[2.4]

In a way, this line of inquiry gets to the crux of digital imaging, the virtual, and by extension, the mechanical image, such as the photograph. Before arriving at that destination, however, a discussion of the mechanics of vision – optics - is necessary. We will cover this topic in more depth later in the text. For now, it is sufficient to acknowledge a subject that forms parallel to vision and art in the digital and mechanical eras, namely artificiality and machine sentience. Tensions exist between “real” and “pure” vision and the image produced by mechanical means. Epistemic analysis seems under-equipped to resolve these tensions satisfactorily. In part, this incapacity for the epistemological to provide synthetic satisfaction in the presently unsettled (and sometimes unsettling) sphere of the visionary image that is status quo might be a symptom of deeper and broader conflicts, such as the divergence(s) between user and code(r), and the “owner” of the “intellectual property” in use/encoded.

Speaking universally, spirituality resists being “set in stone,” and resists the command, which might for our ends be reduced to “right” and wrong.”* In fact, not all peoples adhere to any notion that separates the spiritual, the mind and the body. Not all societies