a physical pain, continues to exhibit its effects in our emotional and
imaging consciousnesses.
The final and most significant contrast between sign and image, Sartre
believes, lies in the fact that, as modes of intending the world, sign
consciousness is “empty”; it points toward an object that may never
present itself, as when one is searching for something that cannot be
found. But when it is found, the sign remains a sign, now joined to its
object by a judgment of identification: “That’s it!” Imaging conscious-
ness, he argues, is never empty; it is always “filled.” Complete in itself,
this is why the image teaches us nothing. If one imagined an object and
then perceived it, the image would disappear. You cannot both see and
imagine the same object at the same time. This does not exclude a
perceptual component from the imagining synthesis. In fact, it usually
serves to “enlighten and guide” the imaging act, as the phenomenon of
imitation exhibits.
From sign to image: consciousness of imitations
Before discussing the admittedly difficult case of the mental image, let us
pause to consider a striking example of aesthetic imaging: an imitation of
Maurice Chevalier by the music-hall artist Franconay. This performance
combines the cognitive (a sign stating the subject and the theatrical
context), certain perceptual objects associated with the actor (straw hat
and cane) and the voice and motions that suggest the star lead us to
“derealize” the short stout female impersonator in order to make
present-absent the lanky male actor.
Sartre emphasizes a certain “emotional” resonance which spells the
success of the performance. In doing so he introduces what will become a
major term in his subsequent writings, namely “sens” as distinct from
“signification.” The distinction just made between word as sign and
image, despite its regrettable translation into the prose–poetry distinc-
tion, bears another important Sartrean distinction. The sign carries a
significationthat is conceptual, impersonal, and we might say “antisep-
tic.” It can be easily translated without major loss into synonyms or other
languages, including digital languages. The image expresses a sens
(meaning or direction in French) which is a hybrid of abstract and
concrete components, including spatiotemporal considerations and emo-
tional resonance. The correlate ofsensis “presence.” Three examples
may serve to illustrate thesensof an imaging act.
The Imaginary 113