DETTAGLI - Come il taglio influenza l'esperienza visuale

We live in an age dominated by images, which constantly influence us, but their mere visualisation does not guarantee critical understanding.

In the postmodern era, images show us what we cannot see with the naked eye, such as the X-rays discovered by Roentgen in 1895, or ‘non-normal’ perspectives, such as the view from above. Martin Heidegger, the first to reflect on these issues, argued that the image of the modern world no longer just represents reality, but the world conceived as an image.

A crucial aspect in the visual arts is the choice of framing, an ancient practice rooted in the Renaissance. Leon Battista Alberti, in his treatise De Pictura (1435), conceived the picture as an ‘open window on reality’. Since then, the artist has carefully chosen the portion of reality to represent, knowing that framing profoundly conditions the perception of the work. Framing is not neutral: it is an aesthetic and ethical decision, shaping the visual narrative and message of the work.

Over time, artists and creators have experimented with image cutting, using it as a language. A close-up reveals the intimacy of a face, a panorama conveys the immensity of a landscape.

In this thesis we will therefore explore framing and cutting, from the etymology of the word ‘image’ to visual narrative, perception and composition. We will analyse case studies from painting, film, photography and editorial graphics, and see how different types of cut convey different meanings.