The mote in God's eye: 9/11, then and now

Bird, Jon (2003) The mote in God's eye: 9/11, then and now. Journal of Visual Culture, 12 (1) . pp. 82-97. ISSN 1470-4129 [Article]

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Abstract

This, in some senses, is a departure from my other writings, though retains a concerns with the rhetoric of representation. The piece results from the events of September 11th, 2001 and their immediate aftermath, and how to critically reflect upon lived experience in the context of a ‘world event'. Starting from the visual and textual documentation of that day and the competing media interpretations of its meaning and significance, I examine the role of the image in defining the place of New York in cultural memory, particularly the iconography of the Twin Towers and the representations of their implosion. In this I argue that ‘dust' became the dominant visual and textual trope, casting a cloud (both actual and symbolic) over the narration of the traumatic moment. The article concludes with a consideration of the memorialization of 9/11 as an architectural aporia.

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