On Clouds
On Clouds

Summary/Abstract: In his brilliantly revealing history of visual studies, Martin Jay (1993) demonstrates that the anxiety around coulometric regimes stems not from the flaws in visual spectacle (although these are many) but from its mesmerising power. Consequently, the humanities have divorced their critical approach from the struggle for insights into technical discourse; considering the scarcity of eloquence in the nascent field of twentieth-century computer sciences, it is no wonder that this was no easy task. The proposed essay delves into rare conceptual statements from machine vision research to present them as an important reference point for voicing critical positions in current ecopolitical debates. It singles out a few strands of solutionism to confront technical agnosticism – too benignly accepted in a general overview of visual studies – with a set of concerns that glare out from under the discourse of engineering. For the reasons laid out below, the titulary call for writing on clouds encourages us to exploit technical expertise as the most fertile ground for those seeking to illuminate tectonic shifts, to which visual culture serves as an early witness.

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