The graphic artist Julio Plaza claims that all forms of cultural expression are supported by a technique; based on that premise, he briefly outlines the development of the concepts involved in the production of images. He refers in particular to the “technical image,” such as typography, engraving, photography, film, and graphic arts, and to the “technological image,” such as computer graphics, infographics, holography, and videography. Plaza believes that when images are produced by technological means the old artisanal and industrial techniques are transcoded because the brain and thought are what create images at the interface, thus constituting the “fourth brain,” that is, the technological instrument that operates outside of the cranium. The production of iconic forms, above all, involves a reflection on the structures of the media. In the author’s opinion, the technological digital image has brought about a radical change in the history of the image. Just as when photography displaced painting, forcing it to explore the limits of language, the electronic post-photographic era is already reformulating the images of art, cinema, photography, and television.

Originally written for the magazine Imagens, this text was rewritten and extended by the author for his book Processos Criativos com os Meios Eletrônicos [Creative Processes with Electronic Media].

The multimedia artist, professor, and theorist Julio Plaza (1938–2003) was a well-known figure in the fields of Brazilian conceptualism and electronic art and was widely recognized for his graphic versions of several concrete poems. He also worked with the poet Augusto de Campos to produce books and objects such as Poemobiles (1974) and the Caixa Preta [Black Box] (1975). He was a professor at the Departamento de Multimeios do Instituto de Artes da Unicamp in Campinas, and the Departamento de Artes Plásticas at the ECA/USP (Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de São Paulo). He organized the first videotext exhibition in Brazil: Arte pelo Telefone: Videotexto [Art by Telephone: Videotext], held in São Paulo at the Museu da Imagem e do Som in 1982, and was responsible for the special multimedia exhibition hall at the 17th São Paulo Biennial in 1983, a landmark event for electronic art in Brazil. Plaza wrote his doctoral thesis, subsequently published as a book, on an intersemiotic form of translation 222222">that converts literary texts into visual and audible codes.

[Professor Walter Zanini, then the director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea, wrote two essays about Plaza’s work: one on the exhibition Poéticas Visuais, see the ICAA digital archive for “As novas possibilidades = The new possibilities” (doc. no 1110585); and the other on the text “Primeiros tempos da arte/tecnologia no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111029)].

[As complementary reading, see in the archive the following texts by Julio Plaza: “77: quase-apresentação” (doc. no. 1110719), “Arte e interatividade: autor-obra-recepção” (doc. no. 1111093), “Arte e videotexto” (doc. no. 1111090), “Busca da dimensão mais firme para a realidade” (doc. no. 1110750), “Câmara obscura” (doc. no.  1110718), “Imagemega” (doc. no. 1111133), “Info foto: grafias” (doc. no. 1111091), “O livro como forma de arte (I)” (doc. no. 1111238), “O livro como forma de arte (II)” (doc. no. 1111239), “Mail-art: arte em sincronia” (doc. no. 1110592), “Nem oito, nem oitenta: oi, tô aí” (doc. no. 1111270), “Poéticas visuais” (doc. no. 1110587), and “Transcriar” (doc. no. 1111237)].