O destino da imagem técnica: uma proposição de classificação / The Destiny of the Technical Image: A Classification Proposal
The starting point for this reflection is the realisation that Vilém Flusser’s work on technical images has become disconcertingly relevant today. This relevance becomes even more evident when we examine images produced by artificial intelligence. Such images are now pervasive across digital platforms, social networks, search engines, creative work environments, advertising, cultural consumption interfaces and, increasingly, in all spaces where visuality has become a dominant mode of communication. To analyse these AI‑generated images, I begin by proposing a classification of three generations of technical images, organised according to their modes of conception. I then outline a comparison between synthetic images and generative images. The aim is to understand their forms of life and to probe their nature and origins, which remain opaque - almost magical - to the naked eye. My approach consists in deconstructing the processes through which these images are generated, while seeking in Flusser’s thought anticipations and prophetic resonances that can help us develop critical perspectives on these emerging technologies. It is also a matter of situating these images within the broader category of technical images. Finally, I suggest that AI‑generated images constitute a new generation of technical images, whose most distinctive structural feature is the logic of sampling - that is, the statistical recombination of vast sets of visual data, replacing direct visual references to the world with a process of probabilistic synthesis.