the spectator into a specific attitude or closed up possible escape routes as, for example, a chapel‘s interior. The missionaries were inclined to misunderstand the Red Indian‘s reactions as religious fear. However, the ambivalent feelings of the savages seem to be quite similar to those encountered in a chamber of horrors. This is substantiated by the fear of the native American that images could by themselves look, speak and behave. When the Indian allowed himself the show, however, he did so at his own risk without a claim for compensation against a potentially liable operator. For all damages beyond mere iconic enchantment he alone took responsibility. Thanks to the missionary reports we get a better understanding of what the introduction of illusionary images meant to a sign controlled, semiotic society. As for any cultural step in a new direction, the simulacrum, or mimetic image involved a shock-like experience of which we have no adequate idea in an updated world where images have become part of the fabric of common sense. Civilized nations have forgotten what two or three generations ago people felt when for the first time they entered a darkened cinema hall, went through an automatic entrance door, or set foot on the moving step of an escalator. And yet, these are the traumatic occurrences, of which our modern societies – one may think of nowadays IMAX-theatres – ascertain themselves with every new development. The trick is to demonstrate against all appearances: I am not terrified!

Download icon

Published in:

Preferred Citation
BibTex
Reitinger, Franz: Bildtransfers. Der Einsatz visueller Medien in der Indianermission Neufrankreichs. In: IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft, Jg. 3 (2007), Nr. 2, S. 30-46. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16646.
@ARTICLE{Reitinger2007,
 author = {Reitinger, Franz},
 title = {Bildtransfers. Der Einsatz visueller Medien in der Indianermission Neufrankreichs},
 year = 2007,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16646}",
 volume = 3,
 address = {Köln},
 journal = {IMAGE. Zeitschrift für interdisziplinäre Bildwissenschaft},
 number = 2,
 pages = {30--46},
}
Keywords
license icon

The item has been published with the following license: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz