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The essay by Flusser (1983) could be interpreted as an explanation of how "textolatry" can result from examining texts, images, photographs, and films without bias or interpretation. He explains that the intention of the image and the observer combine to form an image's meaning. With this, the author offers the observer—who is referred to as the giver of meaning—a crucial role. He argues that images are "connotative" (ambiguous) complexes of symbols: they provide space for interpretation" as an explanation (Flusser, 1983). René Magritte's surrealist artwork is one instance (Figure 1). With Ceci n'est pas une pipe (1929), the artist made it very evident that representation and signs are different from reality and that an object's image is not the object itself. Images are made up of ambiguous signs that must be decoded by the audience in order to have significance. Because of this, Flusser (1983) asserts that visuals are instead maps to be interpreted in order to get orientated in the outside world rather than mirrors of reality. When this doesn't happen, people engage in textolatry, which is the practise of being faithful to a picture and accepting the ideas it conveys without any form of interpretation. Textolatry can become particularly troublesome because, according to Flusser (1983), images are maps that must be decoded in order to understand the world. If they are not understood as such, they lead to a false perception of reality.

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