"Where is Reality?" Photographic Trace and Infinite Image in Gábor Bódy’s Film Theory
"Where is Reality?" Photographic Trace and Infinite Image in Gábor Bódy’s Film Theory

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the question of indexicality and the nature of cinematic signification drawing upon the terms of Gábor Bódy’s film theory. The trace-like character of cinema is investigated through the medium-specific possibilities of the moving image and the gap inscribed between human perception and the inhumanity of the medium. Both the photographic and the cinematic trace are subject to infinite interpretation due to the inaccesibility of the trace as trace and its transformation into a meaningful sign. Instead of minimal units, cinematic language is based on the logic of seriality and can be interpreted on different levels of meaning attribution. Serial meaning is emphasized as a site where images can enter in endless relations to each other. Finally, Bódy’s theoretical work can be interpreted as a proposal to redefine the status of the image in cinematic signification. Bódy’s short or experimental films are used as examples and realizations of his theoretical considerations.

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