MP4

sun.mp4

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The Ontology of the Digital Image

~ thoughts on images, ghosts, and what gets summoned ~

« last updated 14.11.1997 » | guestbook | webring | links

i. ghosts come back

Ghosts come back.

That's what they do.

But they don't come back
on their own.

A ghost needs a medium.
Something to come through.

A body willing to be
inhabited.
A surface willing to
hold.

a medium · a body · a surface

        Most generally speaking, we can call

        this arrangement an IMAGE.

ii. the image is the meeting

Every image is
two things at once.

The thing it is.

And the thing that
appears through it.

body ↔ apparition

The image is the meeting.

iii. images and objects

images used to meet us through objects.

panel · print · reel

You could touch it. You could point to where the image was.

vanitas.gif · 1997

The ghost had a body.

iv. infrastructure, object

The digital image meets us
through infrastructure.

servers.
cables.
protocols.
screens.

a distributed body

A distributed body the ghost passes through
without being held by.

It appears here.
and there.
and in a thousand places
at once.

And each appearance
is the image itself.

loading appearance

v. nowhere in particular

        The ghost can move here.

        And because it can move it is nowhere in particular.

no place · every place

where is the image itself stored? all I see are the conditions for its appearance → the load is the new summoning → no appearance is more "real" than another

The digital image does not have an
“original”.

vi. set of instructions

instructions — executed by machines

        A digital image is a SET OF INSTRUCTIONS

        executed by machines,

        rendered on screens.

retrieving is dead

let's summon....

Properties — sun.jpg --------------------- Type: JPEG Image Size: 1,842 bytes Created: 1996 Modified: 1998-??-?? Original: ▓▓▓▓▓▓ (not found)

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aRt

the sun
by Syrup Gallup 1996

hoMe

poeMs

aRt

liNks

Contact me (gallup@shamanix.com) !

tatooine.gif — 1997

	Hello tHERE

	Schamanism Katja Quakeworld Central The Quake Shrine Slipgate Central Syrup Gallup The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension NNNNNetzmaaaaaaarkt XiNo's HYBRIDSPACE Isis Unveiled Covenant of the Goddess Circle Sanctuary Magick Page (Anders Sandberg) Gnostic Archives Paradise Lost Dark Goddess Dark Side of the Web Pagan Best of the Web The Unusual or Deep Site of the Day

        ◆ end of transmission ◆ thank you for watching ◆ when we look at the sun, how long ago was it? ◆ a film that is a website that is an image ◆ MMXXVI ◆ end of transmission ◆ thank you for watching ◆
      

About this film

_

✕

Title:	when we look at the sun, how long ago was it?
Type:	MP4 / website / essay
Runtime:	00:08:20
Size:	1,842 bytes (original)
Created:	2026-04-19
Author:	Lara Peters
Location:	[Institution]

            C:\film\sun.mpg  —  08'20"

            checksum: d3ad·beef·1842

            ▪ ready

    . · * ·  .
   *  . ☼  .  *
    · * . · *
 — 8 minutes 20 seconds —

C R E D I T S

═══════════════════════════════

a film by

Lara Peters

written · directed · edited

Lara Peters

voice

Lara Peters

website · handcoded

Lara Peters

*   *   *

with gratitude to my supervisors

Jasmina Metwaly

— for everything —

[other supervisors]

*   *   *

source materials

> “sun.jpg” · Syrup Gallup, 1996 · 1,842 bytes

> Wayback Machine crawl · 29 June 1997

> Personal archive · with permission

> Folk web · vernacular GIFs · Geocities residue

*   *   *

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

═══════════════════════════════

Bachelard, G. (1934). Le nouvel esprit scientifique. Presses Universitaires de France.
Benjamin, W. (1935). The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility.
Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. Penguin.
Chun, W. H. K. (2008). The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory. Critical Inquiry, 35(1).
Derrida, J. (1995). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. University of Chicago Press.
Ernst, W. (2013). Digital Memory and the Archive. University of Minnesota Press.
Flusser, V. (1985). Into the Universe of Technical Images. University of Minnesota Press.
Kittler, F. (1995). There Is No Software. Stanford Literature Review.
Parikka, J. (2012). What Is Media Archaeology? Polity.
Steyerl, H. (2009). In Defense of the Poor Image. e-flux Journal #10.

*   *   *

compiled with

            HTML4 · CSS2 · vanilla JS

            <marquee> · <blink> · animated GIF

            Wayback Machine · archive.org

            PowerPoint 97 · Microsoft Paint

            Geocities residue · Comic Sans

            love · doubt · time

*   *   *

dedicated to

those who shared webspace

═══════════════════════════════

            © MMXXVI · no rights reserved

            made by hand in [city]

            MA Curatorial Practice

            [Institution]

            this page will loop

☼

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