Abstract

Starting from Kant’s conception of critique as »Grenzziehung,« the immanent representation of being, or, the conscious world, is understood as a screening off of its noumenal ground. Materially bound images gain a particular function in the explication of the structure of this immanence. As objects within the phenomenal world they duplicate the world’s phenomenal- ity in the dimension of iconic semblance by (partially) negating their material support. This cleavage between the image’s phenomenality and its materiality makes images into possible catalysts of a critique of natural consciousness, be it individual or collective. Thus, »image critique« can serve as a hinge between a transcendental critique of consciousness and a critique of ideology or spectacle.