What is being a spectator when images challenge us?

Abstract

Inspired by the formulations of contemporary aesthetic theory exponents about image policy, this paper aims to apprehend the places allocated to the spectator when immersed in the fabric of affections that characterize his contact with scenes that hold a signifcant power of moral implication. Critically inquiring the assumption inherent in the recent developments in the context of Cultural and Media Studies, that there is a continuity between the political content of certain images and their impact on the reception reach, it will be articulated a defense regarding the “free inactivity” of the spectator in intense aesthetic appreciation,, conceived as a key to a redistribution of sensibility regimes that shape the singular distribution of the common experience objects.