‘The Mind’s Eye’: Visualizing the Non-visual and the ‘Epistemology of the Line’

Abstract

The Mind's Eye' and PlanarityWe live in a three-dimensional world; and yet, within this world we are surrounded by two-dimensional planes.We encounter them as images, book pages, displays, maps, movie screens, and computer screens.The fundamental evolutionary logic of technical devices tends towards a 'flattening out'; the end result of technological innovation is often the plane.Two-dimensional planes are ubiquitous; we are so familiar with them that we are hardly aware of the remarkable form of spatiality they constitute.Surfaces confront us as the outer skin of voluminous bodies; a 'depth' therefore always corresponds to a surface.A plane, however, is something extended without the dimension of depth.Indeed, we treat surfaces as if they were planes.We do this especially when the function of a surface consists in rendering images or inscriptions visible.Their importance in carrying out this latter action cannot be overestimated: could the invention of the inscribed surface, we are tempted to ask, perhaps have meant for the mobility and creativity of the mind what the invention of the wheel meant for the mobility and productivity of the human body?What are the consequences for thought of introducing this artificial form of two-dimensional spatiality into the process of cognition?What does it mean for the acquisition and justification of knowledge?Ever since the 'iconic turn' 1 challenged the claim to absolutism of the 'linguistic turn', it has been widely understood that images initiate not only æsthetic

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