Dialectic of representation: a theoretical-methodological invitation

It is commonplace in cultural studies and contemporary visual ethnographies to extremely relativize the interpretation of images. However, in all relativity there are constants: elements that go beyond the particularity of interpretation and that by identifying them allow a more effective and enriching discussion on what we call images. This is the premise of this text, which aims to delineate a set of these constants in the work related to what we ambiguously call images and representations. This text purports to contribute to the reduction of this ambiguity by giving interactive and political backgrounds to these concepts, in a way that provides content and form to the processes of human perception and creation. This, far exceeds the fields of the visual, trying to partially contribute with discussions of semantics and semiotics without claiming to be part of these lines of inquiry, but rather inviting to think of a common language for ethnographers.