A image is a thing which resembles another thing. It can be natural (Ombre, Reflet) or artificial (Peinture, Photographie), Visuel or not, tangible or the Concept uelle (Métaphore), it can maintain a report/ratio direct resemblance to its Modèle or on the contrary to be dependant there by a report/ratio more Symbolique. For the Semiotic Semiology or , which developed a whole sector of visual Sémiotique, the image is conceived as produced by a specific Langage.

The word image comes from the Latin imago , which indicated the funeral Masque S.

Examples of images

Certain images maintain an analogical relationship with what they represent. It is the case of a drawing or a photograph which resemble (for example visually) on their subject. Others are representations which maintain a direct relationship with their object, but without physical resemblance, like a flow chart of company or the diagram of an electronic assembly. Lastly, the metaphorical images, which proceed by comparison: when one tells to “this woman is a viper” or “this man is a jackal” , the assertions are not heard in a literal way but imply a comparison between people and, in this case, of the animals, according to qualities which one lends in a conventional way to these animals.

In geometrical Optique one calls image of an object the place of convergence of the rays resulting from the same point (real image) or the place from where the rays seem to come after the crossing from an optical system (virtual image). Projection on a screen is a case of visualization of a real image, the observation of a text through a magnifying glass is the example of visualization of a virtual image. The concept of image optical is related to the property of Stigmatisme.

In Marketing, the Brand image is the favorable Représentation that gives, with respect to the public, a firm, a Institution, a personality.

Culture of the image/Culture of the word

Because of the remarkable influence of publicity in the modern life, the Western company tends to grant a primacy of the image in the field of the Communication.

The phrase an image is worth thousand words illustrates this comprehension of the phenomenon of the image. But how much images are worth a word? In the older companies, to hold word is important because the word connects the being human between them through the Serment S, the Principe S, the Obligation S, the Contrat S and the duties marital.

Images in religion

Which are the bonds between God and the image?

  • the image holds an important place in the Catholic religion: indeed, after a few periods of virulent Iconoclasme, the image is definitively authorized by the council of Nicée. The reason in is simple: if God incarnated himself, then nothing is opposed so that one represents what he wanted itself to make visible. It is what made say to Régis Debray (" Proclamations médiologiques") that Hollywood was born with Byzance , because the civilization of the image thus founded leads to our " Médiacratie " modern.
  • In its relation with the divinity, the Protestant religion prefers the reading of the texts crowned with the image.
  • the Islam, being based on the prohibition of the idolatry by the Coran, often tended towards a more or less severe Aniconisme.

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