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A Pathognomy of PerformanceWrinkles, Furrows and Folds

A Pathognomy of Performance: Wrinkles, Furrows and Folds [The scene in Figure 3 depicts, without doubt, a disquieting event: a dramatic instant of expression both violent and ambiguous. What is the proper emotional response to such an image, evidently staged for our benefit? Perhaps an instinctive mirroring of the fear (or is it terror?) expressly inscribed on the chalky white face of the Christ-like innocent at the centre of the photograph, surrounded by the darker forces of God knows what. But, then again, is this event a tragedy or a comedy? Should one laugh or cry? Or permit one’s interest to be led by the gaze, mobilizing the critical faculty of thought, or rather, out of respect, feign disinterest? Or look away in disgust or avert one’s eyes out of shame? And is not the cause of our confusion precisely the issue of resemblance, or lack of it, at the heart of expression? For, in the shadow of the preceding discussion, what appears to be being expressed in this image is the fear (which is also a form of excitation) that not only does ‘what is expressed’ bear no resemblance to the expression (fear of what? — what is there to be afraid of in this picture, or just beyond the margins of its frame?) but that it no longer even relates essentially to what expresses itself, to the figure whose face bears an expression that does not seem to belong to him. If so, we might conclude that what appears in the instant fixed by this image is the very horror of the abstract machine of faciality itself, which has demonically installed itself in the body of a human being and is making its face express — what? Figure 3Uncropped photograph illustrating Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne’s method of localized electrization to elicit facial expression, in this case illustrating the emotion of ‘terror’, c.1860Source: Ecole Nationale Supérieure, Beaux-arts, Paris.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Pathognomy of PerformanceWrinkles, Furrows and Folds

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2011
ISBN
978-1-349-32277-0
Pages
107 –141
DOI
10.1057/9780230306936_8
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The scene in Figure 3 depicts, without doubt, a disquieting event: a dramatic instant of expression both violent and ambiguous. What is the proper emotional response to such an image, evidently staged for our benefit? Perhaps an instinctive mirroring of the fear (or is it terror?) expressly inscribed on the chalky white face of the Christ-like innocent at the centre of the photograph, surrounded by the darker forces of God knows what. But, then again, is this event a tragedy or a comedy? Should one laugh or cry? Or permit one’s interest to be led by the gaze, mobilizing the critical faculty of thought, or rather, out of respect, feign disinterest? Or look away in disgust or avert one’s eyes out of shame? And is not the cause of our confusion precisely the issue of resemblance, or lack of it, at the heart of expression? For, in the shadow of the preceding discussion, what appears to be being expressed in this image is the fear (which is also a form of excitation) that not only does ‘what is expressed’ bear no resemblance to the expression (fear of what? — what is there to be afraid of in this picture, or just beyond the margins of its frame?) but that it no longer even relates essentially to what expresses itself, to the figure whose face bears an expression that does not seem to belong to him. If so, we might conclude that what appears in the instant fixed by this image is the very horror of the abstract machine of faciality itself, which has demonically installed itself in the body of a human being and is making its face express — what? Figure 3Uncropped photograph illustrating Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne’s method of localized electrization to elicit facial expression, in this case illustrating the emotion of ‘terror’, c.1860Source: Ecole Nationale Supérieure, Beaux-arts, Paris.]

Published: Nov 5, 2015

Keywords: Facial Expression; Liquid Crystal Display; Facial Movement; Abstract Machine; Expressive Line

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