Article:

Die Als-Struktur des Bildes

This paper aims to develop a conception of the pictorial function by reconstructing the structures inherent in the concept of the image itself. It will be shown that image and sign differ in their function while at the same time displaying a common basis: underlying both image and sign is an as-structure characterized by the difference of and within the image. This structure is the condition of the possibility of the occurrence of meaning within a context and at the same time the ground of the possibility of using images and signs in novel contexts. The concept of the image reveals itself to be a relational concept with at least two terms: the picture and the depicted. It is characteristic of this relationship that it is not the external relation of two objects in space; rather it can be termed an ›as-structure‹ essentially determined by negation. Here I distinguish between three argumentative moments marked by an increasing degree of complexity: the as-structure as, respectively, the function of depiction, reference, and contextualization.