Inhabiting the Hyper-Aesthetic Image

Abstract

JACOB LUND: I would like to talk to you about the role of images in the work of Forensic Architecture in general, and more specifically, about the notion of “the hyper-aesthetic image” that you develop in your forthcoming book co-authored with Matthew Fuller, Investigative Aesthetics (Verso).1 In the book you argue for the function of aesthetics beyond perception. We, along with animals, plants and other living organic cells, are not only sentient beings. We may also act as sensors for—or traces of—events at levels other than sentience. I am very intrigued by this idea about “aesthetics beyond perception.” What are the implications of this expanded notion of aesthetics for our conception of images and how they are generated?