The Optogram and Retinal Abstraction

Is the retina a photographic instrument? The image (allegedly) fixed on the retina of a dead person, called an optogram, was identified by researchers in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was then used by the police to try to identify murderers. Novelists and filmmakers found a source of inspiration there. But the rare images obtained by this process were never conclusive, remaining far from any representation of reality. This craze for the optogram at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries is indicative of a society that was worried, preoccupied with crime and eager for surveillance. In addition to its metaphysical dimension, the discovery of the retinal unconscious also foreshadows current experiments on the augmented body and programmed photography.