ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way the programme of the image developed in the 15th century in an intricate relation with the political programme of the time and the birth of the humanist episteme. The modern programme of the image, the principle of geometric projection of the world scaled to human dimensions, has been running for about five centuries. Algorithms are encoded into programs, using computer languages, and are executed when running the program. It sustained the programme of modernity that consisted in the 'calculation, planning, and moulding of all things'. The modern machine of vision and the modern machine of power have been functioning at full speed. But the digital revolution brought a new dimension to the programme of the image. Algorithms are encoded into programs, using computer languages, and are executed when running the program. An algorithmic image, then, is de facto a program.
