I think a lot about how taboo informs what we do or do not consider "imagery" in art. Like, I think imagery is one of those things like politics, where it technically includes everything, but is only applied in certain contexts and makes the contexts where it isn't interesting. - ThreadSky

uneek35.bsky.social • 13 days ago

I think a lot about how taboo informs what we do or do not consider "imagery" in art.

Like, I think imagery is one of those things like politics, where it technically includes everything, but is only applied in certain contexts and makes the contexts where it isn't interesting.

Comments

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

Like for example: blood. Blood is something that movies and TV avoid showing, even when it makes sense for it like in scenes with a lot of violence in it. If a character gets cut, you can avoid showing the cut on screen, which they probably wouldn't do if blood wasn't considered disturbing.

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

Because of that, the presence of blood in media gets to be called blood imagery and media with blood gets to be distinguishing. An action movie that has blood makes it more mature than one without. A cartoon like Happy Tree Friends having blood lets you know that it's a parody of a normal cartoon.

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

And innocent things can be considered imagery too. Having a lot of birds in it is bird imagery. Having a lot of flowers is flower imagery. But there's a point where the presence of something becomes too mundane to be imagery.

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

Like, if a film has a lot of bald people, you could claim the film is trying to use bald imagery. This isn't because there's anything that special about a bald head by itself, but because it's an unusual frequency. And we know this because we don't think of seeing people with hair as hair imagery.

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

And genre can also affect this idea of imagery. It would be considered ridiculous to say that a romance movie had a lot of kissing imagery or that a legal drama had a lot of suit imagery.

uneek35.bsky.social•13 days ago

But where taboo comes in is that in some cases the mere presence of a thing can be called imagery and the frequency becomes irrelevant. A single shot with a bird in it won't be called bird imagery. But you could get away with talking about the blood imagery of a movie that only has one blood shot.

Posting Rules

Be respectful to others
No spam or self-promotion
Stay on topic
Follow Bluesky's terms of service

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply