K O D I K A S / C O D E Volume 43 (2020) · No. 3 - 4 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen Identity and Vanitas Two Contrasting Modes of Perception Mathias Spohr Abstract: A simple example from the everyday world of work: an employee identifies with a rectangle as part of her organization ’ s chart. It is her function. The rectangle only exists on paper and screens, but it is a role model for her. It is a kind of mask that she puts on; not to deceive, but to show her reliability. She is not ashamed of this self-mirroring, but proud of it. The rectangle seems to be her nature. She masters her function and may use this mastery to emancipate herself from clients or superiors who can expect this mastery from her, but not personal obedience. In the vanitas view, the rectangle is a deceptive mask. In the identity view, it is a role model. In reality, there will be a mixture of both perceptions: an employer or a customer will say that it is not always the rules that matter, but loyalty to the person ( ‘ rulers instead of rules ’ ). It may be different with a police officer: if the citizen has mastered the rules, she does not have to be obedient to the police officer. The police officer has nothing to complain about ( ‘ rules instead of rulers ’ ). To put it another way, if we look at uniforms, sexual or racial characteristics: is a sign a letter with a conventional, arbitrary, albeit recognizable meaning (vanitas), or is it a trace that points to reality (identity)? Although this dichotomy is often used against religions, it has nothing to do with any particular religion, but rather with modernization. In Indonesia, I was struck by the thousands of fashionable Muslim headscarves (tudong) on sale in the local markets. In the past, the wearing of a headscarf was not common there. Fashion is not experienced as an expression of obedience but as a shared liberation. It could be seen as a proud sign of recognition (identity) or as a vain disguise (vanitas). Keywords: Identity, vanitas, gender, semiotics, sociology, history of technology, cultural history, philosophy of science. Zusammenfassung: Ein einfaches Beispiel aus dem Arbeitsalltag: Eine Angestellte identifiziert sich mit einem Rechteck als Teil des Organigramms ihrer Organisation. Es ist ihre Funktion. Das Rechteck existiert nur auf dem Papier und auf dem Bildschirm, aber es ist ein Vorbild für sie. Es ist eine Art Maske, die sie sich aufsetzt; nicht um zu täuschen, sondern um ihre Zuverlässigkeit zu zeigen. Sie schämt sich nicht für diese Selbstbespiegelung, sondern ist stolz darauf. Das Rechteck scheint ihre Natur zu sein. Sie beherrscht ihre Funktion und kann sich mit dieser Beherrschung von Kunden oder Vorgesetzten emanzipieren, die von ihr zwar diese Beherrschung, aber keinen persönlichen Gehorsam erwarten können. Aus Sicht der Vanitas ist das Rechteck eine trügerische Maske. Aus Sicht der Identität ist es ein Rollenmodell. In Wirklichkeit sind beide Wahrnehmungen vermischt: Ein Arbeitgeber oder ein Kunde wird sagen, dass es nicht immer auf die Regeln ankomme, sondern auf die Loyalität zur Person ( “ Herrscher statt Regeln ” ). Bei einem Polizisten mag das anders sein: Wenn Bürger die Regeln beherrschen, müssen sie dem Polizisten gegenüber nicht gehorsam sein. Der Polizist hat nichts zu beanstanden ( “ Regeln statt Herrscher ” ). Regeln sind attraktiv, weil sie das Fragenmüssen durch ein Machenkönnen ersetzen. Anders ausgedrückt, wenn wir Uniformen, Geschlechts- oder ‘ Rassen ’ -Merkmale betrachten: Ist ein Zeichen ein Buchstabe mit einer konventionellen, willkürlichen, wenn auch erkennbaren Bedeutung (Vanitas), oder ist es eine Spur, die auf Wirklichkeit verweist (Identität)? Obwohl diese Dichotomie oft gegen Religionen verwendet wird, hat sie nichts mit einer bestimmten Religion zu tun, sondern vielmehr mit Modernisierung. In Indonesien fielen mir Tausende modischer muslimischer Kopftücher (tudong) auf, die auf den lokalen Märkten verkauft werden. In der Vergangenheit war das Tragen von Kopftüchern dort nicht unbedingt üblich. Mode wird nicht als Ausdruck von Gehorsam erlebt, sondern als gemeinsame Befreiung. Sie kann als stolzes Erkennungszeichen (Identität) oder als eitle Verkleidung (Vanitas) gesehen werden. Schlüsselbegriffe: Identität, Vanitas, Gender, Semiotik, Soziologie, Technikgeschichte, Kulturgeschichte, Wissenschaftstheorie. 1 Introduction A famous 1865 portrait of Empress Elisabeth of Austria by Franz Xaver Winterhalter shows her ‘ Eternal Beauty ’ , to borrow the title of a 1998 exhibition in Vienna. For the ageing Elisabeth, this painting was only a memorial to past youth and unattainable beauty, regardless of whether it was once an accurate likeness, or merely a successful fantasy of the painter. Today, even more, we may perceive the painting as an image of an absent world, lost or merely invented. Since 1992, however, a stage musical has existed in which the leading actress embodies this painting. Many musical actresses, from Vienna to Tokyo, have taken Winterhalter ’ s picture as their model. In time, perhaps, their own stage photos will be models for future interpreters of this role. They all embody a departed ruler. This example shows two contrasting ways of perceiving an image: as an afterimage of something unattainable or as a model of something feasible. When did the ‘ model ’ interpretation start to become attractive? Let us look at a second example: at the beginning of the 19th century the actress Henriette Hendel-Schütz examined a sculpture of a Sphinx and re-created it herself as a living picture (see p. 256). Thus, she created a model for drawings and published engravings. These, too, Identity and Vanitas 203 became models for their viewers, who themselves tried their hand at Sphinx representations in their social circles. And even these copies in their turn became models for female audience members who joined the Sphinx fashion. Why can the copy of the copy of the copy still be considered a model? The following text offers an explanation: with each replica the observers seem to confirm a consensus, which thus becomes greater. Every performer says: ‘ I am the Sphinx ’ , and all media and observers say: ‘ This is the Sphinx. ’ None of them say: ‘ Ridiculous. There is no Sphinx at all, no matter where and when. ’ A presumed consensus creates an impression of closeness or presence. It is a common self-realization. To take another example: there may be a consensus that the earth orbits the sun (see p. 236). This does not correspond to our daily experience, because we say that the sun rises and sets. The idea of an immobile sun can be considered either ridiculous or, on the contrary, as a move towards objectivity and thus a well-justified feat of imagination. It takes our consensus for images to become reality. Do we live in a world of afterimages pointing to unattainable worlds, or rather in a single world of feasible models? In this paper I call the first concept ‘ vanitas ’ and the second ‘ identity ’ . 2 What is vanitas? Identity is the orientation towards role models - at least according to the definition of this study. It is not self-evident that images exist to serve or to be imposed as role models. From a Neoplatonic point of view, an image is the appearance of a missing reality. The three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) agree that an image is not an authority. However, the emancipation of images is a defining feature of modern times. With the rhetoric of vanitas, which reached its peak in the 17th century, the change from a world of afterimages to a world of models began. This was a rearguard action intended to expose the deceptiveness of those role models that would eventually prevail at the end of the 18th century. The consciousness of vanitas precedes the notion of identity, as its historical foundation and counter-principle. The vanitas perception of images still exists today; indeed, it is gaining in importance again. The purpose of this publication is to show this. How can the rhetoric of vanitas be described precisely? Images are at odds with the fleetingness of what is depicted. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, this contradiction was part of the vanitas motif. Images held nothing fast, but were seen as memorials to transience, and to human vanity and wilfulness. This rueful admission served to legitimize any kind of representation (see p. 235). Among popular medieval/ Renaissance tropes is the mirror image, through which one ’ s own appearance is shaped. The dancer, the Frau Welt (an allegorical figure warning against the unhappy consequences of sensual pleasures, see p. 244) or the fool (see p. 238) who look at themselves in the mirror are symbols of vanitas. Vanitas still lifes from the 16th century onwards show yellowed letters or musical scores placed next to wilting flowers. The artist or poet laments ‘ Ubi sunt? ’ (Where are they? ) aware that he himself will soon cease to exist. A painter or sculptor may capture something of the ephemeral, but at the same time he must affirm that the living essence has escaped him and that only the inanimate has remained in his hands. A businessman may have collected valuable goods, a technician 204 Mathias Spohr constructed something useful, or an artist created something beautiful, but by admitting at the same time the ephemerality of the actions or beings that these valuable, useful and beautiful objects denote, they protect themselves from the reproach of arrogance. Art still understands itself in the most general sense as mere human ability. It is often overlooked that the vanitas motif serves as a justification for representations or publications of all kinds, and thus also for artistic activity itself: it is the vanity of display that is made the subject. Wealth may be exhibited with reference to its ephemerality. A machine may be used and even admired with reference to its lifelessness. Deception may be carried out if it warns of deception. Art may unfold if it admits its inevitable failure to capture or even to imitate life (see p. 243). Liars can only expose lies, as it seemed at the time of vanitas. The only truth that a mirror can show is the falseness of reflections. A depiction warns us of what may dazzle and deceive - even as it may do so itself. Just as a picture can only deceive, so an actor deceives by profession. Neither can escape the taint of their theatricality. The actor, exposed from the outset to reproaches that he is a hypocrite and an impostor, warns his audience against deception when he portrays a fraud on stage. This justification does not remove the charge of deception, but the warning does make the portrayal socially acceptable. Justification by warnings makes it possible to imitate and even enjoy anything regarded critically. This can still be the case today, as with the warnings on cigarette packets (see pp. 273, 290). In terms of tendency, it can be stated: the greater the publicity around a representation, the greater was its need for justification. Vanitas motifs are media-specific: for example, printed works or works presented in public spaces (such as ars moriendi, or dances of death, see p. 239) were under greater pressure to spread a moralizing message than handwritten and personally intended ones. Until the 17th century, the ephemeral work of man was valorized within the framework of courtly representation. The accusation of vanity ceased to apply when pride was expressed in terms of the state and its greatness, and was justified by the use of ancient models now freed from the taint of the pagan. From the 18th century, this revaluation inspired a counter-movement to courtly representation, which both favoured and repressed the lifeless. Ephemeral means of expression such as dance and improvisation, previously held in high esteem and with an immediate social meaning, lost their prestige, and the permanence of a written text or fixed artwork was prioritized. Records no longer appeared (as before) as the epitome of the inanimate, to which the politely mediating gesture was preferred, but gained eloquence through the interpretations of their readers or viewers. They did not appear lifeless anymore because they were constantly interpreted and thus seemingly kept alive. Improvisation was no longer much in demand, but original interpretation of dramatic roles, as well as tableaux vivants (living pictures) imitating historical paintings or antique statues, were now by no means regarded as imitations or forgeries - instead, they were perceived as legitimate and individual orientations towards valid rules and models. The lifeless was no longer a clumsy imitation of the living - but the living was, conversely, the medium of the inanimate. The modern orientation towards role models was (and is) not perceived as a failure. Indeed, it enables embodiments. Identity and Vanitas 205 An older view meets a newer one. In this essay, I term the older mode of perception ‘ vanitas ’ , and the newer one ‘ identity ’ . Vanitas understands an image as a simulacrum of something that does not exist in its representation, while the newer mode of perception - identity - understands images as models for a self-made or self-observed reality. Identity perception makes images or texts appear more present and alive with each observation and interpretation, whereas vanitas perception lets them appear merely as a reflection of the viewer, while the depicted actions or beings are missing. A ‘ model ’ in the very general sense that I use the term is something that remains or is repeated unchanged. Therefore, it can serve as a standard for measurements. Accurate, precisely measured reproduction takes on a special value in the modern age. Whereas in the Middle Ages shadows, mirror images and echoes were regarded as lifeless imitations, in more modern times they acquired value as fascinatingly faithful reproductions - which could be faithfully reproduced in turn, with charcoal pencil or paints and later with cameras and recording devices. They may even exert a greater presence through multiple and equally faithful reproductions. ‘ High fidelity ’ shows and demands great loyalty from any observers. The transition from one outlook to the other took place very gradually between the 17th and 19th centuries, with a turning point occurring during the 18th century. Both views still existed in parallel, but the earlier one continued only in a little-appreciated popular culture. However, from the later 20th century, and in our own times vanitas has come to rival identity again. 3 What is identity? According to the definition of this publication, identity is simply a measured match with models. By models I mean any regulation that applies to several cases: an image is used as a yardstick whose measure is transferred to all beings or actions - not in a figurative sense, but literally. Modern identity is closely linked to the idea of know-how. ‘ Models ’ must be true to their measurements in order to retain their identity. Recognizable and measurable qualities seem to be the innermost essence of people and things. Today ’ s high esteem for models is not self-evident. The late Roman centralized structures of rule made impersonal regulations appear as oppression. Collective punishments were a notorious example. In contrast, the medieval understanding of any authority was that of a personal relationship. A true authority was a person rather than an image or object. The Roman cross as an instrument of execution promises no equal rights, but merely the helpless equality of a shameful death. Christians should say: ‘ this image is an authority, but it is not mine. A lamented victim is my authority. ’ Equally easy to understand is the parodic reverse interpretation of this sign: when Christian missionaries threaten those of other faiths with Christian crosses. In the Middle Ages, decrees could be associated with mercilessness, but a personal judgement of any authority towards a specific subordinate was considered merciful, even if it was a punishment. Charlemagne travelled through his empire instead of merely ruling with edicts. This ensured personal contact. Impersonal regulations only became attractive from the time when subjects promised themselves benefits from them. This required the 206 Mathias Spohr conviction that these regulations, be they writings or images, could be dominated by the subjects - like a yardstick for personal use (see. p. 254). It is a long way from this rejection of merciless rules to the attractive determinism ( ‘ I can determine it myself ’ ) of modern technology. In the course of the early modern era, services were given monetary value, measurements were increasingly standardized, and legal systems took priority over the personal principle of authoritarian grace. The bureaucratization of European society made this sometimes seem like an imposition, but often it was just practical. For example, ‘ You are stamped ’ means oppression - but one might feel entitled by ‘ having a stamp from the office ’ . A good fit realized by measuring or counting took on a fascination in modern times that did not previously exist. It could be easily determined and monitored by all observers and therefore appeared objective. In this situation, the desire for ‘ natural ’ models developed: models that are objectively valid as ‘ laws ’ of nature. Laws of nature apparently cannot fail like the implementation of recipes, building instructions or political programmes. One key example of such a model, in my opinion, is ‘ female nature ’ . Femininity as we understand it today is an identity, and there has been much argument about whether ‘ gender ’ is rehearsed or natural. ‘ The nature of women is closely related to art ’ , stated Goethe - and art in his time was meant to create reality instead of deception. 4 Nature as authorization In the Western theatrical tradition, men customarily played women ’ s roles until the 18th century. This was something for which the audience both admired and despised them. Imitation must necessarily fail, for it cannot conceal the absence of the imitated. Actors had no legitimacy for what they did, however well they did it. Performance did not create reality but merely a disguise. The fact that a performance matched the expectations of its audience was of little value. To take an example of an utterance that seemingly describes something, but in fact creates what it describes (to cite John Langshaw Austin): a chairperson is always able to open a meeting convincingly, but a child who declares ‘ the meeting is open ’ , however good their imitation of the adult, will be laughed at. This means that neither the chairperson nor the child is motivated to perform this speech act to the best of their capacity. One retains their entitlement even if they perform badly, and the other cannot and may never attain such entitlement. In the theatre from the later 17th century on, women were not only allowed on stage, but were also motivated to excel in women ’ s roles (a similar development had taken place in southern Europe a hundred years earlier, but this did not mean the end of cross-dressing). If the actresses had been merely given the entitlement to do so, they might not have had the motivation to perform well. They had a privilege, but they also had to compete with each other to express best what viewers considered to be their feminine essence, and the audience appreciated their professionalism. They did not imitate women and were not merely women without their input, but they embodied women, just as in our time Italian or Asian employees of Italian or Asian restaurants may embody an authentic corporate identity. Men who skilfully played women ’ s roles, on the other hand, continued to be ridiculed, just as all Identity and Vanitas 207 performers before had been ridiculed or despised for their claims. They lacked an authorization that had come to be termed ‘ nature ’ . From the 18th century onwards, the aim of art in general was not to imitate helplessly or insidiously, but to realize successfully. The model that art was allowed and expected to come close to was called nature. Western Europeans no longer understood nature as a ruling authority (as divine natura naturans), but as a fixed, controllable property: a property that was not a lifeless description of a living being or action, but a necessary rule to be expressed in the living. Nature, in this sense, is not an arbitrarily acting entity like a person nor an imitation or description of something that exists, but a pure model, a kind of archetype. What seemed fascinating to civilized observers was the idea of self-realizing models that did not require authorization and could not have sinister ulterior motives, such as actresses showing off their femininity. They were appearances of nature. Manipulation attempts could be ruled out. From the 18th century onwards, the motivation was to get as close as possible to these archetypes by achieving the best performance as an observer or interpreter. There is no need to be faithful to determinism if it simply works. But the paradox that nature is on the one hand observed incorruptibly, and on the other hand realized creatively and personally, was part of this view from the very beginning. Actresses had the destiny to be women and the freedom to be the best. But the apparent destiny was a role they were newly allowed and expected to play. Their fate authorized their freedom. Exact reproduction of models and self-realization form a paradoxical, but credible unity. In this way, determinism and freedom seem compatible: a possible definition of the term ‘ expression ’ . There seemed to be no contradiction between the natural laws of a behaviour and the feasibility of that behaviour. Behind the concept of the ‘ natural and necessary ’ mechanistic cause still lurks a ruler to be faithfully obeyed (see pp. 243, 270, 273, 284). Origin is an authority. The connection or confusion between physical cause (causa efficiens) and ancestry often plays a role in limiting the feasibility of identities (see p. 262). If an effect such as feminine charms does not seem to have a natural cause, it means that it has no legitimate ancestry. Femininity could only be a disguise for a man but could be an embodiment for a woman: a juxtaposition of the vain and the natural. Trademarks sometimes protect original products from imitations. The brand stands for a guaranteed origin, like an ancestor, and the effects of its products have a legitimate cause. There is no label fraud as long as the name has been acquired legally. Loyalty to the brand may appear as a sign of identity (see p. 279), and the products may ‘ faithfully ’ embody that name without imitating an original. A biological or physical interpretation of this lineage would make no sense. The question is about authorization and motivated obedience, not about a natural cause. It is much more a reality of money as opposed to counterfeit money. Molière ’ s scheming comic characters in his plays Le Malade imaginaire (1673), Tartuffe (1664) or Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) still required the actor to justify the fraud of his role-playing by exposing his character ’ s attempts to deceive others: they only pretend to be ill, righteous, or noble, and the actor, for his part, is an imitator, too. The lie in a lie, the deception in a deception, or the disguise in a disguise are a common feature of vanitas rhetoric, which is called mise-en-abyme (literally ‘ placed into abyss ’ ): a performer can be nothing more than a ‘ would-be ’ or impostor, just as an image can only be a lifeless imitation, 208 Mathias Spohr and they must constantly keep this in their audience ’ s minds. However, the offended vanity of the ambitious European commoner, who despite his or her noble behaviour does not become a member of the nobility but remains a comedian (a vain imitator of a real aristocrat), represented a basic social problem in the 18th century. Hence the audience experienced a new bourgeois solidarity with the actor. A century after his creation, Molière ’ s ‘ bourgeois nobleman ’ seemed more sympathetic, and the actor who played this character benefited from this appreciation. He was not a vain performer playing a vain character, but a proud performer playing a proud character. Nobility became feasible by mastering rules and roles. Triumphs included those of socially aspirant figures such as Emma Hamilton (1765 - 1815) who managed to make the transition from prostitute to lady. Her husband Lord Hamilton declared: ‘ In my Country no body stands higher in public Esteem. ’ Through her talents as a performer who enacted classical archetypes (inspired by paintings and sculpture) she acquired privileged status. Her appearance combined nobility and femininity. Her ‘ body ’ fitted into the new concept of nature like water into a measuring cup, and this was greatly appreciated. From the 17th century on, artists and philosophers freed immediate effects from the reproach that they were only appearances by trying to convince the public of their reliability. We can perceive mirror images or shadows as living beings and only later realize that we have been deceived. The effect of a mirror image is deceiving when it is considered an imitation, but it is reliable when it is considered an embodiment of a physical law (see p. 241). What had previously appeared to be a lie as a seductive or deterrent stimulus, now acquired the reputation for revealing the truth as a fascinating trail - which could also distance and protect from a potentially dangerous reality. A trace is not a causer, only a cause of deception, and the reliability of this deception ( ‘ a footprint is not a foot, but an accurate copy ’ ) leads to reality. It no longer deceives but reveals the truth. Like a letter in a book, it seems to have a reliable function for the reader ’ s vivid imagination (see p. 248). The ‘ scientific ’ causality that is regarded neutral today arose historically from the appealing or dissuasive, but deceptive immediacy of the sensual effect: women who have an effect are likely to be mistrusted. Effects can have a wide audience and thus destroy existing relationships. Modern experiment, on the other hand, is based on the reliability of sensory impressions. Secure effects promise power, no longer the certainty of being deceived. Francis Bacon was able to warn against deceptive observer perspectives such as the theatre and at the same time promote the observation of experiments. Before any ‘ laws of nature ’ were found, he spoke of causes and rules (Novum Organum, 1620). Rules should be discovered in order to control them. Empiricism, the movement that gave rise to modern science, could not have developed in Italy or France. It needed the puritanical environment of England in order not to appear indecent from the outset through its concentration on the sensuous experience; indeed, the distinction between sensual and sensuous is a unique peculiarity of modern English. Ideal dimensions of models, not only with regard to humans, but also to ships or weapons, may have an erotic appeal. They inspire the imagination, and imagination is a sense of power, a preoccupation with possibilities. However, this inspiration no longer stood for fleeting desire, but for the eternally valid. The ‘ laws of nature ’ , in the sense of determinism, seemed Identity and Vanitas 209 to authorize a behaviour that had previously been despised. Classical nudes no longer appeared as demonic idols; their ‘ aesthetic ’ impact could delight an audience. It was natural, not vain. 5 Mastery as loyalty The growing focus on rules is particularly evident in theatre history: while Shakespearean drama can still be seen as an offshoot of an ‘ unregulated ’ medieval theatre that was increasingly disregarded in the 17th century, enlightened French theatre - which saved European theatrical culture from disappearing - presented behavioural models and rules of etiquette. Realization of roles was no longer despised as a deceptive masquerade, but considered a sign of good manners. As long as they lived up to the ideals of polite or courteous behaviour (17th century) and later of motherliness, loyalty and helpfulness (18th/ 19th centuries), which were considered to be their nature, actresses and women in general were no longer perceived as masters of uncanny effects as they were in the time of witchhunts, which were eventually abolished in the 17th century (see p. 286). Women as observed by men were a focus of scientific attention from the 18th until the late 19th century (see p. 264). Their potentially treacherous charms were gradually reinterpreted as involuntary effects that seemed to obey the laws of nature. Their demonization had justified their controllability. Emancipation of effects, as accomplished in scientific empiricism, could only occur when these effects were perceived as reliable and controllable. They all seemed to have a cause, and there seemed to be a rule between cause and effect. An important component of this conception of nature is the idea of a law that applies to all and may be interpreted by all. The effects of an embodied model or prescription (such as the ‘ laws of nature ’ ) are measurable and predictable; they are divorced from ulterior motives and freed from suspicion of manipulation. Like the reflections of a mirror, they rely on the power of their observers. The Western world increasingly preferred reproducible effects to uncertain social interaction. Good manners were automated by technical reproduction and thus felt relieving. This kind of fidelity is contradictory because rituals bind relationships, while technologies can free them. While ancient and medieval Western civilizations were sceptical of technology, a paradoxical link between imploring ritual and domineering technology allowed for the emancipation of the latter in modernity. A craft, for example, could be seen as a ritual of loyalty to an employer or, conversely, as a technology that created new employment opportunities independent of a particular master. To resolve this contradiction, subordinates agreed with their masters on the principle ‘ my mastery is my loyalty ’ (see p. 284): the audience or husbands, for example, controlled the actresses or wives, and the women controlled their roles; both seemed to be loyal masters. The shared sense of being in control replaced the anxious awareness of being merely a parallel case. Without abandoning the idea of loyalty, obedience became the mastery of functions, including one ’ s own. It should no longer seem ridiculous or reprehensible when the mastery of a reflection was understood as its fidelity (see p. 251). Mere functioning appeared as agreement, and loyalty became a kind of power: subordinates controlled their function rather than obey, as long as they were still necessary for that function (see p. 274). Self- 210 Mathias Spohr control as liberating mastery was increasingly transferred to machines (see p. 282). A machine combines the freedom of its user with the determinism of its functioning. Only when their loyal mastery makes them superfluous could users realize that something might be wrong. Everyone wants to benefit from an effect, but no one wants to be replaceable as a user or observer. The loyalty of secured functions is an illusion: the parallel case (as the definition of secured effects, see p. 250) is the opposite of personal loyalty, as vanitas symbolism constantly emphasizes. Loyalty to customers and employers, for example, makes a bank clerk trustworthy. A cash machine, on the other hand, is trustworthy because it cannot have an interest. What definitely works is an ideal machine, but a machine is not loyal. Observers preferred the perfected function to its imperfect medium. In the historic transition from bank teller to cash dispenser, accurate counting seemed to be moving from virtue to reality. Loyalty became the mastery of a function, making the equally loyal and dominant observers superfluous (see p. 278). From the late 18th century, civilized observers have agreed on stereotypical ideas as social identifiers. Stereotypes are means for a social construction of causality, not unlike pictograms. Dealing with them is a practical mechanism as long as everyone agrees. The fascination of a code promises technical solutions for understanding; good functioning seemed to indicate consensus and objectivity. Uniforms of all kinds were seen not as a restriction but as a shared liberation, as a clear and immediate sign of one ’ s nature. They seemed to show loyalty and mastery in one. Their mutual recognition should not lead to deception, but to a jointly imagined and jointly controlled reality. Wearing a suit and tie in civic life for example may seem to embody righteousness at first glance rather than feign it, and the mutual belief creates a basis of trust. Worn by women, however, this uniform still may look like an imitation. Embodiment became a counter-principle to disguise; it seemed to be a revelation of true nature: as fidelity to a feasible and spontaneously recognizable appearance. 6 Nature as automation From the later 18th century onwards, folk culture and folk music conveyed a modern enthusiasm for simple rules that were easy to follow. Automated, unconscious and effortless action and recognition became the modern ideal. What was practical seemed objective. Courtly rules, on the other hand, were not easy to follow, because they required a high level of moment-by-movement attention from everyone involved. Letting oneself go was not appreciated. The growing preference for rules in the modern era can be divided in two epochs that correspond to the two principles presented here. A period of arduous courtly and military discipline in the 16th and 17th centuries preceded the seemingly effortless discipline initiated in the middle of the 18th century. Following the rules became a mastery of functions. Laborious interpretation of signs, as with the allegories of that time, seemed to switch to an immediate experience of meanings (see p. 236). Faithfulness as a pompous ‘ baroque ’ effort became effortless as a faithful rendering (see p. 280). Conscious discipline was replaced by trained or rehearsed functioning freed from courtly rules. Love of children, for example, seemed to be the destiny of women and physical strength the destiny of men. Identity and Vanitas 211 Apparently, they didn ’ t have to learn these qualities, they just had to follow their nature. Reading, spread by schooling, could automate recognition at least at the level of sounds. Good manners, like accurate reading, were no longer a matter of effort, but a matter of course. Allegorical figures in the popular theatre turned into ‘ telling names ’ (aptronyms): ‘ Love ’ was personalized not as an enigmatic image to be deciphered, but as a lovable or loving person. An old-fashioned, stilted style of expression gave way to immediacy. Names seemed to be plans of the named things, like a self-realizing function of the named. They mastered their name like a role and were loyal to it. The modern symbol expressed something and thus made it present, like a letter leading to a vocal sound, or today a smiley leading to a smile when reading, while the older allegory helplessly pointed to something missing. If one reads letters instead of traces, causality seems to run in the opposite direction: the trace is not an effect of a lost cause, but a cause for realization (see pp. 258, 292). This does not seem contradictory as long as readers embody their own texts and tracers embody their own traces (see pp. 266, 272). Roles became causes. The waltz, whose automated sequence of steps replaced the complex social game of the minuet, was an important symbol of the new concept of nature. Mere functioning appeared to be a social unity. Sensuality became acceptable; it did not break the rules but proved them valid. Thus, immediate effects seemed to lose their dangerousness. From that time on it could be a liberating experience to surrender to determinism, such as the intoxicating spin of waltz dancing (see p. 252), or the merciless revenge in a stage melodrama, and later in a Western movie. The inevitability of a mechanism and the freedom to use it seemed to be ‘ expressively ’ united; ideas of automation and safety began to coincide. The seemingly necessary, involuntary and effortless actions of nature are still a powerful justification strategy for emancipation efforts: one ’ s nature bursts forth, as an inner principle, and observers seem to have to accept it (see p. 280), even if this happens violently. Revolutions seemed to bring nature to power. A popular term for determinism was and still is ‘ destiny ’ (to quote Amartya Sen). Determinism seems to authorize actions: they do not violate a sovereign will by ‘ doing what comes naturally ’ , but correspond to it. Personal responsibility is transferred to a seemingly uncontrollable, but natural power, that is in fact very much in control (see p. 276). Control of functions can appear as freedom. In an automated medium such as a film or a recorded song, narratives of fate are meant as narratives of fidelity. Fate means authorized reliability and yet is subject to the power of the user who believes that he or she can switch off the practical mechanism before it becomes a real and demonic constraint. Freely chosen love since the 18th century often seems to be fated, without the lovers still being perceived as slaves to their senses, as in vanitas perception (see pp. 252, 255, 280). Understood as nature, sensuality became something neutral and even justified. 7 Nature as a controlled authority What had previously been considered a deception became in the 18th century an involuntary and explicable expression of nature. The humble effort to justify one ’ s own futile and treacherous attempts at representation was replaced with the fascinating 212 Mathias Spohr explanation of ‘ how ’ something came into being. A shared knowledge of this how established a community of fellow-knowers safely distanced from the observed (see p. 260). Thus, what was once reprehensible became acceptable and even worthy of encouragement. Memorials of past vanity were reinterpreted as achievements against which current actions and artistic works had to measure themselves. The once-shameful remains of pagan antiquity became shining examples of civilization (see pp. 242, 291). Relics of a lost world became models of an imagined world. Models and precepts of all kinds were learned by heart or discovered in expressions of nature. They showed up in the living, first as consciously followed instructions and later as instinctively followed laws of nature. The familiar notion of parentage was generalized into the abstract notion of causation (see p. 248). Causation is feasible: reconstruction and simulation were increasingly allowed to lead to reality. Determinism became a means of freedom. The problem of Molière ’ s ‘ bourgeois nobleman ’ seemed solved: the Western world made aristocrats into monuments, like classical statues, and enlivened them as their own models. Commoners embodied aristocratic court-dances and table manners, and the knowhow to do so seemed not a pretence, but a fidelity to the very essence of aristocracy. They brought the aristocratic framework to life rather than recalling the absence of noble origin. The noble effect seemed divorced from its cause and yet present (see p. 246). It became learnable. Nature is an authority that can be dominated, and that is what makes it so attractive. Before the 18th century, nature was considered dangerous: wild animals, mountains and oceans appeared almost impossible to master. Their strenuous taming gradually gave way to a relaxed observation of nature. Threatening beings seemed to embody reliable rules; as nature ’ s faithful media they now seemed to protect their observers from danger. The observers ’ helplessness turned into freedom as soon as they understood and mastered the rules. If there is a safe rule that the days will get longer again after the winter solstice, then there is no reason to be afraid and no need to ask the gods or spirits any more. The once threatening nature became a natural spectacle. Simulations became possible. Even women no longer had to be tamed, but could be observed in a relaxed manner (see pp. 256, 264). Under the rhetoric of identity, images and writings no longer deter because they cannot respond as kind and gracious authorities can; instead, they provide security when interpreted as instructions and laws for available and guaranteed effects. From the 18th century onwards, timetables or schedules increasingly dominated life. They were relegated to the background world of administrative files, but at the same time they were embodied by machines and users who believed to control them. As rules of administration, they were and remain something like computer programmes that proceed unseen behind visible life: a life that does not seem forced, but natural. This new concept of the natural corresponds more to everyday terms such as ‘ simple ’ , ‘ clear ’ , ‘ logical ’ , ‘ effortless ’ or ‘ independent of consensus ’ than to a romantic understanding of nature. The concept of nature served to valorize what had previously been repulsive and indecent. Considered as a machine that can be organized by its users, it appears harmless. Identity and Vanitas 213 8 From dissuasion to motivation The explorable relic and the criminalistic trace were seen as motivating instructions for the ability to draw conclusions. Because they could reveal origins and stimulate the imagination, Enlightenment thinkers separated them from religious relics, which remained evidence of the transience of all being. Explorable relics can be realized like read characters (see p. 248), no longer perceived as sad memorials of an irretrievable past or as threatening ghosts, but as fascinating models of a coming-into-being. Death appeared as a lie and the animation of the lifeless models as revealed truth. Archaeology, for example, was born out of this change of attitude. Skulls went from being a sign of one ’ s own inevitable demise to models for life-saving surgery - useful and often successful imaginative tools. A skull on a pirate flag is supposed to warn, a skull in the doctor ’ s office is intended to inspire confidence (see p. 250). Even the then-modern silhouettes of the 18th century - a vanitas symbol like echoes and reflections - became something worth holding on to. To this day they can still seem to reveal types or characters, fascinating traces to be embodied by the observer ’ s imagination. Guileless deception or ‘ disguised simplicity ’ were popular theatrical themes in the second half of the 18th century. The ‘ deceptive ’ arts were fundamentally revalued. For example, the touching ‘ trick of love ’ , which became a ubiquitous stage motif, was made ethically unassailable by Beethoven in his opera Fidelio (1805/ 14). The main character, Leonore, dresses herself as a man to rescue her wrongfully imprisoned husband. The performer staged an unveiling of feminine nature, her selfless loyalty, instead of an insidious veiling, the frowned-upon cross-dressing. Even the scheming servants on the stages of the 18th century, like the main character of Pergolesi ’ s La serva padrona (1733), a servant who behaves like a mistress and thus becomes a mistress, appeared charming and harmless. The audience no longer laughed at her but shared her humour: there was a consensus about common rules. The sensuality of a theatre role (which until today, without the Enlightenment revaluation, could seem deceptive or insidious) was made into a presentation of reliable nature. Help, care and loyalty turned to be automatic feminine qualities. The modern belief in ‘ natural ’ role models, which today we call identity, had turned the once despised lifelessness of stereotypical ideas into a highly valued security. In the 18th century, the ‘ nothingness ’ of the ruse was upgraded to the ‘ artistic ’ in the modern sense. Cunning as an indication of infidelity became art as an indication of fidelity. However, an ‘ illusionist ’ could also be a fraud, like ‘ Count ’ Cagliostro, who not only performed tricks with the camera obscura, but also used his admirers ’ gullibility to enrich himself. But in his case his audience (apparently) did not want to recognize his fraudulence. They resolved that they would not be threatened by his ruse, but ‘ charmed ’ by it. Similarly, the actresses of the modern female characters depicted on stage seemed to charm professionally, but harmlessly. Technical success was no longer supposed to characterize the thief or fraudster, but should be a social success. Deception no longer threatened, but averted threats by revealing its know-how: victims of a deception thus believed themselves to be controlling observers. The seductive or threatening appearance looked real, but fortunately it was not: nature seemed to be the cause of jointly controlled charms without an arbitrary and potentially dangerous causer. 214 Mathias Spohr In my opinion, the clearest sign of the reversal of the vanitas allegoric in the Western world is the formation of a musical repertoire: music, which fades away immediately it is heard and is thus even more ephemeral than cooking, became from the 18th century onwards a guarantor of the eternal. Denkmäler der Tonkunst (monuments of the art of sound) were created. Musical scores were no longer transcripts of something that had faded away and whose irreplaceability was to be mourned, but instructions for performance that made it possible for the music contained on the page to resound into the distant future. Reading in general was moving from description to simulation (see p. 271). From the 18th century onwards, users began to project their own feelings onto objects such as musical instruments or marionettes. Although it could only react like a mirror, the animated object seemed to come alive, and to beguile listeners and viewers without threatening to them. Magic instruments that sound of their own accord and bring peace to people (rather than offering warlike signals or sinister sounds of seduction) became a popular theme in life and literature from around 1800. Nature seemed to speak up. With musical help, the sensual effects of art were reinterpreted, moving from the shameful to the exemplary, from the divisive to the reconciliatory. 9 Points of view Texts and images were no longer deceiving signs of an inevitable absence, but an invitation to read and, in doing so, to imagine something. The reader ’ s voice transformed from an insufficient substitute for the writer ’ s faded voice into the realization of a text, possible and justified at any time. Texts, images and other objects began to signal presence instead of absence, as if a community were contained in them that was independent of space and time. Reading world literature brought a world to life, as an identity of educated people. They saw lifeless models as living communities and objective realities at a time (see pp. 252, 288). Strictly speaking, all models remain media of a represented model, and thus they are merely its observers: embodiments in general are observations. Further observers appreciate their accurate or creative representation. To take an example, human models exhibit a dress model that is modelled on a prototype, which in turn has realized a pattern. And this pattern is in turn the realization of a designer ’ s idea. People who believe they realize a common idea gather around each of these media. In this way they create a consensus across several levels of observation: designers with computer screens, tailors with patterns, models with prototypes, audiences with the models on the catwalk and customers with the garments. All observers embody embodiments of a model (see p. 238). A model is not tangible as such, but present in its embodiments. In contrast, a depicted being or action is also not tangible, but absent in its imitations. However, we can substitute a model for the missing being or action and thus make it seem present, as in the example of the Austrian Empress as a character in a musical mentioned at the beginning of this paper. Observers believe they can substitute themselves for a missing voice or person because they have the know-how to do so. The desire for immediacy often confuses the unattainable model in identity perception with the unattainable living counterpart in vanitas perception (see p. 251). The model can be realized through know-how, but the living counterpart cannot. Identity and Vanitas 215 Writings, conversations, and even thoughts can embody a text as their implicit model. The ‘ text ’ does not exist without them. A specific speaking or thinking of this text may be absent, but from a modern point of view, the model and its embodiments do not depend on it. Essential to the idea of an embodied model is the idea of an observer perspective. In this case, it consists of possible readings or interpretations of a text, imagined as a relationship or community (see p. 252). Although it may sound a little confusing that the observer ’ s perspective faces the observer, our looking in the mirror makes it an everyday experience. A mirror may not only show a person, but also someone who appears to be looking at that person (see p. 240). I term the mirror ’ s apparent ability to see an ‘ observer ’ s perspective ’ or point of view. In the identity perception, it seems to look back to its viewers like a judging community, whose judgement is created and adopted by the viewers, like the magic mirror in the fairy tale Snow White. The mirror can be seen either as an inanimate mask that imitates the form of its observer without acting itself (vanitas), or as a mask worn by the observer like a camera (identity), a medium that provides a reliable perspective on the living: an ‘ extension of man ’ , as Marshall McLuhan pointed out. In the first case, the observer looks into the mirror, in the second, he or she looks out of the mirror, embodying its perspective. The mirror is an extension of the observer in identity perception, whereas the observer is an extension of the mirror in vanitas perception. Symbols of identity such as a national flag, a work of art, a pop star or a fashion phenomenon seem to look at their viewers like a mirror. They ‘ return the gaze ’ , as Walter Benjamin put it, and may appear as a living partner even if they are simply an object (see p. 291). The problem of pictures not being able to respond and thus make the viewers aware of their loneliness seems to have been solved. A model contains a point of view that represents a community. This community consists of all those who adopt this perspective with conviction and justification. In order to have the impression of a counterpart, the observers can recognize this community in the perspective that is facing them (see p. 271). They are looking into the face of an institution to which they profess to belong. Thus, they replace the missing gaze of an object with their own gaze. For example, a national flag seems to look at its viewers as a nation. National flags painted on the cheek, as seen among sports fans, show an embodiment of the nation even more vividly. When this flag is displayed on a screen, the effect seems to be amplified, because not only the community of a nation, but also a community of screen viewers appear to be looking at the screen user as their common reflection. It looks not like a ghost, as in vanitas perception, but like a partner and a controlled role model at a time (see p. 294). The screen does not show a disguise within a disguise or a deception within a deception, as in vanitas perception, but an embodiment within an embodiment of an origin, such as nationhood or womanhood. If dog owners buy a dog of the same breed every time their dog dies and call each dog Felix, then the breeders and the dogs are interpreters of the ‘ Felix ’ model. The dog owners appreciate the breeder ’ s and the dog ’ s achievement. ‘ How ’ Felix matches his nature is the question, and a community - to which the respective Felix also belongs - judges this. Felix is free to realize his role individually - or he may realize it automatically if he is considered an instinctual being; self-fulfilment and automation coincide. The Felix model seems to speak 216 Mathias Spohr from the living Felix and becomes a reliable partner for everybody involved. Breeding and training make origin available. Why does the inanimate Felix model seem to come alive in all these dogs? The procedure becomes clearer if we understand the model as a perspective: as if the observers were all looking through a stencil or transparent film on which the dog template is drawn. In this way, the deviation or conformity of the living dog can be measured. The model comes alive when the dog fits. Felix ’ s observation of the model is observed: it is not the picture that must imitate the dog, but the dog that must realize the picture. The model is a common, precisely realized expectation. Reality and its observers are reflected in a model that everyone tries to implement faithfully. Outer qualities understood as inner essence are observer perspectives. A joint wishful thinking thus becomes the measure of perception. The understanding of vanitas that preceded ‘ identity ’ was opposed to this idea. According to the vanitas perception, images do not show anything observed, but rather fix a point of view. Such a perspective only shows that a living observer is missing. The mirror reflects us from a perspective that we cannot adopt (see p. 271). A real observer cannot become a point, he/ she merely tries to fit into a perspective, thus imitating a lifeless thing (see pp. 232 - 234). Real observers render themselves mute and immobile, anonymous and interchangeable when they adopt this perspective, which vanitas rhetoric admonishes with a raised finger. Depicted skulls are mirror images of their viewers: do the observers imitate the inanimate skull, thus becoming a lifeless mirror for their own observers? Does posing for paintings, and later for photographs, render the performers inanimate like stones or corpses; or, conversely, do they enliven a model through their motivated discipline? In the identity perception, records seem to preserve this discipline instead of merely confirming lifelessness. Identification with the eye point of central perspective was a widely discussed imposition during the Renaissance. Does the point of view only point to something missing, or is it an option for identification? Observers make themselves equal with other observers by adopting the same perspective. In so doing, they burdened themselves with guilt, because a common desire might lead to strife as long as bus queues and sporting competitions were not yet commonplace (see p. 232). Between the Middle Ages and modern times, shared guilt became shared pride. In modern interpretations, the central perspective is often described as an individualization of the gaze, but this is contradictory: at best it could be a model of individuality for everyone. Individuality comes at the price of interchangeability and, in fact, superfluousness. The belief in controlling something rather than being controlled is what constitutes this individuality. The covetous, emancipation-willing observers believed they were mastering a know-how rather than being deceived and oppressed. Media of all kinds no longer appeared to be deceptive and faceless masks (see p. 238), but became objectifying visual aids. The telescope, for example, was no longer a sinister magical tool and a proof for the deceptiveness of the senses. It moved from the aristocratic cabinet of curiosities to the classroom and seems to be alive as long as students crowd around it. Vanitas still lifes, on the other hand, show such devices without observers (see p. 243). This makes them appear lifeless and useless. Identity and Vanitas 217 10 How-questions instead of what-questions When society accepts observer perspectives, perception changes. Since the 18th century, Western observers have judged how a person or device sees or does something, instead of asking what they see or do. The how-question no longer leads to the answer ‘ it is a lie ’ , as the what-question does. Audiences do not see the performing artist or device as a liar, but as a reliable interpreter. Letters and numbers play a role here, which are not lies: there is a fixed rule for their spelling. They do not imitate anything, but they embody rules, just as their readers do. In that way the how of execution and observation seems to create reality: shadow, echo and mirror-image no longer lie, but reliably reflect. As soon as the how question is asked, a rule that exists behind all lies is assumed. The apparent lie of any image or performance can lead to reality if we perceive it as a trace: the how evolves from a means of deception to a transparent procedure, as it is performed by ‘ scientific law ’ or by magicians in the circus. Even a criminal can be convicted by asking how questions. A trace does not lie, but unveils. In all these cases, the ‘ what ’ of real magic or real crime is not sought. As fictional traces in the crime novel, they are all the less dangerous. It is welcome that they turn out to be lies, while the how-question leads to reassuring explanations. Observers of a skull, for example (see p. 289), prefer the reassuring how (how can I use this trace? ) to the disturbing what (death is done and present! ). The modern search for clues has one thing in common with the older allegory: behind the apparent lie there seems to be a true meaning. Fiction is valorized, because it is the ‘ how ’ of its representation that matters. The medieval novel as a cautionary tale of lies evolved into the modern detective story (see p. 260). Imagination triumphed in the 19th-century novel: it was now interesting to see how an author told stories, even if they were not true (see p. 266). Answers to how-questions seem more reliable than those to what-questions. The ‘ natural ’ immediacy of body language seems to reveal more about speakers than what they say. What they say may be a lie, but apparently not how they say it. This perceptual principle works even with emoticons added to a written text on a phone or computer: the emoticons tell us how to read the text, and their immediacy seems natural. Viewers follow a rule they think to have mastered themselves and experience an effect. They can easily adopt the expression, and it appears objective because it works. The what of the written communication does not inspire the same confidence as the pictorial how: showing defeats telling. However, the emoticon does not prove that the emotion portrayed is not a lie (see pp. 251, 280). The vanitas still lifes of the 17th century admonish their viewers: an image is not as immediate as you think. What is shown is missing from the image, do not confuse your mirror image with a missing counterpart - and these paintings encourage an allegorical deciphering (see p. 243). Modern vanitas depictions might satirize the idea of emoticons by using skulls or fool ’ s faces (see p. 240). From a modern point of view, it is the regularity of a transmission or mediation that generates trust. Templates to which one can adapt one ’ s body (see p. 256), or melodies to which one can adapt one ’ s voice (see p. 295) are simple examples of embodied rules. A Western orchestra sounds as reliable as a clockwork. Precise tuning, as with dancers in front of the mirror, is not only required of performers, but also of their controlling audience. 218 Mathias Spohr Musicians observe pitch and metre incessantly, and listeners share this know-how. Interpreters and observers add their voices or bodies as the ‘ what ’ to this ‘ how ’ , if the perception of identity prevails (see p. 274). Thus, there is no missing ‘ what ’ as in vanitas perception. In all these cases a faithful interpretation is appreciated: how did you do it? Even the secret of this how could be explained as a measurable ingredient, like a pinch of spice. It is not witchcraft, but the explainable magic of an artist. The popular but poorly regarded spell books of the late Middle Ages (grimoires) gave way to the cookbooks, technical manuals, and motivational guides of the modern era (see p. 272). How-questions upgrade the lies of art. We can explain how the telescope lies, when it shows things closer than they are. Therefore, the observers share its method of perception, and the lie seems to become an objective reality. The high esteem of such observations developed only in the 18th century. The observer perspective of a telescope or a microscope, like that of the mirror, seemed to unveil facts instead of veiling them, if users trusted these instruments to faithfully reproduce rather than faithlessly deceive. Physical laws and faithful functioning were reconciled. Interpreters began to act like technical media, showing nature incorruptibly. But the mirror ’ s nature (how it does what it does) consists of the optical laws of reflection, and the observers ’ nature (how they do what they do) seems to demonstrate loyalty to their community. The first how means causality, the second loyalty. Is there a difference? 11 Simulation instead of description In the 16th century, Copernicus apparently demonstrated how the planets orbited the sun (see p. 236). How-questions presuppose a way of looking at things. But he and his contemporaries still understood his mathematical formulae quite naturally as descriptions of celestial motions, i. e. as an afterimage, not yet as a model of what he observed. It would only be a ‘ necessary inner principle ’ in the case of a simulation: a simulation realizes its own description. Galileo ’ s dictum that the universe is a book written with mathematical symbols (Il saggiatore, 1623) suggests that the universe performs its human description, which the mathematician L. E. J. Brouwer condemned 300 years later, still using the arguments of vanitas. A book has a function for its reader, but not necessarily the universe, and a description of the universe is not necessarily its plan. The function of a medium is confused with the function of what it represents, from writing paper to Schrödinger ’ s cat. The idea that mathematics rules the world and that nature faithfully executes these rules came about by analogy with service regulations, musical notes, or theatre roles. Even when all measurements agree, the captured observer perspective remains as a difference between the world and its simulation. From the 18th century on, teachers and students of Copernicus ’ s drawings declared his perspective valid. The planets themselves appeared to realize the drawings. The loyalty of the enlightened observers to this perspective was also expected of the planets. The reason for this was political: public opinion was at odds with the traditional view espoused by the Pope (in which the sun circled the earth) and the people decided to choose their own point of view. They were unfaithful to the Pope, but believed they were being faithful to nature. Observers who believed themselves to be in the right and in control of the rules rebelled against a personal authority. Identity and Vanitas 219 In the identity perception, observers consider the medium of a form as its first observer (see p. 270): it embodies a model. Not only the beings but also the things seem to anticipate an observer ’ s perspective. The sun, as ruler and point of view, remains at rest, and the planets orbit it like a well-behaved family. In this case, they follow or master the laws of nature. The French Sun King Louis XIV performed this as a ballet with his loyal courtiers (Ballet de la nuit, 1653); it was not a mask play but the authorized view of the world. The performers mastered their roles, and nature seemed to speak through them. At that time, there was still a ruler who guaranteed the objectivity of this perspective. But a secular ruler had replaced the religious one, although loyalty to the Catholic Church was still invoked. However, natural phenomena do not control themselves like actors at the service of their audience. The positive made from the photographic negative or the footprint corresponds to what is measured, but it is not necessarily its model. In quantum mechanics it becomes clear that the causality of the measuring apparatus belongs to the measured value, which cannot be attributed beforehand to the measured object. Schrödinger ’ s cat (see p. 276) or ‘ quantum suicide ’ reflect a decaying particle, as displays of a measuring device, but the causality of the ‘ infernal machine ’ that produces these results cannot be assumed: a bottle of poison should be smashed by a hammer and a cat should be killed by the poison the bottle contains. It is their materiality that makes the predictable effect possible. The state of a quantum object is not defined before we define this object as a triggering medium for us, like the hammer for the bottle or the poison for the cat. The intention to make a difference by measuring does not allow an uninvolved measurement. This is not really a modern insight (see p. 238). But the circularity of measurement and the observer perspective as a ‘ frozen will ’ have had a technical success that could not have been foreseen before the 19th century. Reflection, once deceptive, became a standard of objectivity because the results of measurement, like those of mathematics, must be reproducible and comparable, in order to provide a fair basis for observers. It is not nature, but fidelity to this rule, that promises causality. A social requirement determines the choice and design of measuring media. Vanitas criticizes identity because the transferability of the observer perspective remains an intention that has to be technically realized (see p. 254). A recorded and displayed property is a function of the measuring medium for an observer, but it is not necessarily a function of the object being measured (see p. 266). However, technology can make it so: the measured phenomenon is mirrored back and the measured object then also appears as a medium to which a form is applied, as in the case of one ’ s own weight. A world of information (with clear distinctions and secure effects) is confused with the real material world, which can, however, be turned into a world of information on a sheet of paper or with a machine. There is no mechanistic causa efficiens, but the causa materialis of a faithful medium can be confused with it. The cause is a role. The decaying particle seems to be a model for Schrödinger ’ s dying cat, but it is the other way round: the controllable death of the cat should be the model for the uncontrollable particle. By constructing the qubit, the physicist seems to be saying to the quantum object: I take revenge by making you a carrier of information too. Vanitas interpretations would say that the reality of death is preferred here to the indeterminacy of life. Vanitas depictions show the medium ’ s lack of interest in an imposed 220 Mathias Spohr form that distorts and disintegrates when the viewer changes perspective or makes no effort to preserve it. The lump of clay is only a possibility for modelling, that is, a medium for its future form, if it is considered as such. It does not wait for the artist to find its identity and proudly display it in the museum. Crumbling castles, weathered writings, or traces in the sand are vanitas symbols: disappearing forms point to a past life, and the medium, having overcome this constraint, takes on new forms without regard to expectations. Stability of a form, on the contrary, would be a sign of death, not an expression of discipline, as in the depiction of soap bubbles or eternally blooming flowers in vanitas paintings (see p. 243). By contrast, the late-18th-century tableaux vivants (living pictures) or attitudes (made popular by Emma Hamilton) belong to the ‘ identity ’ view: performers display faithful recreations of a stationary image. They do not shamefully display an image that imitates an absent being, but they are a proud medium that realizes a model, and observers may wonder how they manage to do this so faithfully. Living pictures are both observed images and interpreting observers. When the performers shake or move a little, this does not mean that the mirage is finally disappearing and making way for life, as in vanitas perception, but that the accuracy of the representation is threatened, so that the observers must help to maintain it. A photograph then seems to preserve the ephemeral because it is able to preserve its idea. While the corpse as the medium of its preserved form is a lost world (nature morte, as it is called in art history), and its form is a lie (the cut flower is a common vanitas motif, see pp. 278, 287), the performer of a living image is an interpreter, and the embodied image is reality. Vanitas says: the medium is real and alive regardless of its form. Identity says: the form (or function, or observer perspective) is real and alive regardless of its medium. However, a rule cannot act, only a ruler behind the rules could do so. The spiritualist medium, who appears to make an absent person present instead of merely inventing, describing or imitating, could be seen as a satirical or demonic variant of this concept. An exorcist would be needed to render the ruler behind the rule or role harmless, in order to restore control (see p. 286). Living beings as well as things are media when they appear as observer perspectives. The concept of the ‘ faithful medium ’ is of particular interest: it seems to voluntarily control its own function. The metal of which Hans Christian Andersen ’ s The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838) is made is not faithful because it would remain steadfast of its own accord, but because this material is designed for its specific use (see p. 259). It does not have the touching motivation for its controllability that one believes to recognize in the tin soldier, or in the painted dog from His master ’ s voice (1916). Observers understand their own mastery as an embracing expression (see p. 284): the imposition of ideas appears as empathy, and the identification appears as a unifying bond. However, the principle ‘ my mastery is my loyalty ’ cannot apply to all. Smiling carcasses in butcher ’ s advertisements are among the clearest examples: animal figures smile because they reflect the satisfied eater. The how of expression is feasible, the what of an absent life is not. Lifelessness is not discipline, and causality is not loyalty. The smiley ’ s smile is a lie, not an invitation (see p. 268). Only its observers, imagining its expression, need be alive. A faithful medium seems to anticipate the viewer ’ s perspective. Identity and Vanitas 221 12 Attractive equality Why does vanitas rhetoric warn against observer perspectives? Equal goals led to unhappy experiences for people in medieval times. When many fight over the same thing, there is chaos and death (see p. 232). The fairness of any ‘ rules of the game ’ had to be argued about for a long time. The rules of gambling had a bad reputation. The older virtue was to keep to measures in the sense of moderation, not of precision and persistence (see p. 260). In former times it was necessary for a father-figure or prince to tell each person whether or not they would receive something. This individual treatment was called grace. Authoritarian grace was the solution to dangerous competitive situations. From today ’ s point of view, grace seems unfair, but once it kept peace as long as the graceful authorities were accepted. Today, we can ask the authorities ‘ why ’ , and they have to justify themselves. Grace, which once had a positive connotation, could now be seen as favouritism or corruption. In civilized life, arbitrary grace has been replaced by rules that are respected by everyone in everyone ’ s interest. Whether it is a god, a father or an employer who is being asked or controlled, the problem is similar at all levels of relationships. Controlled traffic rules promise independence of road users from the grace of individual police officers (although that grace may still be extended to favoured or disadvantaged road users). We pride ourselves not on obeying a king, but on mastering a set of rules. The motivation for self-constraint arises from the avoidance of external constraint. Community is no longer defined by common rulers, but by common rules. That we can cope with and even endorse equality presupposes civilization, as Norbert Elias has explored. Rules can allow peaceful competition. They are role models: observers jointly take on the role of a disempowered authority, and its control on them turns into self-control. There are traditional exceptions to this principle: Queen ’ s English was the language of a person, not a controllable system of linguistic rules. Her language cannot be embodied, but only imitated. The replacement of authority by strictly followed rules did not happen everywhere with the same rigour. Anglo-Saxon law (common law) gives judges greater freedom than continental European law (statutory law). As gracious authorities, Anglo-Saxon judges are less obliged to follow overriding rules than their continental counterparts, and they can exercise mercy with greater latitude. In terms of identity, equality was no longer seen as oppression or self-oppression. Competition should no longer lead to discord, but to commonality. The deliberate appropriation of a point of view, as associated with an image or text or device, should animate the point as a common model (see pp. 250, 253): a proud observation replaces everything observed (see p. 291). Interpreters of the point of view offer their perspective to their audience like a model on the catwalk. The observers may all wear the same fashion, but they can feel individual and creative about it. This is the phenomenon of ‘ expression ’ : observers believe they are not imitating but embodying a point of view that looks like a partner and a community at the same time. The muteness and immobility of mannequins no longer warn us of death, as vanitas rhetoric did, instead, the controlled mannequins seem to look at us in a friendly way, as an inviting observer ’ s perspective. To this day, precise measurements, calculations, quotations or meticulous adherence to formal requirements can become an end in themselves, because they signal commitment to 222 Mathias Spohr a community. Loyalty to one another is supplemented or replaced with fidelity to common rules. Fixed prices instead of laborious negotiations, for example, seem to be immediate to all concerned (see p. 234), and this mechanization of communication was increasingly welcomed. Work in an orchestra or in a scientific discipline is characterized by high fidelity through mastery of the rules and represents this understanding of loyalty as a moral value. Observer perspectives seemingly do not isolate the observers by their concentration on the causality of secure effects and immediate recognition, but lead to a relationship between them: a community of common rules. However, due to the development of technology, this conviction may be no longer taken as a given; today ’ s highly automated observer perspectives do not necessarily include communities of faithfully understanding and executing subjects. The unstable balance of security, transparency and trust when we watch such communities is changing. We may no longer see smooth functioning as an inviting consensus. The promise of self-control and automation can suggest rules that do not make sense. It now seems more likely, as in the heyday of vanitas rhetoric, that the apparent community is in fact a machine controlled by ulterior rulers. Loyalty to a mechanism or apparatus is no longer as appealing as it was at the height of identity perception, because the shared mastery of that mechanism is called into question. In narratives of the horror genre, the theme of reliable reflections that become demonic lies may be crucial: a shift from identity to vanitas. Equality as a motivated discipline can still turn into equality as a premonition of death (see pp. 290, 293). 13 Attempt at systematics In what follows, I use the terms ‘ failure ’ and ‘ afterimage ’ to address the topic of vanitas; when discussing the topic of identity, I employ the terms ‘ success ’ and ‘ model ’ . In my opinion, vanitas means not only transience but absence: an absent being or action can also be too distant to be accessible or merely imagined. Imagination from this point of view is a failure, an attempt at imitation. Identity, on the other hand, creates presence through a successful imagination. It is a strategy that turns descriptions into reality. Let us change the perspective from historicity to systematics. There are four variants of a relationship between a representation and a represented action in the concept of vanitas: 1. success in failure; 2. failure in failure; 3. success in success; 4. failure in success. (Failure here means a failure to hold on to or to produce something alive - absence instead of presence.) The first two variants belong to vanitas rhetoric up to the 17th century, the last two have developed as attempts to overcome vanitas since the 18th century. 1. Success in failure is shown by religious representations, such as depictions of miracles, in which the depiction cannot and must not equal the reality. The tenth-century Visitatio sepulchri, an early example of modern (post-ancient) European theatre, conveys this message. It is an addition to the Easter Mass, performed (initially by clerics in church) as a dialogue between angels and women at Christ ’ s tomb. The resurrection of Christ has been achieved, but there is nothing left at the empty tomb. Only the insight that a presence cannot be produced can be presented. The miracle can only be told. This is still Identity and Vanitas 223 visible in the late medieval theatricalizations of the Eucharist in the Spanish dramatic genre Auto sacramental: what looks like bread and wine is in fact the body and blood of Christ. Sense perception must fail, eyes are deceiving. ‘ Behind ’ an inadequate mediation, however, is a successful miracle. Allegorical interpretation of sensuous impressions makes this understandable. 2. Failure in failure is the most common variant of vanitas rhetoric. It is used to represent not the work of God, but the work of man. The open-eyed cadaver in 17th-century depictions of vanitas only feigns life, as does the image in which it is depicted. Painted eyes are as blind as the eyes of corpses. The image exposes its own failure, albeit very artfully. Like the thing depicted, it is itself prey; a possessive attempt to capture the living that remains lifeless. The depiction of works of art, on the other hand, makes it even clearer that these works remain lifeless and that the creatures depicted are as absent as the artists. A pictorial representation of fireworks does not capture the ephemeral, but in its unnatural static state only shows that it is incapable of doing so. 3. Success in success belongs to the attempts to overcome vanitas since about 1750. In Jean- Jacques Rousseau ’ s drama Pygmalion (1762/ 70, see p. 251), the eponymous sculptor can, for the first time in retellings of this myth, bring his statue to life without divine help and make her his partner. The pantomime-play (melodrama) which contains this action understands itself as something successful by creating a sense of community. This work represents the dramaturgical scheme of the so-called ‘ touching play ’ : the audience sheds tears for a success. Another example is Gluck ’ s opera Orphée et Eurydice (1762, revised in 1774), in which, unlike in past accounts, Orpheus is allowed to bring his wife Eurydice back from the dead. Reports of real-life miracles performed by humans, such as medical successes, also function according to this principle. The portrayal no longer connects with the portrayed through a shared failure, but through a shared success. The ‘ touching play ’ distinguishes a community of success from an older community of suffering and pity. Awareness of powerlessness becomes awareness of power. Passion turns from suffering to a motivated urging. 4. Failure in success also belongs to the attempts to overcome vanitas - but as a brusque demarcation of a successful representation from a represented failure. The media of the 19th century offer many examples of this constellation. The singer of the death aria triumphs over the death of his character by breaking the illusion of reality and accepting applause. He and his audience have survived. This contrasts with the older lament, filled with the shared grief of fading away. In a mad scene the singer shows perfect control of her voice, while the character portrayed loses control. The dancer interpreting the Dying Swan (in Michel Fokine ’ s 1904 choreography) should remain in full possession of her faculties, unlike the swan portrayed. The climax of catastrophic stage scenarios is perhaps the final scene of Richard Wagner ’ s Götterdämmerung (1876). The author, who created his own gods, lets them perish and celebrates himself as the survivor, an attitude shared by his audience. Aesthetic newspaper images of catastrophes basically function according to the same principle. The rhetoric of decadence employed since the 18th century also presupposes superiority over the decadent: an alien world is accused of vanitas in order for one to consolidate one ’ s own identity (see the Western notions of the Orient pp. 266, 273, 291). Even the vanitas representations of the 17th century could be 224 Mathias Spohr suspected of secretly triumphing over what they represent. It is a success of representation that is disguised - with real or feigned modesty - as failure. The two variants of identity as a vanitas-overcoming (3 and 4) tend to combine paradoxically. The ‘ representation of success ’ (the museum piece remains alive! ) combines with the opposite attitude, namely a ‘ triumph over its failure ’ (its authority has finally been overcome! ): for example, authorities to whom gigantic monuments were erected in the 19th century - such as the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I - repeatedly lost their power. The ephemeral nature of this authority was not acknowledged, but the praise of greatness and the invocation of validity ( ‘ representation of success ’ ) were subliminally accompanied by a real loss of validity, which a modern audience welcomes ( ‘ triumph over failure ’ ). To put it in terms of the distinction between medium and form: the medium (a functionary or a staff of an institution) pretends that it is the form of the embodied monuments that matters, in order to secure its own power and prevent its own replaceability. The afterimage (image of a missing reality) is made into a model (of a self-realized, present world). Authority becomes virtual authority: a fixed, imaginable thing over which the viewer or reader triumphs by embodying the model; their mastery is their loyalty. The model has a presence through imagination. For Ferdinand de Saussure, the signified was an inner image: for him, it was nothing outside of perception, it was not an authority that could still voice its claims. The replacement of the living by the tangible but lifeless exemplar delivers the signified to the power of its beholders, even if they still praise its power. 14 Models as authority figures Self-mirroring, which until the 17th century had a reputation for being reprehensible, has been made the basis of social behaviour since the 18th century - insofar as it is a collective self-mirroring on the basis of valid models, which promise self-realization. An influencer ’ s selfie in today ’ s social media can also be seen as a collective selfie of their followers. Observers select and realize their own authority figures, which are supposed to stay mute and immobile without their admirers ’ animation, because they are not meant to act as arbitrary, intimidating rulers, but to be embodied as models and precepts by their interpreters. The model is a lie, but it is controllable. Inanimate objects serve as mirrors, animated by their viewers, which in turn give them a feeling of safety and security, like the model of a mighty dinosaur reduced to the level of a child ’ s toy. They replace insecure social relationships with jointly controlled functioning. Fidelity to a model is no longer personal loyalty any more, as obedience to a living authority such as a father or a sovereign once was. It can be objectified by measuring: ‘ how well do I fit? ’ External constraint by rulers becomes self-constraint through self-controlled rules when an authority is replaced by a model. A realized model like a garment, a culinary recipe, a construction manual or musical notes promises control and external impact. Sometimes, this notion is a deliberately constructed illusion to legitimize power as a shared one. The celebrity chef or the great composer are relatively harmless examples. Images of dictators, on the other hand, often seem to make these rulers into sympathetic figures dominated by their people. A puppet does not appear dangerous, because it is subject to the Identity and Vanitas 225 joint power of players and audience (see p. 232). When the observers make themselves the causer and fix their counterpart as a model, there is a strict causality. But at some point, the real ruler may emerge from behind the dominated image. In vanitas representations, death is the forgotten ruler. Such narratives, in the way of stories and films like The Mummy Returns, remain familiar. Behind embodiments of rules that promise security and safety by merely reacting like mirrors, appears a ruler as an arbitrary authority (be it natura naturans, a goddess, a king, or an author), who defends himself/ herself against disempowerment and does not care about the rules. Rules can replace rulers, but rulers can still hide behind rules (see p. 286). Who can authorize abilities? In identity perception, observer perspectives can be mastered and at the same time seem to authorize this by inviting the observers like the graceful authorities they have replaced. From my point of view there are three historical stages to this belief: grace of authority, grace of public opinion and grace of one ’ s own. Grace of authority: a good fit is rewarded by the authority. The model is still an authoritarian default. - Public opinion said about Emma Hamilton: ‘ this body looks like that of a lady ’ . Lord Hamilton showed his agreement with public opinion by gracing Emma with marriage, thus making her a proper lady. This is a traditional deal between an authority and its subjects. Authority hands over its power to the public. This arrangement, which seemed new and modern in the 18th century, is still a part of society today. Emma Hamilton ’ s irritating limitation to the physical (her ‘ body ’ ) had to do with the idea of measurement: what was important about her could be mapped. Pronunciation as the ‘ outward shell ’ of a linguistic utterance should also (eventually) make Eliza a lady in George Bernard Shaw ’ s play Pygmalion (1913), and this might have a motivating effect on the performers of this role and their audience. A living being or action fits perfectly into a model. The performer is not an imitation of a lady, but brings an ideal to life. However, she has yet to be rewarded for this by legitimate authority, that is, by the noble who marries her. Grace of public opinion: a good fit is checked. The model is a standard. - In the fairy story, Cinderella ’ s foot fits in the shoe, as everyone realizes (see p. 246). The subjects of the prince were all detectives who found Cinderella ’ s foot, thus realizing the future princess. The prince only has to offer to marry her - in this case a mere formality. The public decides, or at least that is how it should appear. People agree on the objective measurement by judging: ‘ the proof is found ’ . So it is the public that gives the ultimate authorization for Cinderella ’ s acceptance, rather than the prince. The general recognition of a good fit seems to be an authorization. This is the principle of the modern identity card: measurable qualities demonstrated to a public determine membership. The card is not transferable. It seems to connect an observer perspective with an embodying individual. Holders are authorized if they embody their data. Own grace: a good fit is created as a self-authorization. The model has become fully controllable. - As the third stage of this historical development, the measured one gives himself/ herself the right to become part of a coveted community. An observer perspective seems to be equally included and available in the model. By choosing the right shoe, a present-day Cinderella acquires the prince ’ s lifestyle. The shoe model seems to contain a consenting audience that the buyer brings to life through her purchase. She imagines that she becomes a part of this community of lifestyle connotations through embodying its 226 Mathias Spohr identity. The physical conformity is joined by the idea of a community created by it: because she fits well, she does not need to be accepted first. The right to embody an observer perspective, without the accusation of merely imitating, creates a world of ‘ can do ’ that is opposed to a world of ‘ must ask ’ . Dominance, not obedience, seems to be loyalty. However, when a woman reads the first sentence of the American constitution ‘ We the people ’ (see p. 253) and a male audience laughs at it, her idea that her voice fits into that sentence becomes a vain illusion. She might believe that she is replacing the faded voices, and thus triumphing over the departed rulers. But reading accurately and meaning it sincerely is not enough to produce reality, just as perfectly wearing suit and tie does not necessarily lead to acceptance. This kind of fidelity is not crucial. Embodiment requires not only an observer perspective for a faithful performance, but much more the consent of the actual observers. She understands that she has no authorization, and that the ability to read is of no use to her. She remains at the mercy of authorities, so there are no rules for her to govern herself. Writing no longer seems to guarantee equal rights, it remains indifferent. It is not selfevident that readers and viewers believe in the power of embodiment. ‘ Why should I imitate this missing voice? ’ Modern observer perspectives promise to combine equality with the opportunity to realize one ’ s own imagination, which from the vanitas point of view is an illusion. In Thomas Hobbes ’ s Leviathan (1651), the body of the state consists of the citizens, who are subject to the absolute power of the monarch. In absolutism, the king was the first to embody the state. In a sense, he had an identity body and a vanitas body (as Ernst Kantorowicz described it, in other words). Subsequently, however, the monarch becomes a representative one. He becomes the performer of a model, realized through the citizens, who are no longer at his mercy. Henceforth, his power consists of the common will of his observers - rather as with a pop star (see p. 255). The observer ’ s perspective takes over the ruler ’ s perspective. A jointly embodied perspective replaces the authority, and the observers are its faithful medium. They are convinced parts of an apparatus that they themselves have come to control. British media, which still report enthusiastically on the British royal family, demonstrate the principle of a public realization of authority, although there is no longer any real power behind these images of royalty. The reigning causer has been turned into a mastered cause. He still has an effect, but it is his observers who trigger it. Imagination seems to trace the cause back to the causer, but the reader or viewer is now the causer instead of the overcome ruler. Investigative conclusions thus become creative embodiments, and relics are given a future perspective as legible signs. This perception is not selfevident, but culturally conditioned. Rulers become observer perspectives in order to be models for observers. In the 20th century, the author replaced the ruler as the epitome of authority. The authority of the bourgeois ‘ great author ’ , monumentalized like the monarch, is also challenged by such a reception. A monument no longer moves in a self-organized way, but has become a controllable object. The readers of a ‘ great author ’ triumph over his fading voice by replacing it with their own voices. They do not imitate the speaker but embody him. The author ’ s death seems fictional, as long as the readers ’ embodiment of the text is real and alive. But the idea that an author speaks to them is a self-deception. His uniqueness has apparently become their own: a self-mirroring valorized over the centuries. Identity and Vanitas 227 By turning an image into a model, the imitated being or action - on whose reality and irreplaceability the rhetoric of vanitas insists - is replaced by interpretations. However, this failure of the replaced beings is often disguised as their success. But the praise of a past success is dependent on the reader ’ s or viewer ’ s own sense of superiority. Tourists from northern Italy, for example, stroll through Vienna ’ s castles, showing their modern superiority over the former oppressors. Pantomimes stand in front of the buildings and show living pictures, mirroring the tourists and their touching fidelity when taking photos. The power of their observer ’ s perspective, embodying the deceased castle dwellers, makes the absence of the observed rulers attractive. Vanitas interpretations, on the other hand, expose this superiority as self-deception. 228 Mathias Spohr 15 Examples Explanation of the terms used Afterimage: The depicted reality is located ‘ behind ’ the image. It is absent from the world of the viewer. Perception must fail as an attempt to represent reality. The image remains an imitation or illusion. Viewers are fools if they do not notice that the depicted is missing. If they do notice, they grieve. Role model: Reality is created by its observer according to a model. It is present in the world of the observer. Its representation succeeds, and a represented thing is realized. Viewers deny the absence of what is depicted by realizing the picture themselves. The absence of the pictured beings is welcome. Often these are rulers who have been deprived of power. This structure mostly appears in nestings (mise-en-abyme): an afterimage within an afterimage, a model within a model. For the sake of clarity, failure within failure is juxtaposed with success within success in the following examples. The afterimage-within-an-afterimage interpretation (absence within absence: vanitas) is daunting or off-putting. The model-within-a-model interpretation (presence within presence: identity) is encouraging or inviting. This is the rhetorical sense of these traditional perceptions, which represent opposite value judgements. Through the mise-en-abyme, there is an amplification of the effect. Model-within-a-model interpretations have become increasingly common since the later 18th century. A religiously connoted concept of reality (real is what lives, and the image is lifeless) changes to a causal one (real is what acts, and the image seems to act in a controllable way). Identity and Vanitas 229 Fidelity to an unattainable, desired object becomes fidelity of reproduction: instead of mourning a missing being, fidelity refers proudly to a realized model. This way, fidelity becomes manageable, technically feasible and objectifiable. The automatability of this kind of fidelity ( ‘ mechanical reading ’ ) requires a confessing ( ‘ I belong to this institution ’ ) and individualizing ( ‘ I show my freedom ’ ) ingredient called expression ( ‘ expressive reading ’ ). Cultural historians describe this as the transition from an aesthetic of imitation to an aesthetic of expression. A mechanical reading of a rule, for example, leads to ‘ service by the book ’ ( ‘ I do not belong to this institution, and I am not free ’ ), whereas an ‘ expressive ’ reading actualizes the meaning of that rule and thus brings a role, or even an institution, to life ( ‘ I belong to this institution, and I show my freedom ’ ). This way, performers of deterministic actions declare they are free, and their replaceability appears to them as uniqueness. This so-called expression aesthetic tends towards media blindness: models and regulations are internalized and surrounded with the nimbus of the natural. Performers and their observers follow the rules faithfully, but effortlessly. They do not show or perceive the training or machinery required for this. Automation is equally repressed and estimated: behind the scenes, the audience admires how it happens. This ‘ how ’ must be a reliable technique, not an inexplicable influence or magic. Afterimages are compared with what they represent. Models, on the other hand, lead to the question of how they are realized. The ‘ what ’ in the latter case (what we really see) is a medium for the realized effects. Viewers regard this medium as an observer whose perspective they share and whose performance they assess. This is how imitation becomes observation. Question: ‘ What do I see in the mirror? ’ Older answer: ‘ Not me! ’ Newer answer: ‘ A way of showing me. How does the mirror do this? ’ The older answer makes the mirror seem sinister. The newer answer makes the uncanny interesting. The same question can be asked about an actor who plays Queen Elizabeth or a photograph that depicts her: ‘ What do I see? ’ Older answer: ‘ Not Queen Elizabeth! ’ Newer answer: ‘ A way of showing Queen Elizabeth. How does the actor or the photo do it? ’ In the first case art frightens, in the second it becomes fascinating. 230 Mathias Spohr Model (identity) and afterimage (vanitas) interpretations are still common today, and can overlap or merge into each other. Vanitas has a demonic or comic connotation, while identity has a triumphant or touching one. The term afterimage is borrowed from the physiology of perception: it describes an optical impression of something that can no longer be seen. The term is used more generally in this piece: a construction of one ’ s own perception mixes with the traces of an outside world. Identity and Vanitas 231 Herrad von Landsberg: Hortus Deliciarum (around 1175) This image from a medieval encyclopaedia depicts a puppet show. According to the inscription, the scene means ‘ vanitas vanitatum ’ (vanity of vanities). Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The marionettes manipulated by strings are lifeless in contrast to their puppeteers. Therefore, according to the inscription, they are monsters ( ‘ in ludo monstrorum ’ ). The game played is reprehensible because it stimulates the imagination; the depicted fight encourages warlike thoughts. Outside the record: For viewers of the image, the puppeteers are inanimate drawings. They excite the imagination and can be seen as something alive, just as the puppeteers and their (invisible) audience see their puppets as something alive. But they are not real. The drawn figures are merely replicas of human beings. Both seem to show something alive, but viewers and readers have only dead parchment before them. The constellation of lifeless dolls in the lifeless drawing reinforces the warning against conceit. The fighters, the puppeteers, their audience and the image-viewers seem to have something in common, which is judged negatively. Their self-inflicted egalitarianism leads to competition, strife and death. This message legitimizes the drawing and with it the whole work, intended to be viewed and read by a certain public (i. e. more than one person), just like the puppet show. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. 232 Mathias Spohr Anonymous: Fresco in Tuse Church, Denmark (before 1480) The fresco shows the widespread legend of the three living and the three dead from the 11th century. Three living kings meet three dead kings on the hunt. Next to the dead we see four banners with the following Latin phrases: ‘ Vos qui transitis nostri memores rogo sitis ’ (You who pass by, I ask to remember us); ‘ Quod sumus hoc eritis ’ (What we are, you will be); ‘ Fuimus aliquando quod estis ’ (We once were what you are); ‘ Heu quantus est noster dolor ’ (Oh, our pain is great). Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: What the living kings see must be a mirage, for corpses eaten by worms can neither stand nor speak. The living kings can only read the banners. They hear no voices. In doing so, they take on the roles of the dead. When they read, they speak to themselves with the voices of the dead. After their own death, they will speak with their own voices to the unborn. In neither persona could they really speak. Outside the record: Even the living kings are only painted. They are lifeless simulacra for the churchgoers viewing them. The situation within the representation - ‘ the living in front of the dead ’ - matches the situation for the observers of the fresco. For them, the living and the dead kings are both lifeless images. Successfully matching a reader ’ s voice to the Latin text does not create reality or identity. Readers lie when they read the pronouns ‘ I ’ , ‘ we ’ or ‘ you ’ - for they are neither kings nor dead. The paradoxical situation of viewing and reading is shaped into a didactic piece; this justifies the deceptive images shown in public. Readers should be frightened, because they speak with the voices of dead people when reading. Only if they themselves were dead and spoke to future living ones would the words have any meaning. In reading them, they become aware of their own transience. Direct speech was read as a description, not yet as a command to embody. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. Understanding the dead kings as role models created only a sense of atonement for one ’ s own vanity. Identity and Vanitas 233 Jan Provoost: Death and the Miser (1515 - 21) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The painting on the left shows the Miser, the one on the right shows his observers. Death seems to be interested in settling his debts, but it is deception - the Miser is made a fool of. As a cheat, he is cheated. Death ’ s play money is not real money, just as the skeleton is not a living being. Death stands for the observer perspective of the bill of exchange, which makes a value transferable in time and space. But in this case, there is no value: both it and life are only imagination. The painter looks over Death ’ s shoulder, reading and observing the Miser. He imitates a debtor while reading and seems to embody the lifeless observer perspective. Death seems to be a puppet of the painter, but he will soon triumph over him too. Outside the record: A painting seems to make a depicted being or action spatially and temporally transferable, as a bill does with monetary value. But this is deception. The bill is legible on the painting, but the text here has no value, like the play money already has no value inside the picture. The depicted Miser and painter are as lifeless as the skeleton inside the picture. Viewers of the painting embody its perspective, as the painter inside the picture does with the bill (and indeed with the painting while painting the picture). Viewers make themselves as lifeless as the painter ’ s point of view and, like him, will soon only be a trace or memory. The Miser imposes an observer ’ s perspective on the debtor and the painter imposes one on the viewer. Both observers are deterred, because their common perspective is an assertion, which does not embody value, life or meaning. The equal treatment of debtors and art lovers through impersonal records was not yet understood as a just equality, but as oppression or imposition. As a punishment for having made themselves equal, they will have a shameful death. The painter will fail with his artful deceptions, just like the Miser. Their observer perspective, passed to the image viewers, is a symbol of reprehensible indifference. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. The traditional depiction of Death and the Miser can be seen here in two paintings of a triptych. The Miser seems to present Death with a bill of exchange and points to some kind of calendar with his right hand. (International trade in the 16th century increased the importance of bills of exchange as securities.) Death pays with toy money and a man - presumably a self-portrait of the painter - stands behind him admonishingly. 234 Mathias Spohr Pieter Coecke van Aelst the Elder: St Jerome (before 1550) The painting shows the Early Church Father in a study, surrounded by books and pictures. He points thoughtfully to a skull. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The books and pictures, like the skull, are only traces of an absence, remembrances of things past or dead, as are the extinguished candle and the expired hourglass. All are afterimages. As with a trompe-l ’œ il, it is difficult to distinguish whether the representation in the background is a painting or a window. If it is a painting, what is depicted would also be missing from Jerome ’ s world (an absence within an absence). Outside the record: The viewers see Jerome vividly before them, but are also aware that he no longer exists in the flesh. The image cannot re-create the man and the saint. It remains an afterimage. Reality cannot be represented, and the sensuous effect of the painting is deceptive. Viewers should grieve for the absence of the depicted and for their own mortality, just as the depicted figure does. To justify his art, the artist admits that it is deception. The viewers show by their mourning that they are aware of the absence of the saint. Like the painter, they atone for their guilt at having imagined what was missing. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. The fidelity of an oil painting (today we say ‘ naturalism ’ ) was still understood as a perfected deception. Identity and Vanitas 235 Nicolaus Copernicus: Heliocentric World-View (1553) The manuscript of Copernicus ’ s 1553 paper De revolutionibus orbium coelestium shows for the first time the heliocentric solar system (with the sun instead of the earth at its centre). 236 Mathias Spohr Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The proposed view of the solar system is a mathematical model to calculate the planetary orbits more easily than in the traditional Ptolemaic world-view with the Earth at the centre. Copernicus makes his world-view, which he dedicates to the Pope, compatible with social ideas such as this system representing a family. The idea that the planets move around the sun like a touchingly faithful family remains an awkward allegory of this natural process, and it is not meant to be anything more. No observer can see this, it is a mere imagination. Outside the record: In Copernicus ’ s representation the proportions are not correct, but the idea of faithfulness to the sun is faithfully represented. The perfect circular orbit still had an allegorical meaning. The claim that it is a ‘ model of the real world ’ would not yet have occurred to Copernicus and his contemporaries. Descriptions did not lead to simulations. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The solar system according to Copernicus shows the real world with the sun at the centre. For a long time, the enlightened public believed that the earth actually orbited the sun, and that this theory was definitive, rather than being one of many possibilities. The vision of a true model of reality (instead of a necessarily imperfect afterimage) has caused the dispute about the ‘ real ’ world-view to flare up ever since the 17th century. Of ideological significance here is mankind ’ s detachment from the visual ( ‘ the sun rises, therefore it moves ’ ) in favour of an ‘ objective ’ perspective: it is no longer what I see (the sun) that is in question, but how I see it (an image of the sun from an imaginary point of view). Outside the record: Heliocentric world-views have graced classrooms since the 19th century. Reality emerges through the imaginations of teachers and students. They share a common observer perspective: how we see it, it is true. A way of observing becomes the essence of the observed. Interestingly, the canonization of a role model also occurs in popular portraits of Copernicus - although there is no verifiably authentic portrait of the astronomer. His image was ‘ made real ’ through the common imagination. Since the idea of the light ether as a reference system had to be abandoned at the beginning of the 20th century, disputes about the ‘ real ’ world-view have become obsolete. For the conception of planetariums, the geocentric world view is closer; for space travel the heliocentric one is more practical. No atomic model of modern physics is considered to represent the ‘ real ’ thing today. Reference: Gudula Metze: Die Entwicklung der Copernicus-Porträts vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Diss., Munich, 2004. Identity and Vanitas 237 Anonymous: Fool ’ s Head World Map (around 1590) The anonymous illustration shows a world map by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius depicted as a fool ’ s face. The figure holds the traditional attributes of the jester ’ s cap with bells, chain of medals and jester ’ s mirror. On the glass sphere (as a fool ’ s mirror) we see neither the fool ’ s face nor the world map, but the inscription: ‘ vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas ’ (vanity of vanities, all is vanity). Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The fool ’ s face shows what he thinks he sees and what is actually missing. The viewer and what he sees become one, as in the mirror: something seeing and being seen at the same time and in the same place. As a fool, he believes he embodies the world. Inside the picture, the glass sphere and the head are round, in contrast to the flat map projection. Outside the record: The viewers of the image see themselves mirrored in the depicted fool, who in turn sees himself mirrored in the world map and the glass sphere. They see no face, just as the fool sees no world. The globe, like the fool ’ s head, can only be represented in a distorted form as a flat picture. Moreover, in the 16th century, the distortions of the latitudes and longitudes as curved lines were still spontaneously perceived as ridiculous, and did not yet appear as a proof of accuracy. The order of the observed and the order of the observers are seen in close connection: while the world map presents itself as something precisely measured, its observers are chaotic in contrast to the map ’ s unifying observer perspective. Wars and even civil wars prevail, as a Latin inscription above the map records. In science the observation of a regularity presupposes a regularity of the observers. The latter at least is not self-evident. The cartographic representation ’ s image of reason and order is confronted with the unreason and disorder of the represented world and its viewers. The real distortions of the map projection are more in line with the real world than its imagined order. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. Admitting to being a fool still justified the art and science of geography. The idea of objective observer perspectives had not yet become established. 238 Mathias Spohr Jakob Hiebeler: Füssen Dance of Death (1602) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Skeletons are silent and motionless. That they seem to make music, dance or speak is the painter ’ s artistic delusion. But his imagination can only make him aware of the lifelessness of his works and his own approaching death. Through this admission, the artist justifies himself to the public and uses the justification for a humble, socially acceptable selfpromotion. Lamenting the transience of existence enables a moment of vanity. Outside the record: Image and writing are lifeless: mute and motionless. Viewing and reading them is self-deception. The realistic image of the painter is as lifeless as the less realistic skeletons. Future generations, viewing the artwork, know that he has already died. Neither a skeleton nor a painted man can dance. Viewers, who read the words inscribed on the painting as if they themselves were speaking, and imagine a dance of death as if they themselves were dancing, become aware of the absurdity of their actions and thus of their own approaching deaths. The paradox of reading direct speech was more understandable in Hiebeler ’ s day than it is now and was perceived thus: actors and first-person narrators are impostors or fools in disguise. They see something living or make something that is not living seem alive. Readers have neither the ability nor the authority to speak in a voice other than their own. Writing is a postscript to something that has faded away and cannot be replaced. Reading does not embody, but imitate: it remains a mechanical linking of sounds and makes one aware that death or a dead person seems to be speaking. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. Theatrical representations of death-dances were rarer than one might assume today. Images and writings should remain afterimages and afterscripts and not necessarily feature in moving representations, or texts to be read out loud. In the context of ‘ Dance-of- Death ’ (Totentanz) pictures, the painter represents himself. In the lines of text above the painting, Death addresses him ( ‘ Jakob Hiebeler, stop painting, throw down the brush, you have to die. You have depicted my body in a repulsive way, come here, you have to become the same now. ’ ). Identity and Vanitas 239 Anonymous: Relief on the Town Hall of Nördlingen (around 1608) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The sculptor, when he creates his text and image, has only stone in front of him, not a human being. By making the work, he admits that he is a fool. He imagines dead stone and dead writing as something alive. It is not transience that is responsible for the absence of a living counterpart, but the human imagination. Outside the record: Viewer and reader look only at a lifeless image; a real, living counterpart is missing. Both the writing and the relief are afterimages. Perhaps the artist has already died. The spontaneous effect of the laughing jester ’ s face is as deceptive as that of a mirror image. There is no one laughing in the mirror. Image and writing remain indifferent. The word ‘ us ’ is a deception because the reader is alone in reading, just as the writer was in composing the text. The carved, inanimate text makes no sound: there is no ‘ we ’ . Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. An observer perspective of art lovers who want to see an artwork as something alive did not yet exist. A ‘ realization ’ of pictures and writings in one ’ s own imagination was still seen as the province of fools: imagination was not yet perceived as ‘ proper ’ . Image and text do not yet demand that the viewers embody a given perspective; instead, they warn against doing this. The vanitas connotation of reproduced direct speech - fools, deceivers, the arrogant, the greedy, the desperate and the undead all lie because they lack something - is a conscious feature of medieval literature. The reader ’ s appropriation of an alien self was a repetition of a presented misdeed. Reference: Monika Unzeitig et al. (eds.): Stimme und Performanz in der mittelalterlichen Literatur, Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017. The relief is located at the entrance to the ‘ jester ’ s house ’ in Nördlingen (Bavaria, Germany), which was used for short prison sentences. The relief of a jester looks out at his viewers, above a text that reads ‘ nun sind unser zwey ’ (now there are two of us). 240 Mathias Spohr Anonymous: Allegory of Vanity (around 1630) An early naturalistic oil painting deceptively depicts a scene with a young woman illuminated by a candle. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The skull is only an afterimage of a human head, and the mirrored flame of the oil lamp is only an afterimage of a real flame. A young woman points at both. Outside the record: The painted young woman, who seems alive through the illusionistic technique of oil painting, is as lifeless as the skull depicted, and the real flame is as unreal as the mirrored one. They are all afterimages. The illumination of the woman and the shadows is not due to the depicted flame ’ s effect, but is a clever deception of the senses by the painter, who, however, renders himself absent by not signing the image. Viewers should be irritated by the artist ’ s successful fraud. Reality is missing. However, the painting ’ s moral message justifies the naturalism of the depiction. Interpretation model within model: identity Was not yet common. From the 18th century onwards, it could be argued that the feigned candlelight was not a despicable deception, but an admirable true-to-life reproduction, such as a mirror is capable of. In the 17th century, however, the mirror was not yet perceived as a means of proof, but as a means of deception - just like other optical devices, such as the magnifying glass. All deceive by showing things distorted or in the wrong place. In the 17th century, people still asked ‘ what ’ was to be seen, not ‘ how ’ an effect was produced. There was no admiration for clever deception. The insight that ‘ it is not what it seems ’ devalued representation. Observers ’ perspectives of a mirror or on a painting were not yet considered objective. Rather, they were criticized for their folly, transmissibility and lifelessness. This concept was already in flux. Identity and Vanitas 241 Nicolas Poussin: Et in Arcadia Ego (1637/ 38) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The ‘ I ’ as the subject of the sentence is not present: only mute writing remains. It is an afterimage of a past. The read ‘ ego ’ is absent as a voice and as a person. Reading remains a failure, a mechanical act of spelling out. The shepherds notice the absence of the voice of ‘ ego ’ and become aware of their own transience. They have no control. Outside the record: In the painting, the shepherds are permanently mute and motionless, like the script they read and the tombstone they see. The artist has failed. The image of a past, like the writing on the tomb, can only reflect a numbness and silencing. Viewers mourn like the shepherds. Because the living voices are missing, they interpret the writing as an allegory: it is death that seems to speak. Direct speech remains a lifeless description. The historical background is the revival of Latin writings on humanism, which is problematized here. From Plato comes not only the allegory of the cave (only images of reality can be perceived), but also the scepticism about written direct speech. The writing depicted in the painting is not eloquent, but only a trace of something that has been silenced. Readers and viewers cannot replace the dead. Interpretation model within model: identity Is only common from the 18th century onwards. Within the record: The shepherds do not establish an absence through their reading, but bring a past to life. The readers then relate the ‘ ego ’ to themselves and realize it ‘ expressively ’ through their voices. This procedure is no disguise, but an embodiment. Outside the record: Johann Wolfgang Goethe came to embody the read ‘ ego ’ and the viewed shepherds through his motto ‘ Auch ich in Arkadien ’ (I, too, in Arcadia) when he travelled to Italy (Italienische Reise, 1817). The shepherds and the writing they read are classical models, and Goethe not only imitated but embodied them, thus becoming an effective model himself. For him, the Latin sentence was not a postscript to faded speech, but a personal call to action. His readers, the majority of whom in his day would not yet have been able to travel to Italy, were allowed to experience the journey through his words. Goethe ’ s readers shared and still share in his self-realization. Arcadian shepherds read the words ‘ Et in Arcadia Ego ’ (I too in Arcadia) on a tombstone. 242 Mathias Spohr David Bailly: Vanitas Still Life with African Servant (around 1650) Behind a table with vanitas symbols stands a servant holding the image of his master. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Musical instruments, letters and books remain silent, dice and painter ’ s palette remain motionless, because their users are missing. Cut flowers and soap bubbles will soon pass away. The servant seems to control his master, but it is only a picture of the master that he holds in his hand. Outside the record: Soap bubbles and cut flowers are captured in the picture. It cannot show their transience and thus has failed. The painted tobacco cannot be smoked, and the painted painter ’ s palette cannot be used. However, the picture can reflect the absence of musicians, painters and painted people. This is best represented by the painted skull: the absence of the person it was part of can be reproduced, just as the muteness of musical instruments and letters, or the motionlessness of artworks and painted soap bubbles and the lifelessness of cut flowers can be rendered. It is only a picture. Because the viewers become aware that all these deceptively real things are missing, they begin to interpret the depictions in a figurative sense, as allegories. Interpretation model within model: identity At the time of the painting, this way of looking at things was only possible ironically. Within the record: The letters, musical instruments and objects are waiting for art lovers to read, restore, repurpose or sell them. The servant enjoys the fact that his master has been banished or has died and at the same time celebrates his continuing respect for him. His imagination brings a vanished world to life. The mastery of the relics masquerades as fidelity. Outside the record: The painting has masterfully depicted everything missing and passing away. Viewers are proud that they have overcome all the hardships associated with the people and things depicted, and at the same time imagine them as alive. This triumph seems to unite them. It seems to be loyalty to the painter and to the world depicted. Identity and Vanitas 243 Guido Cagnacci: Maria Magdalena (1663) Mary Magdalene desperately holds Christ ’ s skull in her left hand. In her right hand is a scourge. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The skull is a lifeless afterimage. It signifies that Christ is missing and that Mary Magdalene ’ s erotic desire for him is futile. The scourge implies shame. Religious 244 Mathias Spohr experience does not take the sensory route. Rather, it reminds us that life, and everything associated with it, is transient. Outside the record: The painting, for all its artistry, is a lifeless afterimage, and the artist is a fraud. The viewers believe they are looking at a beautiful woman, but it is only a painting. Their desire is as futile as that of the figure depicted. Rather than rejoicing in the beautiful picture, they mourn the unobtainable nature of its subject. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: It may be that Mary Magdalene, in her erotic despair, tries to imagine the living Christ by means of the skull. The skull would then not be an afterimage of the living, but a model for her imagination. The scourge may have an auto-erotic function. Outside the record: The style of the depiction suggests that the viewers are more interested in the naked torso of the beautiful woman than in the image ’ s religious significance. Like the depicted Mary Magdalene, they may use an inanimate object (the painted nude) as a substitute for a living partner - because they prefer an imaginary to a real encounter. They triumph, instead of mourning the absence of a real being. The model interpretation, already possible in the 17th century but perceived as reprehensible, is legitimized and protected by the traditional vanitas interpretation. Identity and Vanitas 245 Charles Perrault: Cendrillon ou La Petite Pantoufle de Verre (1697) Interpretation by the photographer Volodymyr Tverdokhlib. The prince in Perrault ’ s fairy tale is looking for his dancing partner Cinderella with the help of her shoe, which she lost at his ball. The prince has no partner, only a hollow form to look at. The spectator also has no partner, just a photograph. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The shoe is only a lifeless afterimage representing the lost partner. Applied as a measure to living women, it makes the fit transferable from the original dancing partner to another, and motivates competition. Competition is indecent because it leads to discord. Cinderella ’ s sisters try to deceive the prince. In reality, a lost one cannot be retrieved in the way the story suggests. The prince is mourning. Outside the record: A text representing a shoe that is supposed to fit a unique woman reveals a double absence. Like the shoe that is transferable to other feet, the text is transferable to other voices, which cannot replace the original. Readers make themselves equivalents to Cinderella ’ s sisters by fitting their voices into the same text. Readers cannot replace Cinderella, just as her sisters cannot. The futility of imitation and the interchangeability of imitators warn and discourage readers. They make themselves interchangeable and superfluous by all believing themselves unique like the prince, who is the only authority. The narrative legitimizes itself with this moral. 246 Mathias Spohr Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The prince can reconstruct the lost partner from her shoe. The measure of this shoe does not celebrate transferability, but rather fidelity, like an identity card: the fit of the shoe could hold something unique. Outside the record: A reader brings the text to life with her voice as if it enables her to realize her own identity through Cinderella ’ s imagined slipper. She replaces what is missing with herself and makes herself unique this way. Thus, she is Cinderella and the prince in one person, as in front of the mirror. Readers welcome the fact that the slipper in the text is only a virtual one, because they can all imagine it would fit them. The selection is made on the part of the observer, and ends the competition. This offers a solution to the afterimage problem: shoe and text become products that invite readers ’ self-realization. Their own unique foot seems to offer the key to an imagined world. By choosing, they imagine being chosen themselves. There is no need for a real Cinderella. Readers do not mourn her absence. Both interpretations are possible. The afterimage interpretation still justifies the model interpretation, which has already gained ground in this example. The newer notion of a realizing and individualizing track reading begins to overcome the older notion of the threatening, forcibly equalizing measurement. In 1687, Charles Perrault triggered the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes. His contributions were crucial for overcoming imitation aesthetics, and led to a growing enthusiasm for fairy tales containing miracles without religious connotations. When the Brothers Grimm and Ludwig Bechstein made their own fairy-tale collections, they turned Cinderella into an identity-forming ‘ German ’ fairy tale. German readers forgot its French model by reading and embodying the narrative in German. Identity and Vanitas 247 Johann Beringer: Würzburg ‘ Lying Stones ’ (1725/ 26) Johann Beringer (1670 - 1738), a doctor and university professor from Würzburg, collected around 2,000 fake fossils and published reproductions of them. They were relief-like representations of animals, and also of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, made from fired clay. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: According to the widespread view of Beringer ’ s time, fossils were the remains of animals that had perished in the Flood. Their lifelessness reminded viewers of God ’ s divine punishment. Irreplaceable beings had passed away. They were mourned, but the legitimacy of their demise was not doubted. In all likelihood, Beringer was complicit in many of the forgeries that he collected. So they were doubly absent, not only historical but fictional. Outside the record: The publication of illustrations of the fossils only shows an absence: the reproductions are afterimages, just as the stones are afterimages of living creatures. Their depictions convey a religious message: they themselves are sinful and justify this wrongdoing by exposing a sinful subject. This justifies not least the fact that they were invented. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Beringer declared, contrary to prevailing opinion, that fossils were natural models of living beings, archetypes of life. The images did not seem to be lying masks, but revealing traces. He had created the models. Outside the record: The copper engravings faithfully reproduce the fossils. Beringer ’ s publication presented itself as exemplary and seemed to proudly display models of a 248 Mathias Spohr previous life on earth. Justification by warnings no longer seemed needed. However, this effect was undermined by the discovery that the images were forgeries. Nevertheless, the deception did not damage Beringer ’ s reputation. Models were in demand, and fossil science was only just emerging. The animals and the voices that once expressed the Hebrew letters were absent anyway, whether they died or were imagined. Well-intentioned deception and scientific explanations - of optical illusions, for example - were still perceived as closely connected. Natural emergence, technical reproduction and artistic design have in common that they seem to be explained by ‘ how ’ -questions. Beringer ’ s era represented a transitional stage between ‘ what ’ -questions and ‘ how ’ -questions. The absence of a depicted being no longer devalues a representation (it is not what it reproduces), if the observers wonder how a model is realized. Not a past reality, but a present realization is crucial. Today, we may consider Beringer ’ s deception attempts as creativity in the modern sense. He embodied a past. Mute stones became speaking models. Death turned out to be a fiction. The assertion of archetypes and primordial images (which do not possess the shortcomings of imperfect replications or descriptions) went on to become an established tradition, from the ‘ laws of nature ’ of the 19th century to the writings of Sigmund Freud in the 20th century (see p. 272). Reference: Olaf Briese: ‘ Nachgeahmt, gefaked oder gefälscht? Die Behringer-Affäre der Jahre 1725/ 1726 und Fragen nach “ Vorbild ” , “ Nachbild ” und “ Original ” heute ’ , in: ilinx. Berliner Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, 2 (2011): Mimesen, pp. 47 - 69. Identity and Vanitas 249 William Hogarth: The Inspection (1743 - 5) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The skull and the doctor ’ s anatomical models in the background are memorials of transience that show death cannot be stopped. The printing press behind the book on the right is a sign of the doctor ’ s vain attempts to disprove this. Outside the record: Viewers of the picture know from its context that the patient is already as dead as the doctor ’ s objects of study, and that the picture itself is lifeless and the characters are fictional. They are warned against fraudulent effects. The painter exposes himself as a fraud by elaborately exposing the lifelike image of a charlatan. This justified the publishing of this picture as a copper engraving in a large edition. However, the work was not as successful as the author had hoped. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The skull and anatomical models are signs of exemplary knowledge of the human body, and inspire confidence. With them, the doctor interprets nature reliably. They may be models for the success of a life-saving surgery. And the pill that the patient holds in his hand may have a healing effect. Outside the record: The pill looks like the enlivening point of view of the picture, a model of life for its viewers. For them it means not death but discipline. If they are parallel cases, like the viewers of the painting, they can hope to experience its effect. An enlightened community seems to be saying, through the viewer ’ s perspective of the painting: we invite you to believe this and to carry out this medical instruction. The painting anticipates modern product photography by seeming to say: “ You can realize the world depicted. Would you like to? ” The satirical depiction shows that, at the time Hogarth created the image, the reputation of practical medicine was in flux. It contrasts the role-model interpretation, then on the rise, with the older afterimage interpretation. The painting depicts a syphilitic patient and his sick mistress visiting a charlatandoctor. The patient, whose disease is illustrated by the black spot on his neck, holds a pill in his hand. 250 Mathias Spohr Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Pygmalion (1762 - 70) In Rousseau ’ s musical-theatrical scene (scène lyrique), the sculptor Pygmalion succeeds (for the first time in the history of this myth) in bringing his statue to life without divine help. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The statue is only an afterimage of its creator ’ s wishes. It is not a person. Its reflections of love are indifferent and meaningless. It is merely an erotic stimulus. The artist is a fool and is alone. He mourns the absence of the imaginary woman. Outside the record: The audience watching Rousseau ’ s scene sees a motionless actress representing Pygmalion ’ s statue. She imitates an imitation. The lifelessness of this image makes the absence of a depicted person all the more apparent. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: As his ideal, the statue is the artist ’ s model. According to Rousseau ’ s theatrical text, it touches its creator and says ‘ I ’ . Pygmalion ’ s grief over his failure turns into euphoria. Rousseau makes the mirror image of a performer playing this text see and speak without making fools of its beholders. Outside the record: The actress takes the artist ’ s image as her model and, as a performer, becomes a model for her audience. She embodies the successful embodiment of the sculptor. Her standing still as a living picture is not lifelessness but discipline, just like the spectators ’ sitting still. The absence of an imitated person is welcomed by all, for they themselves can imagine the ideal and thus become more relevant than anything imitated. Images and writings are no longer mute and motionless. They are transformed from afterimages of an absent world into models for the imagination of their interpreters. Viewers animate them and understand their controllability as a loyalty that seems to mirror the viewer ’ s loyalty. Henceforth, music will proclaim this message. - Rousseau himself feared the transferability of the theatrical role he had created, and opposed further performances with a different interpreter of the statue to his original actress. Illustration (1770) by Jean Michel Moreau le jeune. The sculptor ’ s shamed wife (to the left of the animated statue) was usually shown in depictions of this story. Rousseau deliberately omitted this character. Identity and Vanitas 251 Johann Wolfgang Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) Werther ’ s last letter and the transition to the fictional editor ’ s commentary. In Goethe ’ s epistolary novel, a young man confides his unhappy love for an unobtainable woman in letters to a friend, then shoots himself. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The first-person character writes of a potential lover who is unattainable for him. The adored Charlotte (whether she really exists or not), is missing, and his imagination is only a substitute for her. He is a fool. His death is the warning result of this high-handed behaviour. Outside the record: For the readers of the epistolary novel, the written ‘ I ’ is even more remote than for the fictional reader (Werther ’ s friend Wilhelm). They are fools for adopting his missing voice. At best, readers can understand the novel as a morality tale: a foolish passion has come to a reprehensible end. The moral message justifies Goethe ’ s intent to deceive, and the readers ’ self-deception in believing his story. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Werther ’ s letters invoke a realization of desires. The experiences he and Charlotte share of reading, listening to music or dancing the waltz (no longer perceived as idle pastimes and futile illusions, but as embodying pleasures that make up a relationship: a shared observer ’ s perspective) and his written evocations of these pleasures temporarily overcome the distance between him and his unattainable beloved. Outside the record: Readers identify with the written ‘ I ’ as a shared observer perspective and thus create a community seemingly independent of space and time. The person they have appropriated and embodied does not have to exist for this to happen; what matters is their self-realization. This love lives longer than the lovers. In the reception of Goethe ’ s work - in parodies, pamphlets and imitations - both interpretations were offered. The exemplary (positive) perspective clearly predominated. Napoleon Bonaparte praised Goethe for this work. The shameful violent death became a proud self-imposed death. The alleged proliferation of suicides in this regard led the opponents of exemplarism to denounce this reversal of the deterrent effect (the vanitas interpretation) and gave rise to the term ‘ Werther effect ’ . Reference: Walther Ziegler, Ulrich Hegerl: ‘ Der Werther-Effekt. Bedeutung, Mechanismen, Konsequenzen ’ , in: Der Nervenarzt, 73: 2002, pp. 41 - 49. 252 Mathias Spohr Constitution of the United States (1787) Photo of the handwritten oldest constitution in the world still in force today. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The writing ‘ We the People ’ on the old document represents the faded voices of a community of white men. It cannot reflect that community and remains its afterimage. It is a memorial to a vain and ephemeral expression of will. Later readers will be aware that this ‘ We ’ does not speak for them. Outside the record: The photograph reproduces the document, but cannot contain the original and still less the men who once expressed themselves through the writing. The writing, still legible in the photograph, shows all the more clearly that the people who said ‘ We ’ when the document was created are missing. Readers may find it problematic to replace ‘ we ’ with themselves. Even if the will and the ability exist, the recognition may be lacking. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Readers relate the word ‘ we ’ to themselves and realize it ‘ expressively ’ , feeling they are entitled to appropriate it, even if they do not belong to the community that was referred to at the time of writing. New members want to keep that community alive. This text is a model for ever-new persuasive reading. Description has become prescription. In linguistics its embodiment is termed a ‘ speech act ’ (to quote John L. Austin). Outside the record: The photograph reinforces the spirit of this constitution, whose writing should always and everywhere be legible. Faithful rendering of this text through exact copies and close reading creates reality. Looking at this text as a collective memory creates a shared observer ’ s perspective, independent of space and time and not bound to a concrete medium. This will and legitimacy are present and alive. Identity and Vanitas 253 Mètre des Archives (1791) Copy No. 27 of the second Paris prototype metre of 1889, in the possession of the United States. In March 1791, the Constituent Assembly in Paris, formed during the French Revolution 1789, introduced the metre as a unit of length. The original prototype metre was made of brass. Regardless of political differences, the metre gradually prevailed in many countries over multiform anthropomorphic units of length such as the cubit, span, foot and step. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The units of cubit or foot are inaccurate afterimages of a missing, living limb. They admonish all measurers not to forget the individuality of the living. Life is multiform, and it is the individual that matters. Therefore, measurements should not be standardized. Indeed, even the mathematically generated original metre remains an inaccurate replica of a measured distance on the earth ’ s surface. Outside the record: Like the measures of cubit or foot, which are little similar to real forearms or feet, primal metre No. 27 is merely a relatively inaccurate copy of an inaccurate prototype. A photograph only magnifies this inaccuracy. An abstract representation is made the measure of all that is alive, and yet remains an inadequate afterimage. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The Paris prototype metre is a neutral model for all measured lengths. It is not a reproduction of human body lengths. It does not depend on a concrete embodiment of measurement. Conversely, living arms or feet are measured with it. Thus, it has to precede the measured: the measured embodies the measurement. Outside the record: The original prototype metre and its copies are now no longer needed. The embarrassing statement that a prototype is also a replica is not possible anymore, because the physical model is dispensable. Its photograph shows an authority that has become historic. The ruler, here in the sense of the measuring tool, has been replaced with rules. An automatic measuring device consistently complies with them. Increased fidelity makes it possible to improve the precision of the metre to this day. It is a practical measuring tool due to its portability, and this is critical to the consensus of its users and to the impact of this standard. The unifying constitution (which was planned after the French Revolution) and the unifying measure of length are closely related. Even the writing of a constitution is not meant to be an afterimage of particular voices, but a model for all voices, chosen rather than imposed. Merciless egalitarianism is reinterpreted as motivating equality. 254 Mathias Spohr Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Portrait Aria from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791) First page of Mozart ’ s manuscript of the ‘ Portrait ’ Aria: Prince Tamino, the opera ’ s hero, falls in love with the Queen of the Night ’ s daughter Pamina through her portrait. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Tamino sings about an inanimate object, the afterimage of a woman he has never seen. He is a fool. A nobleman should not be portrayed so ridiculously. Outside the record: Viewers of the musical notes, operatic spectators or listeners to the aria cannot even see Pamina ’ s likeness, but merely hear the music, an afterimage of an afterimage. The singer does not even need to look at an image in order to sing, and he is not noble. The woman is missing twice. Listeners understand the aria as a lament. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the recording: Tamino realizes the role model through hopeful singing. In the course of the plot, his wishful thinking will be fulfilled, when he and the ‘ real ’ Pamina fall in love. Outside the recording: The musical experience makes this model come alive for the audience. They do not require an image or a depicted person to be present. Listeners replace Tamino ’ s absent partner or the prince with themselves, or with their own desired image. Therefore, they welcome the absence of this couple. The prince has become a symbolic, merely ‘ charming ’ authority. And his performer is not a true authority as well, even if he is a celebrity. Listening to an exemplary sound recording does not even require a living performer to be present. The available charms of the picture and of the sound recording are harmless. An aria which could be perceived as a lament evolves into a hopeful realization of what is missing, performed and embodied by singers and listeners. They all prefer an individualized imagining to a living encounter. The general development of a musical repertoire is related to this exemplary way of thinking. Identity and Vanitas 255 Henriette Hendel-Schütz as the Sphinx (1812) Copper engraving in a ladies ’ yearbook: the actress, in the then-new art of the tableau vivant (living picture) represents a Sphinx. In Greek tradition, the Sphinx is a fierce goddess. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The Sphinx is a fantasy figure that exists only in ancient sculptures. The actress re-creates an image of something that does not exist and makes herself into something inanimate, just like lifeless pagan sculptures with their dubious appeal. Outside the record: The engraving depicts the actress, who in turn depicts an image. The Sphinx is missing three times, so to speak, because (twice) only images of a conceit are copied. The actress combines the suspect attraction of the exotic motif with her erotic ability to fool the audience. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The Sphinx is understood as an ancient model for the imagination of its modern viewers. Hendel-Schütz realizes the exemplar by making herself into an image. She 256 Mathias Spohr embodies a perspective on the ancient model, and herself becomes a model for reproductions. The motionlessness of a picture no longer means conformity to something dead or unattainable, but is an invitation to realization, making the viewers resemble this view. Observers do not become lifeless, but make a point of view come alive. Immobility signals fidelity of reproduction, and makes the representation seem harmless - for one usually suspects an actress of wanting to beguile with her charms. Outside the record: The mute and immobile engraving depicts the mute and immobile actress who has become the model, and thus becomes the model for domestic representations of the Sphinx. The fact that the mythical Sphinx and the living actress are missing from the image is not relevant for viewers, because they themselves realize the Sphinx according to this model. All share an observer perspective on the Sphinx in this way, as a common feat of imagination. All think they are special by following the Sphinx fashion. The paradox of living images perhaps most clearly shows the transformation of afterimage thinking into model thinking since the end of the 18th century: an observer perspective replaces the observed. Thus, imitation aesthetics become expression aesthetics; imitations of something absent become self-realizations. The emerging field of archaeology played a part in this: ancient relics were no longer perceived as memorials to past paganism, but instead as having a lasting effect, promising stability. Identity and Vanitas 257 Gilbert-Louis Duprez in Rossini ’ s Guillaume Tell (1828) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Arnold in Rossini ’ s opera is only an afterimage of the character Ulrich in Friedrich Schiller ’ s drama, and the latter is only an afterimage of a historical or mythical person who arrogantly opposed a legitimate authority of his time. The person, who has long since died or is fictitious, is in a sense triply absent, which makes the image as chilling as a skull. Outside the record: The singer Duprez proves through his athletic performance that the Parisian stage is merely a vanity fair. Through his singing he attempts to surpass the vanity of Schiller ’ s fictional hero (and his real-life counterpart, if such a person existed). But soon his voice, too, will fade away. This warning justifies his audience appeal. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Schiller ’ s heroic Ulrich, who may have been modelled on a young companion of the real William Tell, becomes the model for the young tenor hero of Rossini ’ s opera. They were all admirable and worthy of embodiment. William Tell became a Swiss national hero. Famous tenors were embodiments of this heroism. Outside the record: In the role of Arnold, Duprez became the model for all heroic tenors, even after his voice had faded away. His stage portrait kept this alive, as a souvenir. Rossini ’ s French grand opera helped to improve the Wilhelm Tell figure ’ s acceptance in Frenchspeaking Switzerland, and thus to assert an all-Swiss role model. A melody from the opera became the identity symbol of the Swiss postbuses. The real-life singer and even the opera are no longer needed to transform these past achievements into new role models of a Swiss folk hero: monuments, paintings, festival figures, labels. The absence of these models does not cause disquiet. On the contrary, it is welcome, in that it allows new realizations and embodiments of this seemingly eternal mythical authority. Since about 1960, this conviction has declined. Reference: Max Frisch: Wilhelm Tell für die Schule, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1971. Gilbert-Louis Duprez (1806 - 96) sang the highest note (c ’ ) ever yet produced in chest voice when he performed the role of Arnold in Guillaume Tell on the stage of the Paris Opéra. He thus became the model for all heroic tenors. 258 Mathias Spohr Hans Christian Andersen: The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838) Illustration of Andersen ’ s fairy tale by Vilhelm Pedersen (1850) In this tale, a one-legged tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina who appears to balance on one leg. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The tale is only a matter of toys that seem to imitate living beings. The tin soldier is an afterimage of a fantasy figure. By destroying this inanimate object at the end of his narrative, Andersen destroys the deceptive fantasy that it is a living being. This is how he justifies his attempts to deceive. Outside the record: The narrative consists only of lifeless words on a page. Reading can no more liberate the characters from their muteness and motionlessness than playing with toys can make them live. A replica cannot be made real, and replicating this replica in words only makes this clearer. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Toys bring ideas to life. The muteness and motionlessness of the tin soldier and the dancer, even under aggravated conditions, demonstrate exemplary masculine and feminine behaviour among the ‘ lower classes ’ . The soldier ’ s silent staring at the dancer and her silent acceptance of his gaze are exemplary representations of notions of love in Andersen ’ s time. As for the couple ’ s mutual one-leggedness, it appears to symbolize their unity. As disabled but brave people, they seem to have a common identity and a common observer perspective. The function of these materials and, from an outside perspective, the controllability of the toys for the playing children, seem to be their nature. Outside the record: The muteness and motionlessness of letters on the page is, on the one hand, harmless and, on the other, exemplary of disciplined observance, a significant virtue in Andersen ’ s time. Texts do not restrict, but seem alive as controlled mirror images of their viewers, just like the toys in the text. Lifelessness means exemplary discipline. The narrative plays ironically with these two possible interpretations. Identity and Vanitas 259 Crime Novels/ Crime films (19th and 20th centuries) Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple in a 1961 film adaptation of a novel by Agatha Christie. The very first fictional detective was August Dupin in Edgar Allen Poe ’ s short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841). Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Corpses and crime traces reveal an absence of life; they show death as the result of human violence. The traces left behind are afterimages and memorials. Blood-feuds and war crimes should be mourned and forgiven in order that peace may be restored. Searching for clues does not bring the victims back to life. A detective who wants to know exactly what happened and find the criminal culprits disturbs the peace. He or she is no hero, but a vain stubborn being, and ultimately doomed to die. Outside the record: Images and writings used to represent the criminal action and its consequences are as lifeless as corpses. As fictions, they also deceive the audience. They can be perceived as off-putting morality tales that illustrate the absence of what is being portrayed. Sales figures or ratings can however be justified by the stories ’ warning message. In modern times, Shakespearean tragedies in the popular theatre have often been performed as morality plays or as melodramas. Hamlet is not a successful detective yet. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The forces of the police, justice and medicine work together to solve the crime. Corpses and clues are not dismissed as shocking signs of death, but are perceived as promising material for forensic science. Trace reading can unveil the truth. What in vanitas rhetoric was perceived as a deterrent now seems to provide security. The heroes who prevail act in an exemplary manner. Even if those who have suffered the crime are silent, their traces can be read about like letters. Absence is made into presence. 260 Mathias Spohr Outside the record: The entertainment (be it a novel or a film) shows how a world is put in order with the help of reason, using modern techniques and procedures. The ambiguity of the causa efficiens ( ‘ can a cause behave arbitrarily? ’ ) is thus defeated: the perpetrator is scientifically identified and rendered harmless, so that this cause can no longer act. This makes detective novels exemplary for disciplined reading or watching. Tracing and regular reproduction are closely linked: the continuously read novel or the continuously running film are not lifeless and boring, or frightening, perceived as an addiction or an unstoppable machine, but create a reassuring distance to their suspenseful content. In plays, films and television dramas the actor or actress of the exemplary detective becomes a role model. Even a corpse actor is praised for his animation of the corpse role, and the absence of a murder victim is welcomed. Fiction is welcome when it makes us believe that death is a lie. The vanitas component is responsible for the crime genre having a lower reputation than, say, literary fiction. In the first detective story, published in 1841, Poe avoids pitting the detective ’ s virtue against the murderer ’ s depravity by making the detective a mysterious nobleman and the murderer an ape. Today, parodic mixing of interpretations can also be common: for example, when the murderer is held up as a role model (see p. 287). Identity and Vanitas 261 Giacomo Meyerbeer: Le Prophète (1849) The opera explores the life of John of Leyden, a 16th-century Protestant ruler. It had a great success at its premiere, which took place in France a year after the failed revolution of 1848. This image depicts John taking command of the Anabaptists, a radical Protestant movement, at sunrise. The stage sunrise was simulated by an arc lamp and was a sensational technical innovation. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: This prophet was a false one. His charisma led his followers to disaster. An influential interpretation of 1847 interpreted John ’ s story (and Anabaptism) as a cautionary tale, warning of the dangers of ‘ communism ’ . Outside the record: The vain singer on stage portrays an impostor. The arc machine, for its part, glamorously fakes a sunrise. They both fool the audience, but are equally admired for their art. Their success can be justified by deterrence: the deception (the false sunrise) illuminates another deception (a false prophet) and thus serves as a warning against immoral behaviour. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The historic John of Leyden was a revolutionary against the Catholic Church and remains a role model. Outside the record: Meyerbeer ’ s Jean de Leyde is an inspiring role model for the disappointed 1848 revolutionaries, and the stage sunrise is a fascinating symbol of the revolutionary spirit. The art of the theatre is not a deception, but can inspire the audience to feel ‘ communist ’ solidarity. Enthusiastic performers and spectators have the potential to unleash a revolution, as they did at a Belgian performance of the opera La muette de Portici (1828) in 1830. In an apolitical environment, they imagine a ‘ higher reality ’ . In both cases a vision comes to life. 262 Mathias Spohr The composer Richard Wagner, who saw himself as a revolutionary in 1848, initially understood this opera in the sense of the identity perception. He turned away from Meyerbeer when the intended warning became clear to him. He called the opera ’ s success ‘ effect without cause ’ . This was an allusion to Meyerbeer ’ s alleged lack of legitimate lineage as a Jew - a common anti-Semitic argument. It means: the effects of this author are vain, not natural. Meyerbeer was on the side of the rulers, not on the side of nature. However, a staged fiction cannot have any natural cause. Causality and lineage were equated here. In the 20th century, Le prophète was seldom staged. In contrast, the musical Les Misérables (1980) conveys unbroken enthusiasm for the 1832 Paris Uprising, whose failure is no longer perceived as a political issue. Identity and Vanitas 263 Jean-Martin Charcot: Hysteria (1878) Charcot ’ s patient Augustine presenting the ‘ third phase ’ of hysteria. The physician Jean-Martin Charcot aspired to scientifically record the ‘ female disease ’ hysteria, which had featured in writings since antiquity. He held public presentations at the Paris clinic La Salpêtrière, where his female patients demonstrated the clinical picture in the phases he had identified. 264 Mathias Spohr Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas This interpretation is common again today: we no longer believe that a clinical picture is an image realized by the sick person. Within the record: Charcot ’ s patients were mimicking a performance by their doctor. The doctor ’ s vanity motivated the patients ’ vanity and encouraged them to perform. This clinical picture is not an accurate representation of a disease. Outside the record: The photograph is an afterimage of the afterimage of a historical conception of illness - which makes it seem all the more unreal. Rather, it is the patients that are of interest: they highlight the themes both of the power of medicine and the warning against abusing others. Interpretation model within model: identity This was the contemporary interpretation. Within the record: Charcot ’ s female patients understood that they were valued if they performed his clinical pictures. It gave them an identity as sick people, and made them into role models. Their function for their audience seemed to be their nature. The observing men did not feel threatened by female stimuli, because the patients seemed to faithfully reproduce equally a clinical picture and an eternally valid antique idea. Everything seemed justified and explainable; imagination unveiled the truth. Outside the record: Photography, which was new at the time, seemed to faithfully record the sick and their symptoms for further medical practitioners. Illustrating the clinical picture according to a strict procedure seemed to make it all the more real. The picture became the model for further cases of ‘ hysteria ’ . Sufferers and their doctors were guided by the model and at the same time regarded it as an incorruptibly observed reality. The consensus about it constituted this reality. A specific patient was not needed for this. Claude Bernard, in his Introduction à l ’ étude de la médicine expérimentale (1865), demanded of physicians that they should no longer create models as authors, but discover natural models as scientists. Emile Zola subsequently declared that a novelist should do the same. The belief in natural models was at its height in Charcot ’ s time, and their interpreters appeared relevant. Reference: Georges Didi Huberman: Invention de l ’ hystérie. Charcot et l ’ iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière, Paris: Macula, 1982. Identity and Vanitas 265 Karl May: Orient Cycle (1881 - 88) For his travel novels such as Durchs wilde Kurdistan (Travel adventures in Kurdistan), the writer Karl May used contemporary maps as a guide. 266 Mathias Spohr Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The map is an inaccurate afterimage of a landscape and was already out of date when it first appeared. It is only a substitute for a real travel experience and merely shows those longing to travel the absence of what they long for. Outside the record: Karl May ’ s novels, with their awkward Orientalisms, are merely afterimages of the maps and travelogues he took as his models. The real Orient is doubly absent from them. At best, his works are warnings against the dangers of an overheated imagination. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: A map symbolizes freedom for its users, even if they are not currently making a journey. It is suitable as a model for planning and orientation, and even as a model for invented worlds. Outside the record: Karl May ’ s texts became a model for people who, like him, could not or would not make a journey. Other models include stage plays, radio plays and films based on his novels. The imagination does not need a real Orient. The writer claimed his novels were authentic, and he himself appeared publicly in the guise of some of his fictional protagonists. For his respectable audience, May ’ s novels were not an imitation of reality, but a proud realization of self-created ideas. A reality shaped by map-reading appeared superior to the real, absent Orient. May ’ s performance told the Kurds who might have been able to see it ‘ look, we invented you ’ , and he felt authorized to do so. He may have been faithful to his sources, but not to the Orient. Identity and Vanitas 267 L ’ Inconnue de la Seine (around 1900) The alleged death mask of a young woman who had chosen to commit suicide in the Seine was copied and made into multiple photographic images at the beginning of the 20th century. Writers and filmmakers used it as a model for their own works. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Is uncommon during this time. Within the record: A dead face cannot smile. This image must be a lie. A death mask is a lifeless imprint. A mask and its copies can smile even less than a dead face. This image must rather have an allegorical meaning: it is a chilling memorial of a suicide. This death was shameful, and the smile is demonic. Outside the record: The photograph of the death mask makes it all the clearer that the living woman is missing. With this deterrent effect, the dissemination of the reproductions can be justified. Its viewers mourn and understand this death as a warning. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: This death was heroic. According to legend, the coroner was so moved by the face of the dead woman that he regarded it as a model and duly made a death-mask to capture the vivid expression he had probably modelled himself. The exact reproduction of the death mask gave his imagination evidential value. He embodied the face as his mirror image, as Rousseau ’ s Pygmalion did, and nevertheless unveiled the truth like a detective. The real-life woman, whom he did not know, played no role in his art. The smile remains to this day a direction for further observers that can be recognized and executed immediately like an emoticon: the smile of the dead is rather the expression of her observers taking her 268 Mathias Spohr role. It belongs to the ‘ how ’ of interpretation, not to the ‘ what ’ of a face that is missing and can be replaced by any viewer or performer. The artwork cannot be a forgery because the artist did not change the ‘ what ’ of the face. He merely added his own expression as an interpreter. Outside the record: To the coroner ’ s expression is added the emotion of all the purchasers of copies and photographs of this death mask. Viewers believe they can help the mute object out of its static state by exercising their imaginations. Increase in realizations makes the model more present. The vivid expression could be revived by its interpreters. A ‘ smiley ’ does not smile; only embodiments of this expression are possible. Thus, it becomes a symbol of presence. As with tableaux vivants, multiple reproduction does not reinforce the absence of a replicated person in order to deter; rather, it reinforces a consensus to embody it. The controllable sensuality of the tangible object, combined with clever reproduction technology, seems to make an illusion alive. Death becomes fiction, because animation is reality. References: Vanessa R. Schwartz: Spectacular realities. Early Mass Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Elisabeth Bronfen: Over Her Dead Body: Death, Femininity and the Aesthetic, New York: Routledge, 1992. Identity and Vanitas 269 Francis Barraud: His Master ’ s Voice (1916) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The voice emerging from the gramophone horn cannot replace the deceased master. The dog is alone. He is mourning. The apparatus remains lifeless and has failed. Outside the record: The picture can neither reproduce the sound of the voice nor the dog, which has also died. The painter in the photograph will soon follow him. His eyes look at the viewer, but they are blind. All these media must fail and remain substitutes. The dog mourns his master, the painter mourns the dog, and the viewers mourn the painter. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The art of the apparatus succeeds: its fascinating effect deceives the dog. He seems to imagine his master. Even nature seems to be fooled by technology. The dog becomes a role model for consumers who listen to recorded sounds as if spellbound. Outside the record: Image viewers can imagine the sound heard by the dog. They do not mourn all those beings who have died, but are inspired. They understand the image as a model because it makes their own engagement with the apparatus, which does not require the presence of actual musicians or pets, seem faithful. Fidelity is reduced to an immediate recognition and imagination of the faithfully reproduced. Any potentially threatening dogs or masters are replaced with harmless reproductions. The master is not mourned, but mastered. Fidelity as a realization, as opposed to fidelity as mourning, is required. This brings relief, and it can be automated as fidelity of sound. The motionlessness and muteness of the dog and of the picture are not lamented as shortcomings (as in the vanitas representations of the 17th century); instead, they are admired as durable examples of discipline in the tradition of living pictures (or the soldier and dancer in Andersen ’ s story). They demonstrate a living embodiment of a lost world. A reality of deceptions is propagated because it shows how one can successfully imagine something that does not exist. Self-deception is not reprehensible. On the contrary, it is an achievement to think something is alive that only has the semblance of being so. Reference: Friedrich A. Kittler: Grammophon, Film, Typewriter. Berlin: Brinkmann & Bose, 1986. Photograph of the artist Francis Barraud painting a version of his famous painting, in which a dog is fixated by the gramophone horn from which the voice of his deceased master is heard. 270 Mathias Spohr Arthur Schnitzler: Fräulein Else (1924) Schnitzler ’ s story is told in interior monologue. Here the first-person narrator - the young woman Else - looks at herself naked in the mirror. She is in a hotel where a rich art dealer is staying. Her parents want to set her up with him. The art dealer has offered a sum of money to see Else naked in his room. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Else looks into the mirror at her reflection, and speaks in the voice of the art dealer, her intended viewer. That is, she seems to speak from the perspective of the mirror. This is impossible. Speaking in a voice other than her own is meaningless. She has no counterpart. Outside the record: Readers cannot read ‘ I ’ in their own voices because the characters who seem to say ‘ I ’ in Schnitzler ’ s text are absent. The mirror image cannot be shown through words, and the book page is as impassable as the looking-glass. The voices of Else and the art dealer and the image they describe are all missing. The voice of the covetous beholder (the dealer) is doubly absent because Else, too, is only imagining this role. Everything is fictitious. These absences should warn readers who, like Else and the art dealer, are alone with themselves and their desires. The warning justifies the dissemination of the narrative. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Else speaks with the voice of her observer. She animates the perspective of the mirror like a theatre role. This perspective allows her to put herself in the shoes of a variety of observers. It is an opportunity for her, a self-realization in which she needs not expose herself to dangerous people. Outside the record: Readers find themselves in Else ’ s role when they read ‘ I ’ , and, mediated through this role, in the role of the art dealer and thus in the observer perspective of the mirror. Like the first observer Else, readers identify with this observer ’ s perspective. The same happens with Else ’ s role-playing ( ‘ Come closer ’ ), which readers realize through their own voices. All observers seem to gather in this perspective even though there is nothing to see. But the self-realization of the readers seems to suggest closeness. Else ’ s eagerness motivates the readers to imagine her naked appearance. Sensual effect and direct speech fire the imagination and allow readers to imagine a wished-for image that need not compare with any living person. Imagination creates a reality of harmless seduction. Schnitzler ’ s text also features musical notes, which inspire the imagination even of those readers who cannot read music. The numerous film adaptations and re-tellings of the narrative based on the character of Else become models in their turn. Many have brought to life Schnitzler ’ s ‘ I ’ with their own voices. Identity and Vanitas 271 Sigmund Freud: Wunderblock (1925) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: A writing instrument is no human memory, but merely a mnemonic device. It is an afterimage, an imitation, a substitute for human memory. Memory as an object of medical research is absent from Freud ’ s reflections. Apparently, he tried to explain instinct by describing a simple machine. Outside the record: The substitute of Freud ’ s text describes the substitute of a mnemonic device. Both are lifeless. Human memory is doubly absent. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The Wunderblock is by no means a research object, but rather a model for human memory. Writing has a function that our memory should have. It seems to optimize memory, like a shopping list, and can therefore serve as a model. The researcher embodies the model to the best of his or her ability: uncovering how the device works by removing the cellophane film and looking for traces on the wax layer leads to clues. It explains how forgotten information can be found without uncanny magic. It is not about the what, but about the how. Description has become prescription. Memory is present, and writing is its model. Outside the record: There is no need for a research object, because Freud ’ s readers embody the memory of the deceased author with their own memories. His text could turn from a description to a realization of a mnemonic device, used as a construction manual or as a user guide for the pad, thus stimulating the imagination. The faithful medium of the wax layer in the faithful text about a faithfully reproduced memory creates a potentiated reality. Writing is superior to human memory, but remains harmless. The constellation of reading within reading within reading does not lead to an awareness of absence and mechanization, but inspires the reader. Readers animate a model: the deceased author as a controllable authority. The two interpretations were and are opposed in the assessment of Freud ’ s theories. Scientific research has rejected them. Wax tablets as a writing medium fell into disuse in the 19th century. A modernized version with a cellophane film on top of the wax was called ‘ Wunderblock ’ (magic writing pad): by removing the film from the wax, any drawing on the film became invisible, but the traces on the wax remained. The psychologist Sigmund Freud used this technique to explain human memory. His text was very influential. 272 Mathias Spohr Ruth St Denis: Oriental Dance in India (1926) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas This interpretation is more in the background and plays less of a role in the dancer ’ s selfimage than in her success. Within the record: The rising smoke of the cigarettes and the pagan deities of ancient Egypt pictured symbolize an alluring, but reprehensible way of life. Viewers simultaneously experience a longing for the distant world and a warning against it. A mourning for the inaccessibility of the past or the far away is combined with an uplifting moral message. The warning justifies the allure of the depiction and the smoking. Outside the record: Ruth St Denis staged her Oriental dances for Hollywood - as with her depiction of the decadent life of Babylon in David Griffith ’ s film Intolerance (1916). These stagings had an erotic appeal but also warned of the dangers of dissolute living. The warning justified the dances ’ success. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The product photo says to its viewers: you may realize the depicted world. St Denis used the advertising poster as the model for her own ideas on costume, decoration and dance. In doing so, she became a model herself. The goddess Isis was not worshipped, but rather replaced. She was not necessary for this self-realization. And the cigarette advertisement could be forgotten. Outside the record: Indian dancers took Ruth St Denis ’ s performances as their model and themselves became exemplars of an Indian dance containing Oriental elements. In this way, they established a cultural identity that, de facto, distanced itself from real tradition. The American dancer ’ s example offered them an opportunity to become models themselves. The original American dancer could be forgotten in turn. Reference: Uttara Asha Coorlawala: ‘ Ruth St Denis and India ’ s Dance Renaissance ’ , in: Dance Chronicle 15: 1992, No. 2, pp. 123 - 152. The American dancer Ruth St Denis was inspired to perform Oriental vaudeville dances by a poster of the cigarette brand Egyptian Deities featuring the goddess Isis. Her successful tour of India in 1926 led to the establishment of a new Indian dance tradition. Identity and Vanitas 273 Musical Interpretation (20th century) Sound recording of a significant interpretation of a piece of classical music. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas This interpretation is not common. However, it has been known to appear as a motif in a novel or film. Within the record: For the interpreter, the musical notes she or he aurally follows are afterimages of a faded original that they cannot replace. Their interpretation will inevitably fail. Outside the record: Listeners hear in the sound recording only an echo of an absent, possibly deceased performer, whom the recording cannot replace. They would be more interested in meeting a real person. The musical work (understood as a past one-off event) is missing in its interpretation, and its interpreter is missing in the sound recording. All recordings are memorials of past vanity. Listeners mourn. Interpretation model within model: identity This is the common interpretation. Within the record: The musical notation of a score is a model for its interpreter, which she, or he, realizes individually. The past original performance of the work, which has faded away, is not needed for this, only the performer ’ s own individual and creative interpretation. 274 Mathias Spohr Outside the record: Beguiling sounds are no longer dangerous, because their creators are missing. Listeners can enjoy them without committing themselves. The recorded interpretation is a model for further interpreters and for the living imagination of listeners. It allows all listeners to establish some sense of cultural identity. A living, present performer is not needed for this, because it depends on the individual and creative self-realization of the listeners while operating their machines. The machines do not answer, but they work. High fidelity overcomes any potential mourning for what is absent. Despite all this, the performer seems to be and remain a great authority. It is now possible that scraps of sound from a performer ’ s interpretation, mixed with the sounds of countless other performers, can be made into new pieces of music ( ‘ samples ’ ) even if these performers are unknown. Digital fidelity creates new models and replaces fidelity to what is reproduced. Today, many performers listen to sound recordings more than they study musical scores. They believe in not imitating a performance but enlivening a work, and thus becoming unique. Identity and Vanitas 275 Schrödinger ’ s cat (1935) Illustration of the thought experiment, combining a vanitas motif of a dead and a living cat with a graphic by M. C. Escher. The cat and its observer are both inside and outside the cube. In a famous thought experiment, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger illustrated the entangled states of quantum objects with a cat that is poisoned by an apparatus that detects the unpredictable radioactive decay of a particle. The cat, like the particle, would be either alive or dead, but in the quantum world these two possibilities are realities without any choice to be made. The cat appears to be both alive and dead. The fact that a dice shows the results of possible throws without being thrown, on the other hand, does not bother anyone. Schrödinger defended himself against the accusation of inaccurate measurements: it is not the result of the measurement that is unclear, but the state of the measured object. By 276 Mathias Spohr referring to it as a ‘ burlesque ’ , he signalled the proximity of his thought experiment to vanitas perception. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: A cat is not an elementary particle, but its clumsy imitation. The fact that the cat is killed by a machine tries to make the parallel credible. But nature is not a machine. Outside the record: A thought experiment only imitates a missing phenomenon. Even the cat is absent. The anthropomorphic narrative of the tragic death of an elementary particle due to natural determinism is absurd, especially when this determinism is simulated with a machine and a cat. Rather, it is an allegory of human inadequacy and arrogance. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: A measurement reliably conveys the ‘ real ’ state of the measured object to an observer. This is its nature, being fair to its observers. The random result and the influence of the measurer on the result must be false. Outside the record: The observer cannot be excluded from the worlds of the elementary particle and of the cat, because measurement reliably transfers the observer ’ s perspective to any distant world. The thought experiment is not a mere fantasy, but leads to reality. Schrödinger ’ s cat is not a description or imitation of the particle, but its embodiment. It is a model for the clear and predictable results we want to see. It motivates the observers because they are not responsible for the cat ’ s death. Only the observer ’ s perspective is responsible. And that seems to be nature. - The dictatorships of that time can be seen as the background to this way of thinking. Today, we can say: the measurement is reliable, but it influences what is measured. Causality is created by the measurement, but in this case, it is the causality of a roll of the dice. The physicist Albert Einstein criticized the results of quantum mechanics by saying that God does not play dice. He was right in that it is not God, but the observer who rolls the dice. Divine authority has given way to rules of the game. The rules remain fair; perhaps that ’ s what Einstein meant. Reference: Erwin Schrödinger: ‘ Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik ’ , in: Naturwissenschaften 23.1935, pp. 807 - 812. Identity and Vanitas 277 Kamikaze Pilots as Cherry Blossoms (1945) The Japanese kamikaze pilots of 1945, at the end of World War II, were revered and memorialized as cherry blossoms who would also have a short, beautiful life. The photograph on the right depicts a kamikaze pilot in front of his plane, which is emblazoned with an image of a cherry blossom (left). Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The image of the cherry blossom is only an afterimage of a blossom that has meanwhile faded. It cannot replace it. The pilot is alone. Outside the record: For the pilot ’ s mother, his photograph is only an afterimage of the son who died. It cannot replace him. She is alone and is mourning. Real cherry blossom is missing from its picture, and the real pilot is missing from his. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the recording: The pilot realizes the model of the cherry blossom through his own brief blossoming. This is his identity, embodied by viewers of the symbol. The depicted cherry blossom is no longer needed, because the pilot has become the realization of the image and understands this as his achievement. The image is an opportunity for selfrealization. Outside the record: More pilots take the image of their colleague as a model. They realize their own cherry blossom identities and become role models in their turn. They all may believe they are special. The pictured pilot is no longer needed. The cherry blossom is an allegory of Japan. In the more recent interpretation of identity, it is a symbol in the sense of Goethe: ‘ not as a dream and shadow [i. e. Goethe ’ s concept of allegory; allegories in his time were considered outdated and awkward], but as a living instantaneous revelation ’ (Maximen und Reflexionen, 1833). Reference: Madoka Yuki: ‘ Vanitas in Japan? Kirschblüte in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie ’ , in: Victoria von Flemming, Julia Berger (eds.), Vanitas als Wiederholung, Berlin: de Gruyter 2022, pp. 175 - 191. 278 Mathias Spohr Citroën 2CV (1948) The popular car model 2CV (Deux chevaux) manufactured by Citroën was described by Roland Barthes as a modern myth. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The vehicle is an empty, lifeless thing, and the mobility it may provide does not necessarily lead to the relationships that may be desired. It cannot replace a potential driver or passengers who have since died, or destinations that are no longer accessible. It is a substitute and a memorial of vain wishful thinking. Outside the record: The car on the billboard will soon be a museum piece, just like the monuments in the background. To modern viewers the vehicle is missing even more, because it is no longer produced. A product photo without a deliverable product is no longer a role model. Like the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower on the billboard, it has become an afterimage of vain efforts and past power. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Drivers and passengers enter the vehicle and realize their travel wishes. Because the car works successfully, it enables lively encounters. The car is not an inanimate entity, but presents an opportunity for its users. Outside the record: The product photo says to its viewers: you may realize the depicted world. Because the car model is available and affordable, it does not remain purely in the picture. The possibility of practical realization of a wish seems to outweigh the accusation of deception: ‘ That ’ s not a car, just a picture. ’ In the identity perception, an equivalent use-value justifies the copy of a product, be it a car, a photo or a piece of writing. In the vanitas perception it is the warning against illusion and imitation that justifies the copy. Today, this model of a vehicle, like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, may be understood as a sign of identity that still enlivens a community, at least as a souvenir. Thus, it sheds the tacit connection between charisma and utility that Roland Barthes once criticized. Reference: Roland Barthes: Mythologies, Paris: Seuil, 1957. Identity and Vanitas 279 Robert Doisneau: Le Baiser de l ’ Hôtel de Ville (1950) This photograph expressing French identity first delighted American audiences and then bolstered a post-World War II French self-confidence, by seeming to document love as a quintessentially French quality. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: Public intimacy could symbolize a delightful but reprehensible resistance to moral codes. But the love depicted does not exist, because actors have staged the scene. The pose is a frozen afterimage of a fantasy. The setting, with the Paris City Hall in the background, was conceived by the photographer. Outside the record: The spontaneous effect of the photograph is deceptive. However, viewers can infer allegorical meaning from the elements in the photograph: the bodies and postures, or the indifference of passers-by, are consciously given meanings. This mediation strategy is the same as that of the vanitas still life: immediacy is called into question, for the allegorical meaning is essential, and must be deciphered. In this case the City Hall could mean ‘ local authority ’ , the passers-by ‘ a restless world ’ , and the couple ‘ desire ’ . The afterimage interpretation prevailed after it became clear in 1993 that the photograph was not a documentary snapshot. The apparent unveiling of nature was as disguise, after all. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: French people by nature rebel against overly strict moral codes. The atmosphere outside the Paris City Hall as a natural cause spontaneously inspires a young couple to kiss. Instinct becomes apparent. Unconsciously and fatefully, they embody a genius loci: namely the identity of France as the land of love. Outside the record: The unnoticed photographer has revealed nature. The documentary quality of the photograph reinforces the credibility of the spontaneous action as a 280 Mathias Spohr fascinating self-realization. Nothing is imitated here: nature expresses itself. This picture ’ s direct impact seems to have evidential value; viewers empathize with this model and can imagine it all. An allegory becomes reality when reality and legibility are confused. The technical medium of photography makes naturalness and inwardness seem plausible. The non-French are not obliged to feel national loyalty, but they admire a touchingly loyal medium that observes incorruptibly: the couple as well as the photo succeed in doing this. Social fidelity, which in real life requires effort and self-awareness, seems to be realized involuntarily, without obligation and with guaranteed success. Their immediacy turns clichéd ideas into representations of nature. Identity and Vanitas 281 Alan Turing: Turing Test (1950) In a 1950 essay, the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912 - 54) hypothesized that femininity, masculinity and the ability to think were not objective characteristics, but depended on the acceptance of their observers. From this he developed a test to determine whether a machine can demonstrate ‘ thinking ’ intelligence equivalent to that of a human. All those who take this test - men, women and machines - express themselves through typewritten texts. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: A machine is lifeless. Whether it appears alive depends, as with a doll, on the self-deception of its users. 282 Mathias Spohr Outside the record: A text produced by a machine is as lifeless as the machine itself. The publication of such texts warns readers of deception. Trackers (people or machines) who assign identities to texts are either fools or (in the case of machines) lifeless themselves. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Gender and thinking ability are inner principles of a being that can be distinguished from any embodiments: they are texts. It is the skills the machine demonstrates that matter, rather than whether a real person is demonstrating them. Outside the record: Readers want to perceive texts not as a warning (be careful - there may be no thinking behind them! ), but as their own fascinating achievement. They themselves have triggered an effect. If the machine succeeds in deceiving, then its thinking powers and/ or gender identity are real. A successful Turing test does not reveal the greatest lie, but the best functioning, whether it resides in a person or a machine. The ‘ Turing machine ’ invented by Alan Turing inspired the principle on which computers still work today. Formal languages can be embodied by everyone, even by machines. Although Turing contributed significantly to deciphering the encrypted messages of the German army during World War II, the British authorities forced him to undergo hormone therapy after the war due to his homosexuality, and he committed suicide as a result. To the mise-en-abyme is added a third level of Turing ’ s own texts. Both the acceptance of his texts and the feasibility of his identity were challenges for him. He was concerned that computing should lead not to unsuccessful and illegitimate imitations, but rather to promising models. This freed his imagination from the identity in which he was to be personally fixed by the authorities ’ later punitive action. Without personal success he had tried to disempower the human rulers with machine rules. Identity and Vanitas 283 Paris Match: Cover (1955) The cover of the magazine Paris-Match depicting a dark-skinned saluting French soldier became famous through a writing of Roland Barthes. 284 Mathias Spohr Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas This interpretation is hypothetical. Within the record: The soldier seems to see something, but it is an illusion. He is alone. Outside the record: The photograph of the soldier shows him in a respectful posture, but it does not show what he sees. This alerts viewers that a picture is blind, and warns them of the same blindness, as long as they can still see. The magazine justifies its large circulation with this warning. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The flag or monument that the soldier appears to perceive is a model for him. By venerating this paragon, he makes himself a paragon in a motionless pose. His demonstration of loyal behaviour indicates that he may prefer the national symbol to a living authority. His mastery is his loyalty. Outside the record: The pictured soldier appears harmless. He could not be a revolutionary, and he is no personal authority for his observers, because they themselves master the rules of loyal behaviour. With its wide distribution and the technical possibilities of colour photography and reproduction, the magazine gives them this opportunity: nature expresses itself, by fidelity of its media. The soldier and the picture seem touchingly faithful. The viewers do not need the real-life depicted soldier for this and do not lament his absence; instead, he is made into a proud role model, embodied by its users. It represents self-control, controllability and copyability: the attractiveness of a common observer perspective. Roland Barthes interpreted this example as a mise-en-abyme construction ( ‘ a presence of the signified through the signifier ’ ) and problematized the model interpretation ( ‘ there is no better answer to the detractors of an alleged colonialism than the zeal shown by this Negro in serving his so-called oppressors ’ ). Reference: Roland Barthes: Mythologies, Paris: Seuil, 1957. Identity and Vanitas 285 William Friedkin, William Peter Blatty: The Exorcist (1973) A writing on the girl ’ s belly. The film shows the exorcism of a girl possessed by a demon. The words ‘ help me ’ appear on the girl ’ s stomach. She seems to be trapped in her belly and makes herself known in this way. The readers give her a voice, which she lacks because the demon controls her. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: A reader reads this writing in his/ her own voice and is frightened by their own reflection. There is no other speaking being. Outside the record: The medium of film shows the medium of the belly. Neither has a living voice. The reader has no counterpart. What could be ‘ behind ’ the medium is missing. Besides, it is all fiction. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The girl usually controls her role as a good child, which is also controlled by those around her. Uncontrolled expressions do not correspond to her nature. In the form of the demon, a controlled role becomes an uncontrolled ruler who speaks out of her. The writing on her belly remains the only faithful medium. Outside the record: Readers read the text and watch the film in the knowledge that they themselves are controlling and animating these records. The film actress is expected to embody her feminine nature by presenting her good manners, but her control seems to be lost, just like her character ’ s control. The idea of a being behind these records really coming to life is terrifying. Readers identify with the helpless character and simultaneously fear a loss of control. What is interesting about this example is that the identity perception is chilling and the vanitas perception is reassuring. It can therefore be interpreted as a satire on the identity discourse in the turbulent 1968s. The rule of being a good child seems to say ‘ help me ’ , but a rule is lifeless. A ruler must be to blame if control of the rule is lost. The era of witch-hunts and the establishment of scientific causality can be seen as a historical reference behind this narrative: the girl ’ s ‘ illness ’ does not have a reliable cause, but rather an unpredictable causer. 286 Mathias Spohr Patrick Süskind: Perfume (1985) Scene from the film adaptation of this novel by Tom Tykwer (2006) The anti-hero, reminiscent of those in 18th-century Enlightenment novels, concocts perfume from the bodies of murdered women, just as one extracts scent from cut flowers. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The perfume is a fixed after-effect of the women killed. The effect cannot replace the women it emanated from. It merely masks the perfumed customers, as a fleeting luxury, gained at the expense of the lives of victims who should better be mourned. Outside the record: The text is only a postscript of the scent. A description cannot replace the scent itself. The women are missing from the scent, and the scent is missing from its description in the text. Moreover, the story is a fiction. The readers or spectators mourn, because any reality is absent. The author warns them against the harmful influence of imagination and thus justifies his gruesome invention. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Customers seek to realize themselves through the fragrance. The purchasers of the perfumes enjoy their effects without the need for the women from whom the fragrances originated. The women killed can no longer seduce with their scents. A transferable effect is intended: fidelity of reproduction without the embodied beings. The customers believe they are not interchangeable, like the product, but special. Outside the record: Readers and viewers reading the text or watching the film adaptation of the novel realize the perfume in their imaginations. An actual perfume is not needed for this. On the contrary, its absence makes it possible to imagine an individual and ideal perfume. The perfume is an aid to the self-realization of its buyers, and the text or the film are in turn aids to an imaginary realization of the scent depicted. What matters is the selfrealization of the readers or viewers. A missing world ‘ behind ’ the text or the images is not of interest; rather, what is of interest is an imagined reality that only emerges in the world of the viewer. Identity and Vanitas 287 Federico Fellini: Ginger e Fred (1986) In Fellini ’ s film, a satire on television shows of the 1960s and 1970s, an elderly pair of former dancers revive their imitation of the Hollywood screen couple Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire for an Italian reality TV show. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The dancing couple, who were known for these imitations in their youth, understand as the film progresses that the past cannot be retrieved. All images are afterimages of a futile effort. Outside the record: The television images of the unsuccessful imitators within Fellini ’ s film reinforce the awareness that what they attempt to show is not present, even if the live broadcast in which they perform is supposed to suggest spontaneity by technical means. The images are afterimages. It is all fiction. The spectators grieve, because any reality is missing. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Ginger and Fred as film characters are role models of the older dancing couple, whom they embody. For this realization, the stars depicted need no longer be alive. Outside the record: The television images of the older dancing couple are a model for the television-show viewers in the film (many of whom are of a similar age to this couple). They realize this role model in their collective imagination - a replicated person is not needed for this. They are not awkward imitations, but touchingly faithful realizations. The television show as a whole (as portrayed in Fellini ’ s feature film) also serves this purpose. The temporal presence of the live broadcast belies the spatial absence of those depicted, it is a reliable reflection and a fascinating trace. The mise-en-abyme has several levels: Fellini ’ s feature film includes an imitation of a television show which, in turn, includes an imitation of a dance performed by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. The realization pull that the show is supposed to generate ( ‘ role models show role models ’ ) tips over into the potentiated distance of vanitas. 288 Mathias Spohr ‘ Ötzi ’ (1991) The face of the glacier corpse ‘ Ötzi ’ , found in the Tyrol in 1991 (left), has been reconstructed by specialists (right). The autopsy revealed that the 5,300-year-old man was murdered. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The corpse shows that the human being no longer exists. Even when mummified, it remains the lifeless afterimage of an unattainable being from a culture that no one can remember. Outside the record: The reconstruction of Ötzi ’ s face is a lifeless mask for the skull. Unlike the image of the skull, it attempts to deceive its viewers by making the face appear as though alive. A memory of the dead man (which cannot exist, bearing in mind his age) would make clear the inadequacy of this reconstructed mask. The mask is a sign of the failure of this animation, because the re-created human being is still missing, and the no less lifeless photo of the mask reinforces this deterrent impression. A disguise presents a disguise. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Archaeological research and a desire to know ‘ whodunit ’ coincide in the reconstruction of the murder case. This fires the audience ’ s imagination. Science ’ s reading of the corpse makes it appear a model rather than an afterimage. There seems to be no mourning of the irretrievable, as with a fictional murder victim in a crime novel: a world put in order by puzzle-solving is more important than a fictional loss. Due to the remoteness of the world the deceased man inhabited, the corpse loses its horrifying aspect and becomes a fascinating trace and a role model at the same time. Outside the record: The reconstructed face, produced with a technique that seems as credible as the photograph of the image, appears alive and inspires the viewer ’ s imagination ( ‘ how did they make it look so alive? ’ ). An actual corpse is not needed for this. The mask appears not as a disguise, but as an unveiling, and the photograph in turn seems to reveal the truth. The technical fidelity of reproduction has triumphed over the mourning fidelity to the reproduced. The mask becomes a kind of telescope that lets the observers look at a distant world. Track reading and creative imagination are closely connected. An academic painter of the 19th century would have used a skull as an anatomical model for a portrait. Through exact fitting to the skull plus his artistic expression, he would have created not a mask for a skull, but an amazingly lifelike, individual face. The example here demonstrates the same mode of perception, using more modern media: a model is enlivened. Identity and Vanitas 289 Cigarette Advert Featuring the Twin Towers in NYC (1990s) Cigarette advertisements from the 1970s to the 1990s often took the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City as their subject. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The huge building looks impressive and alluring, but it is lifeless and a sign of arrogance and transient vanity. Builders and users have had to atone for their greed. For the airplane passengers in the terrorist attack that destroyed the buildings in 2001, the common point of view did not imply discipline, but death. The viewers are warned and are mourning. Outside the record: The picture shows a building that no longer exists, an afterimage of past greatness. The cigarettes depicted in the photomontage have gone up in smoke just as did the building. The image can only reflect their absence. Smoking, an alluring but harmful luxury, has taken its revenge. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The view of the famous building is a role model for proud people who take the achievement of its construction as an example. It conveys identity. Outside the record: The product photo says to its viewers: you may realize the depicted world. The cigarettes take the building as their model and, as a constantly renewed product, convey an attitude to life, realized by a community of consumers. Through the cigarettes that they consume, they acquire a lifestyle as proud and successful people. A smoked cigarette is not mourned, but replaceable. It is not the concrete cigarette that matters, but its model. The attack of 2001 led to the identity perception being transformed into the vanitas perception. The buildings as a product made into a model were ‘ consumed ’ , like cigarettes. They were not replaced. Their pictorial representations became memorials. 290 Mathias Spohr Destruction by the ‘ Islamic State ’ in Syria and Iraq (2015) Remains of the destroyed temple of Baal in Palmyra, photographed by Joseph Eid. In 2015, the terrorist organization Islamic State occupied territory in Palmyra, Aleppo and Mosul and destroyed ancient sites there. An exhibition in Bonn (Germany) in 2019 reconstructed part of what was destroyed. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The ancient idols worshipped in these sites do not exist, and the buildings constructed to honour them are lifeless stone. The statues and buildings on these sites are memorials to a pagan age whose beliefs and practices have been overcome. In the Western Enlightenment, these memorials were wrongly made into models. Outside the record: Photographs and reconstructions no longer serve as models, but make us aware of the absence of what is depicted, since it has been destroyed. The virtual-reality animations in the Bonn exhibition show all the more clearly that we cannot experience these moving observer perspectives as real observers. We grieve because our authorization to imagine these monuments is questioned. All we have and admire is a substitute. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Archaeology promises to re-create the ruins (first in a virtual sense, and later on site) according to the model of its records. The reconstruction is about fidelity of reproduction, not fidelity to the gods of antiquity. The image itself is the authority, not the ancient pagan religion behind it. Viewers replace the overcome rulers with their own rules. Outside the record: The virtual reality of the 2019 exhibition makes these models ‘ more real than real ’ , as the French culture minister said. A real Orient, containing all the real destructions of the current wars, may thus become dispensable. The pessimistic afterimage interpretation of the terrorists was opposed to the model interpretation offered by the shocked West. A real, uncontrolled Orient, made available as an observer perspective, had come alive and taken its revenge. The realizations of archaeology and virtual reality made attempts to save the role model status of the destroyed buildings. Reference: Institut du monde arabe (ed.): From Mosul to Palmyra. A virtual journey through the world heritage site, Munich: Hirmer, 2019. Identity and Vanitas 291 Roger Federer Kisses a Trophy (2017) Tennis player Roger Federer kisses the Grand Slam trophy he had just won in Melbourne in 2017. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas This interpretation is not common. However, it could be possible in a parody, with comic or demonic connotations. Within the record: The trophy is an inanimate object, and the silent names engraved on it are not equivalent to the named individuals whose performances are long over. The athlete is mistaken. There is nothing to kiss. He is alone. Even his own engraved name will soon refer to something missing. The trophy, with its silver sheen, warns against transient vanity. Outside the record: The photograph of the tennis player is as lifeless as the trophy, and this should be a warning to its viewers. They are alone with this photo: the man is missing, his achievement is over, and his afterimage is a memorial to fleeting, departed vanity. Interpretation model in model: identity Within the record: The documented achievements of previous winners of this trophy make them role models for the athlete, which he realizes through his victory. He does not mourn the former winners, but is himself the new winner who revives the potency of the prize. The kissed object is a mirror image of an imaginary community: a point of view and a role model that the athlete realizes. Outside the record: Viewers see in the photograph a role model to emulate. The photograph ’ s wide impact - it appeared in many publications - reinforces its function as a role model for a community. The tennis player ’ s documented performance will be a challenge for future athletes and an incentive for all viewers. They realize its authority themselves. In front of this photo, they believe they are not interchangeable, but special, just like the winner. For this, the actual depicted human being is dispensable. 292 Mathias Spohr Che Guevara Poster in Cuba (2017) On the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernesto ‘ Che ’ Guevara (1928 - 67), posters depicting the revolutionary hero were erected in Havana. Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The person depicted is missing from the poster. In reality he met an early, violent end, and this should be a warning to the viewers. His death was shameful. The inscription ‘ siempre presente ’ (always with us) makes them aware of the omnipresence of death. Thus, the image creates a similar impression to the paintings Et in Arcadia ego (see p. 242). Writing and picture remain indifferent. Readers and viewers are mourning. Outside the record: Viewers of the photo see an old-fashioned car in front of the poster and relate the words ‘ siempre presente ’ to this vehicle, as if it were an image from the distant past. Writing and car mean stasis for them, as the photo itself is immobile. Cuba has become a lifeless image. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Che Guevara took his cue from fighters against fascism and became a role model himself, an icon of the revolution. His death was heroic. Cubans reading the poster ’ s text embody his achievement as their identity. They can proudly relate the ‘ siempre presente ’ to themselves. The hero is their mirror image, they are all special like him. This imagination is reality, not a conceit. Outside the record: Viewers of the photograph will perceive a good old Havana, an exemplary representative of its traditions. A touchingly faithful picture reflects a touchingly faithful community. The apparent stagnation is not a sign of death, it is a matter of discipline. The stalemate between identity and vanitas perceptions indicates an exhaustion of model thinking. Identity and Vanitas 293 Donald Trump and the National Flag (2019) In a video recording released on social media, the American president hugs the national flag while saying ‘ I love you, baby ’ . Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The concept of nationhood is merely a piece of wishful thinking, and the flag can neither contain nor replace it. It shows an absence. The man is alone. He is mourning, because America itself is missing and in any case is not great anymore. Outside the record: The photograph shows an absence. It is only a picture, not a person, and, since November 2020, the president pictured is no longer president. To the extent pictures and writings still exist, they are evidence of futile and reprehensible efforts. The viewer is alone. She or he is mourning. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: The president shows that the flag is his role model by embracing it. He does not lament the absence of America because he himself makes America alive. It represents the community of his followers, and this is not meant to be a conceit. The citizens are not alone with their cell phones or laptops. A nation is present. Outside the record: Viewers of the social media video see the president ’ s image as their self-actualized role model, just as they appropriate the ‘ I ’ of his Twitter texts when they read his tweets, taking them as their own opinions. They realize his authority. In doing so, they bring a community to life. This achievement is not meant to be a conceit. Rather, a community of like-minded observers creates reality. There is a strong polarization between the two perceptions, and their respective deterring and attracting effects. The observer perspectives of the videos or the first-person identity of the Twitter texts can appear as either forced (and unconvincing) or as promising. Fear that the role models could become afterimages and thus memorials of past vanity may motivate their maintenance - as Trump ’ s fans ’ desperate behaviour following his failure to win the 2020 presidential election showed. But the afterimage became a model again, and the desire that desire should not be shameful remained important. 294 Mathias Spohr Lost Fighters in Mariupol, Ukraine (2022) Interpretation afterimage within afterimage: vanitas Within the record: The soldier sings about a Ukraine that does not exist. There is only a gloomy bunker. Her imagination rebels vainly against the rule of her attackers. This woman is dangerous because she tempts her followers. She will die in disgrace. Thus, she will be mourned and will remain a cautionary example. Outside the record: Photo and video show a female soldier doomed to die. They are themselves lifeless images, and their dissemination justifies itself with this warning. Kateryna ’ s song has faded away, her gaze in the photo is blind, and this should warn the viewers. If they sing along, they will fail because their voices will equally fade away. Imitators should be deterred. Their death will be a deserved punishment for sinful rebellion. Interpretation model within model: identity Within the record: Singing gives life to a nation, and thus the silencing of a single voice is not relevant to this community. The song is a model and will stay alive through the voices of other interpreters who will render it faithfully. Ukrainians realize what they consider to be their own nature instead of being personally dependent on a ruler. Outside the record: The pictured soldier is a partner and a role model for the viewers of her photo, even if she is unattainable. Viewers bring a nation to life with their own voices. It is precisely the muteness and the blindness of the image that motivate enthusiastic supporters to add their voices and gazes. The picture does not answer, but the imagination works. Russia has promoted the vanitas interpretations of images and news from Ukraine, while the Western media have promoted the identity interpretations. The imperial attitude of multi-ethnic Russia and the closing of ranks between church and state there are reminiscent of how the great empires of the 19th century reacted against the strengthening nation states in Europe. A social design based on personal loyalty meets a social design that seeks to replace authorities with embodied rules. During the war between Ukraine and Russia starting in February 2022, Ukrainian soldiers entrenched themselves from the besieging Russians in the Mariupol steel plant. A video of a female combat medic named Kateryna singing a patriotic song went viral on social media. Identity and Vanitas 295 16 Conclusion The examples I have given, with their opposing interpretations of records, are intended to make the following historical development plausible: While moderating or deterrent afterimage (vanitas) interpretations of texts, images and performances of all kinds predominated until the 17th century, motivating model (identity) interpretations began to establish themselves in the 18th century. The latter have predominated since the 19th century, but have been increasingly called into question since the second half of the 20th century. Taking sides with one view or the other is difficult without examining the circumstances. There are arguments for and against both interpretations. With the transition from vanitas to identity, the practice of authority in general turns from personal obedience to dominated rules. Jointly followed rules replace the rulers, and concepts of loyalty or fidelity become more and more technical. A social construction of causality leads to increasing mechanization. Today, the belief in objective observer perspectives authorized by a community is diminishing. They may be seen no longer as a faithful cooperation but as machinery. The antagonism is less between religion and secularism, as it might appear from a global perspective, than between rulers and rules. Rules make their users a reflection of former authority figures. This approach is mainly based on the following suggestions. Changing aesthetics in the 18th century are accepted as a commonplace in music and art history, but are not usually perceived in the sociological sense I have presented here. There are different theoretical approaches to this historical development. Norbert Elias has proposed that we understand the history of Western civilization as a development from external constraints to selfconstraint; this corresponds to the increasing distinction between ‘ what ’ and ‘ how ’ that Niklas Luhmann has used as the basis for a theory of ‘ second-order observation ’ . On the level of political history, Benedict Anderson has linked the phenomenon of the observer ’ s perspective with that of national identity. Michel Foucault ’ s investigations into the disciplining of European society in the early modern period belong in this field. I was inspired to make the connection between sociology and aesthetics by the following: Roland Barthes ’ s comments about media (which avoided the separation of the two disciplines); and Erving Goffman ’ s ‘ frames ’ , which describe a system of levels of observation (also a principle of Luhmann), but in the context of everyday media, without separating sociology from aesthetics. Speaking of differences rather than of identities, which is perhaps the core of vanitas interpretations, has been evident in many variations since the second half of the 20th century. Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida are among the most important representatives. 296 Mathias Spohr Bibliography Own publications on the subject Vanitas 1999: ‘ Das Problem der Vanitas. Goethes Faust und das Faust-Sujet im populären Musiktheater ’ , in: Maske und Kothurn, 45.3.4 (1999): 71 - 91 2011: ‘ Musik und Vanitas. Das Musikensemble als Symbol der Institution ’ , in: Dissonanz, 113 (March 2011): 12 - 17 2012: ‘ Das Paradigma des Performativen und die Vanitas ’ , in: Kati Röttger (ed.): Welt - Bild - Theater. Bildästhetik im Bühnenraum, Tübingen: Narr, 133 - 141 2013: ‘ Raimund and Nestroy - der Vanitas-Überwinder und der Vanitas-Erneuerer? ’ , in: Nestroyana 33.1.2 (2013): 22 - 38 Media Theory 2000: ‘ Parodien - die Inszenierung der Differenz ’ , in: Maske und Kothurn, 46.3.4 (2000): 105 - 116 2003: Das gemeinsame Maß. Ansätze zu einer allgemeinen Medientheorie, Salzburg: Müller-Speiser 2003: ‘ Noverre ’ s Lettre sur la danse, et sur les ballets (1760) aus mediengeschichtlicher Sicht ’ , in: Kodikas/ Code 26.3.4 (2003): 209 - 216 2003: ‘ Social Compatibility in a Two Gender Society. The Waltz as a Technical Medium ’ , in: Kodikas/ Code 26.3.4 (2003): 217 - 223 2009: ‘ Videoloops - Zeichen ohne Aura? ’ , in: Kodikas/ Code 32.1.2 (2009): 151 - 160 2012: ‘ Von den brute facts zum Reflex. Die Trichotomien von François Delsarte und Charles Peirce ’ , in Id. (ed.): Dance of the Signs - 200 Years of François Delsarte (= Kodikas/ Code, 35.3.4, 2012), Tübingen: Narr, 277 - 287 Expressive Aesthetics and Identity 1997: ‘ Wiederholung und Neugestaltung im Theater ’ , in: Maske und Kothurn, 43.4 (1997): 19 - 24 1998: ‘ Musikgeschichte ist Mediengeschichte ’ , in: dissonanz/ dissonance, 56 (May 1998): 6 - 12 1999: ‘ Die Faszination der objektiven Norm. Warum musikalische Gattungen, Formen, Werke seit dem 18. Jahrhundert zu technischen Medien werden ’ , in: Id. (ed.), Geschichte und Medien der gehobenen Unterhaltungsmusik, Zurich: Chronos, 11 - 54 1999: ‘ Medien, Melodramen, und ihr Einfluss auf Richard Wagner ’ , in: Christoph Hellmuth Mahling, Kristina Pfarr (eds.): Richard Wagner und seine Lehrmeister, Mainz: Are 1999, 49 - 80. 1999: ‘ Jean-Jacques Rousseau und die Naturtreue ’ , in Musiktheorie, 14.3 (1999), 247 - 52 2000: ‘ Melodrama - Technische Medien, stumme Figuren und die Illusion des Ausdrucks ’ , in: Claudia Jeschke, Hans-Peter Bayerdörfer (eds.): Bewegung im Blick. Beiträge zu einer theaterwissenschaftlichen Bewegungsforschung, Berlin: Vorwerk, 2000, 258 - 273 2000: ‘ Wie kommen Schweizer zu identischen Zeichen ohne gemeinsame Sprache? ’ , in: Anselm Gerhard, Annette Landau (eds.): Schweizer Töne, Zürich: Chronos, 237 - 251 2002: ‘ Zur Technologiegeschichte des europäischen Verhaltens: Das Volkstheater als Einheit der Künste ’ , in: Sibylle Dahms et al. (eds.): Meyerbeers Bühne im Gefüge der Künste, Paderborn, Munich: Ricordi 2002, 17 - 53 2002: ‘ Austauschbar oder unverwechselbar? Person und Funktion in der Filmoperette ’ , in: Günter Krenn, Armin Loacker (eds.): Zauber der Bohème. Marta Eggerth, Jan Kiepura und der deutschsprachige Musikfilm, Vienna: Filmarchiv Austria 2002, 415 - 434 2003: ‘ Satire und Identität. Österreich, Arnold Schönberg und Hans Gál ’ , in: Jeanne Benay et al. (eds.): Österreichische Satire 1933 - 2000, Bern: Lang 2003, 75 - 90 Identity and Vanitas 297 2004: ‘ Kann eine Herkunft durch Leistung erworben werden? Vanitas in der italienischen und Identität in der deutschen Oper ’ , in: Sebastian Werr, Daniel Brandenburg (eds.): Das Bild der italienischen Oper in Deutschland, Münster: Lit, 177 - 190 2005: ‘ Wirkung ohne Ursache. Richard Wagner zitiert Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ’ , in: Thomas Betzwieser et al. (eds.): Bühnenklänge, Munich: Ricordi, 139 - 145 2017: ‘ Der Golem und die Rührung. 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