{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.028971028971028972, 'fraction_numerical': 0.002997002997002997, 'mean_word_length': 4.964285714285714, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Towards an-iconology: the image as environment

This essay describes the evolution of what I term the ‘environmentalization’ of the image, especially in the context of various historical instantiations that have culminated in the contemporary virtual dispositif known as the head-mounted display (HMD). As soon as users don one of these helmets, they lose a simple yet crucial freedom of which they were previously unaware, namely the liberty to focus on an ‘off-image’, beyond the borders of the picture. This could be seeing the frame of a painting when deciding to look at the fire extinguisher hanging beside it, or the limits of the cinema screen when choosing to orient the gaze towards the ‘toilet’ or ‘exit’ signs, or the edges of one’s laptop when grabbing the coffee mug. Conversely, once immersed in the virtual environment offered by a head-mounted display, one can only see images: the iconic landscape incessantly and continuously unfolds in 360 degrees, regardless of the orientation of