Image in the Making: Digital Innovation and the Visual Arts

In Image in the Making, Katherine Thomson-Jones undoubtedly fills in some important gaps in the philosophy of visual arts. By considering the analog–digital distinction under different interpretations, she offers a new way of thoroughly taking into account all the processes of making visual images. The book can be read along two main lines: first, Thomson-Jones explores in detail what it means, technically, for an image to be called “digital.” Then, armed with this rigorous account of the essence of the digital, she explores the question of the aesthetic appreciation of digital images and asks whether knowledge of their digital status is required to appreciate them aesthetically and, if so, to what extent. If the book were merely a precise investigation of the nature of the digital, it would already be very useful, because it is written in a synthetic style of great clarity, but it is also a significant contribution...