ABSTRACT
When we look at an image from the Hubble Satellite Telescope (HST) what are we seeing? We see a transmission of that which we call information; material sprayed on to another material. In order for us to see something, we must have seen it at some point in the past. When we see, we retrace what has already been seen. How can it be, that an HST image which purports to represent an unfathomable reality, can indeed represent that reality? Let’s take the story of Turner lashed to a mast on a ship, whilst painting a storm. Or, indeed, the situation of the artist Turner being influenced by the emergent railways. Let us imagine Turner strapped to the exterior of a spacecraft, or in this case, the Hubble satellite. You might think that this would be the end of Turner. But then our Turner would have been protected against the hazards of an inhospitable environment. The new exhausts itself by repetition: a stimulus generated by the onslaught of a new technology can only carry so far. The technology may maintain a momentum whilst its impact on the artist flakes off. You can only beat a horse for so long before it fails to respond.
