This text by Arlindo Machado addresses iconoclasm, that is, aversion to the image. Some cultures over the course of history—among them Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Greek and Reformation thought—have nourished mistrust, and even rejection, of the image. They believed in the sole power of the word, in its superiority and transcendence. In Machado’s view, we live in a fourth cycle of iconoclasm that, in its mistrust, eschews the mass media such as television, a stance critical of the overflow of images and of a society bedazzled by spectacle. Outstanding critics from this iconoclastic age include Fredric Jameson in his discussions of postmodernism and Jean Baudrillard in his analysis of the world of the simulacrum. Machado attempts to refute those criticisms by arguing that they are based on a false dichotomy between image and word. He upholds the need to learn how to think via the image, without dismissing the word or sound, privileging the media’s discourse of the image. 

Arlindo Machado’s book features essays on “iconoclasm” and on the status and power of images in the contemporary world. In this article, he upholds the need to delve into what images, in their iconographic discourse, have to teach us and to avoid the iconoclastic tendency that underlies contemporary thought. The author believes wholeheartedly in the role that images play in the edification of knowledge and culture

Arlindo Machado’s book A ilusão especular is based on his master’s thesis in Comunicação e Semiótica presented at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. Published in 1984, the book had enormous impact on the visual art and photography communities. At the time of the publication, Machado had a column on photography, film, and the mass media in the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. Like Stefania Brill at Íris magazine, Machado would become an important communicator of thought on photography throughout Brazil. In 1985, the year after Machado’s book was published, Vilém Flusser’s Filosofia da Caixa Preta was released and reviewed by Machado and by Brill. Also in 1985, Machado and Julio Plaza co-curated the show Arte e tecnologia held at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo directed, at the time, by the dynamic Walter Zanini. Thanks to that exhibition, Machado became a leading theorist on art and technology in Brazil.

[For texts on art and technology by Professor Zanini, see the following in the ICAA digital archive: “Primeiros tempos da arte / tecnologia no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111029) and “Vídeo-arte: uma poética aberta” (doc. no. 1110892).

The many texts on art and technology by Arlindo Machado include “Hipermídia: o labirinto como metáfora” (doc. no. 1111111), “A experiência do vídeo no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111112), “O mito da alta definição” (doc. no. 1111113), and “Perspectivas do vídeo no Brasil” (doc. no. 1111114)].