vienna

Intuitive Images
“I believe that magical attitudes towards images are just as
powerful in the modern world as they were in so-called ages
of faith.” 172
With this statement, Mitchell concluded that in today’s
visual culture we have to deal with the paradoxical double-life of
images: they are alive, but they are also dead. 173 The vital life of
images in the religious context has often been compared to the
use of images in consumer culture. In a text fragment from 1921,
Benjamin compared capitalism with religion. He illustrated this
by contrasting holy images from different religions to the images
on the banknotes of different countries. 174 Today, this comparison
seems less powerful when regarded in the light of money’s
progressively vanishing physicality. 175 But the direction of the
critique is still readable: Capitalism uses the power of images in
the same way as religion does. Bolz, who addresses marketing
strategies in the consumer society, frequents this bridge built by
Benjamin equally often:
“Not the churches but the consumer temples are the places
of modern religiosity. […] The ideal of marketing is religious
icon worship.” 176
The religious image represents the exterritorial power
of god. It is often a tangible principle like the power to heal
or to protect from evil. 177 It is doubtful that consumers today
consciously approach the images in consumer cathedrals with
equally high expectations. For Mitchell, commodity fetishism is
172 Mitchell (2005:8).
173 Ibid., p. 10.
174 Benjamin (2000:290).
175 See Zizek (1997:103) for the transcendence of capital to its effect.
176 Bolz (2002:115)*.
177 Belting (1996:44).
The
Death
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