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Dagnostaw Demski
In this manner, we deconstruct the perception field of the Other. Would similar
expressions be confirmed by the visual materials I discuss? I will return to that issue
later in the article and illustrate it with examples.
The presented objectified particular Others ascribed with alien features are sin¬
gled out of them in numerous contexts, in a manner that serves to reflect the rela¬
tions between the observer and the object. On the one hand, these features are con¬
cerned with scale and distance; on the other hand, with their evaluation—negative
or positive.* But also they are concerned with the role a given object plays within a
specific outlook and the convention that was accepted for its sake. Dariusz Sniezko
pointed out the element of excitement’ with Otherness, which, in his opinion, is
significant in the accounts of the faraway lands. In the visual materials, such excite¬
ment is induced by appropriate representation of the figures—strange, exotic, un¬
nerving, and so on. Their persuasive power is determined by the clash of particular
images with the currently operational collective perception. Otherness as a category
indirectly defines our identity, knowledge, and perceptions, and it constitutes a rep¬
resentation of the limit of our identity, knowledge, and perceptions. What is more,
how Otherness is defined is not a constant and is subject to shifts with the passing
of time.
Similar to the narrative techniques of depicting the Other, depictions of the
Other can be found in the visual representations, the observation of which was
widely commented on by Kenneth Rivers (1991). He described the distortions’? as
disfigurements of the norm. As he noted, caricature is an artistic use of deformation
for satirical purposes, and he enumerates the fundamental techniques of satirical de¬
formation, such as distortion, substitution, juxtaposition, metamorphosis, and their
various combinations (Rivers 1991: 5). Following his words, the distortion of the im¬
age was used as a certain weapon. It would only poke fun, provided that it was mild,
but more often it would attack the target, whoever or whatever it was.
To sum up the above, it needs to be stressed that virtually any trait can be dis¬
torted: size, shape, color, age, or weight. Moreover, as Rivers put it, a wide variety
7 See Dariusz Sniezko (2010).
8 Sniezko notes that the objects that are marked with Otherness are emphasized for some reason: for
amusement or to manifest power, as in the quotation. But these are only two of the numerous roles
they can perform. The ancient culture distinguished two central categories of Otherness: rarities and
curiosities. Rarities (temples, relics, pictures, etc.) belonged to the sphere of the sacred, while curiosities
comprised all the rest—the more strange and monstrous, the better (Sniezko 2010: 312).
? Excitement regarding Otherness, even if it is only recreated from the already distant, narrative
perspective, is a state that, similarly to other types of excitement, requires a constant supply of new
impulses, and their rhythmical supply was secured by the composition layout typical for the travel
journals and other genre types: the character/hero (and his eyesight) moving from one object to another
(Sniezko 2010: 314).
10° Transmutation is any artistic act through which two different things (that would not normally
change into each other in nature) are perceived as explicitly becoming one another or as explicitly
exchanging identities or traits (Rivers 1991: 6). .