Abstract

Can Gaston Bachelard’s philosophy of images bring life to the current debate on visual culture? Starting from the hypothesis that Bachelard’s philosophy of images can still be helpful in understanding the contemporary imagosphere, characterized by a high degree of intermediality and virtuality, I propose an analysis of his image classification methodology. The whole process at the basis of his imaginative constructivism is what I would call a «poetic montage» aimed at the construction of figural collections. The aim is to shed light on a procedure based on verbo-iconic imagination that finds a way of functioning in the assemblage and dislocation of images through dialectical couplings. Hence, methodological and epistemological shifts emerge that allow us to account for the dynamogeny and life of images.