O ideale obróconym w dowcip. Fotografia kompozytowa Francisa Galtona i jej oddźwięki

Journal Title: DYSKURS Pismo Naukowo-Artystyczne ASP we Wrocławiu - Year 2013, Vol 15, Issue 15

Abstract

Leszek Brogowski On Ideals Made Funny: Francis Galton’s Composite Photography and Its Echoes Francis Galton (1822-1911) was a “private” scholar: a traveler, a statistician, a meteorologist, but his real passion was connected with scientific laws of heredity. In 1869, he published a book entitled ‘Hereditary Genius’. In 1883, he introduced the term “Eugenism” to describe the theory of “improvement of the human race.” This theory revealed his ‘scientific’ ambitions and it included, as its instrument, composite photography, which, as Galton believed, could be sued in order to determine the ideal type of potential criminal offenders: violent and/or not violent thief, a murderer (but also a consumptive, gay, Jew, etc.). Galton did not realize that the tradition of the ideal forms of classicism, not to mention physiognomy, insidiously crept into his scientific theory. He neither realize to what extent his theory was based on aesthetic values characteristic to the period of time he lived in nor to what extent it was connected with the nineteenth-century aesthetic canons. Leszek Brogowski analyses the epistemological and aesthetic issues connected with composite photography and its place in the history of ideas and the history of art in the twentieth century (it significantly influenced Wittgenstein’s philosophy and inspired Freud).

Authors and Affiliations

Leszek Brogowski

Keywords

Related Articles

FILOZOFICZNE OBRAZOWANIE ŚMIERCI

Praca naukowa finansowana w ramach programu Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego pod nazwą „Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki” w latach 2014–2019. Numer grantu: 0114/NPRH3/ H12/82/2014. The text is devoted to reflect...

Wzniosła bezprzedmiotowość. Abstrakcja w malarstwie Paula Cézanne’a

My primary aim in this essay is to understand origins of abstract background of Cézanne’s painting. Under what conditions does accurate ‘abstract’ representation of the physical world is possible? I show that Cézanne’s p...

Waclaw Szpakowski et le point originel

Wacław Szpakowski usiłował uchwycić i sformułować, przez symetrię i rytm, reguły geometrii natury. Zrozumiał, że nieustanne powtarzanie się tego samego motywu wytwarza złożone symetrie, że forma nie jest statyczna, lecz...

Obecność nieobecności. Przyczynek do badań nad muzeami fotografii

Piotr Jakub Fereński The Presence of Absence. A Supplement to the Study on Museums of Photography The article is a trailer of bigger publication in the field of visual studies on museums of photography. The author analyz...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP75710
  • DOI -
  • Views 103
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Leszek Brogowski (2013). O ideale obróconym w dowcip. Fotografia kompozytowa Francisa Galtona i jej oddźwięki. DYSKURS Pismo Naukowo-Artystyczne ASP we Wrocławiu, 15(15), 70-102. https://europub.co.uk./articles/-A-75710